Oceania Countries Quiz

Name every country in Oceania against the clock.

Name all fourteen Oceania countries — a short list that almost nobody completes, because twelve of them are Pacific island nations.

Fourteen countries, and most people name three

Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea — then a long pause.

The remaining eleven are Pacific island nations that rarely appear in news, travel or education outside the region: Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Nauru, Palau, Marshall Islands, Micronesia.

Fourteen is a small enough list to finish in a couple of focused sessions, which makes this unusually good value for the effort.

The three sub-regions

Pacific island nations are conventionally grouped into three, which is a much easier frame than a flat list:

Melanesia — Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu. The largest islands and the largest populations.

Polynesia — Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, plus New Zealand. A vast triangle across the eastern Pacific.

Micronesia — Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia. Small islands, scattered across an enormous area.

Note that Micronesia is both a sub-region and a country name, which causes confusion in quizzes.

The records worth knowing

Kiribati straddles both the Equator and the International Date Line, making it the only country in all four hemispheres. In 1995 it moved the date line so the whole country shares a calendar day, and some islands skipped a day entirely.

Nauru is the third-smallest country in the world and has no official capital — Yaren is the district holding the government buildings.

Tuvalu is among the smallest and lowest-lying countries anywhere.

Papua New Guinea has extraordinary linguistic diversity, with hundreds of languages spoken — more than almost any other country.

Territories that are not countries

New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Guam, American Samoa, the Cook Islands and Niue all appear on Pacific maps with varying degrees of self-government, and are not counted as sovereign states. The Pacific looks much busier on a map than the country list suggests.

Where to go next

Oceania Capitals and Oceania Flags cover the same fourteen countries. The flags are the easier half and several are literally geographic — Nauru's star marks its position below the Equator and Tuvalu's nine stars map its islands.

Frequently asked questions

How many countries are in Oceania?

Fourteen sovereign states: Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Nauru, Palau, Marshall Islands and Micronesia.

What are Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia?

The three conventional sub-regions of the Pacific. Melanesia holds the largest islands and populations, Polynesia spans a vast eastern triangle, and Micronesia consists of small islands scattered across an enormous area. Micronesia is also the name of one country within that group.

Which Oceania country is in all four hemispheres?

Kiribati, whose islands straddle both the Equator and the International Date Line. In 1995 it shifted the date line east so the entire country would share a calendar day, and some of its islands skipped a day in the process.

Is Australia a country or a continent?

Both, in different senses. Australia is a country, and it is also the principal landmass of the continent usually called Oceania, which includes New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific island nations.

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