Countries of Australia and Oceania

By far the biggest country in Australia and Oceania is The Commonwealth of Australia. It is also world's sixth biggest country and its strong economy dwarfs all others in the region. The third biggest nation found here is New Zealand spread over two islands of substantial size. The economy of New Zealand is not as strong as that of Australia, but its society presents a much better model of integration of the indigenous Maori people and the European settlers than the neighbouring Australia where the native population has been marginalized in the extreme. Beating New Zealand in size and population is Papua New Guinea - a country in Melanesia. Papua New Guinea shares the island of New Guinea with Indonesia so its the only country in Oceania (apart from East Timor) to share a land border with another country. Papua New Guinea is arguably the most fascinating country in the entire region since its 6 million strong population is considered to be one of world's most diverse - there are approximately 850 languages spoken throughout this country and there are as many traditional societies to be found living here. Moreover, its biodiversity is one of our planet's greatest and least explored. Two rather large territories of Oceania are New Caledonia and Hawaii. Neither archipelago forms an independent country as the former is ruled by France and the latter by the USA. However, the third largest country - The Solomon Islands - is a sovereign nation and so are Fiji and Vanuatu, also substantial archipelagos in size. Teritorrially the most interesting country in Oceania is certainly Kiribati. It is an archipelago spread over 3.5 million square kilometres of the Pacific Ocean, but all its islands together count with a land surface of 726 square kilometres only.