Australia 🇦🇺

Australia is a country in Oceania with a population of 26,177,413. Its capital is Canberra. The official currency is AUD, and the main languages are English.

Quick facts

Capital: Canberra
Continent: Oceania
Population: 26,177,413
Area: 7,692,024 km²
Density: 3.4 people per km²
Currency: AUD
Languages: English
ISO code: AU

Where Australia sits

Australia 🇦🇺 is one of 14 countries in Oceania, with its capital at Canberra. It covers 7,692,024 square kilometres — 6th in the world — and is home to about 26,177,413 people, 55th globally.

The countries it shares a continent with include Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. If you are learning geography region by region — which works far better than alphabetically, because memory for places is spatial — those are the ones to learn alongside it.

How Australia compares

Raw figures are hard to hold on their own, so it helps to anchor them. In population, Australia sits closest to Niger and North Korea. In land area, its nearest counterparts are Brazil and China.

At 3.4 people per square kilometre it is far below the world average of 59.4. It ranks higher by area than by population, so it is more spacious than its population alone suggests.

English is an official language in 58 countries here, among them Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados and Belize, and 53 others. The AUD is shared with 3 other countries, including Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu.

To see Australia next to every other country, sort the country rankings by population, area or density; its currency and languages are listed alongside every other country's in world currencies and world languages.

How to remember Australia

Canberra was chosen as the seat of government as a compromise between Sydney and Melbourne, Australia's two largest cities. Not Sydney, not Melbourne: Canberra. For the flag, look for the big seven-pointed star under the Union Jack.

The flag of Australia: blue, red and white

🇦🇺 The flag is a blue flag with the Union Jack in the top corner by the flagpole, a large seven-pointed Commonwealth Star below it, and the five stars of the Southern Cross on the right. The Commonwealth Star stands for the federation of the Australian colonies in 1901: six points for the six original states and one for the territories. On the right is the Southern Cross constellation.

Region and neighbours

Australia is a country in Oceania made up of the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and many smaller islands, between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It has no land neighbours.

Three facts about Australia

The Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef, lies off the north-east coast and stretches for more than 2,300 km.
Mount Kosciuszko, 2,228 m high, is the highest mountain on the Australian mainland.
The Murray–Darling is Australia's major river system.

Sources: Wikipedia: Australia, Wikipedia: Flag of Australia, Wikipedia: Canberra, CIA World Factbook.

Quiz yourself on Australia

Oceania capitals quiz — match Australia to Canberra
Oceania flags quiz — spot the Australia flag among its neighbours

Quizzes that include Australia

Three angles are worth covering for any country — where it is, what its flag looks like, and what its capital is. For Australia those are:

Oceania map quiz — place it on a blank map
Oceania flags quiz — identify its flag among its neighbours
Oceania capitals quiz — match it to Canberra
Australia capital quiz — five quick questions starting with Australia
Daily Map Challenge — five countries to find on a blank world map, the same five for everyone each day

Doing all three for one continent before moving on is far more efficient than learning flags globally, then capitals globally, then the map.

Nearby countries

Fiji 🇫🇯 — capital Suva
Kiribati 🇰🇮 — capital Tarawa
Marshall Islands 🇲🇭 — capital Majuro
Micronesia 🇫🇲 — capital Palikir
Nauru 🇳🇷 — capital Yaren
New Zealand 🇳🇿 — capital Wellington
Palau 🇵🇼 — capital Ngerulmud
Papua New Guinea 🇵🇬 — capital Port Moresby
Samoa 🇼🇸 — capital Apia
Solomon Islands 🇸🇧 — capital Honiara
Tonga 🇹🇴 — capital Nukuʻalofa
Tuvalu 🇹🇻 — capital Funafuti

Frequently asked questions

What are the colours of the Australia flag?

The flag of Australia is a blue flag with the Union Jack in the top corner by the flagpole, a large seven-pointed Commonwealth Star below it, and the five stars of the Southern Cross on the right. The Commonwealth Star stands for the federation of the Australian colonies in 1901: six points for the six original states and one for the territories. On the right is the Southern Cross constellation.

Which countries border Australia?

None. Australia is a country in Oceania made up of the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and many smaller islands, between the Indian and Pacific oceans, so it has no land borders with other countries.