Oceania is a geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Oceania is also described as a continent, with mainland Australia regarded as its continental landmass.
Spanning the Eastern and Western hemispheres, at the centre of the water hemisphere, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of about 9,000,000 square kilometres and a population of around 46.3 million as of 2024, when including Australia but excluding the Malay Archipelago. When compared against other continental land areas, Oceania is the smallest and the second-least populated after Antarctica. It is home to Earth’s third-largest remaining area of tropical rainforest, which covers much of the island of New Guinea.
