Country · Oceania
Australia
Commonwealth of Australia
Australia is a country in Australia and New Zealand. About 25 million people live there, in an area of 7 692 024 square kilometres. Its capital city is Canberra.
Picture credit: Dietmar Rabich (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Average Joe Pictures (CC BY-SA 4.0) · CSIRO (CC BY 3.0) · Tim J Keegan (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Thennicke (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Australia?
Australia lies in Australia and New Zealand, on the continent of Oceania.
It sits in the southern half of the world, roughly 3 006 km from the equator.
Its coastline is about 25 760 km long.
It has no land neighbours — every border it has is with the sea.
How big is Australia?
Australia covers 7 692 024 square kilometres.
That is about 7.7 times the size of Egypt.
Among the world's countries that makes it the 6th largest.
Spread everybody out evenly and you get about 3.2 people on every square kilometre.
That is emptier than the world average of roughly 60 people per square kilometre.
Who lives in Australia?
About 25 million people live in Australia.
That is the 55th biggest population in the world.
People here speak English.
They pay with the Australian dollar ($).
On average, people born here can expect to live about 80 years.
The land of Australia
The land of Australia sits on average 330 metres above sea level.
Its coast runs for about 25 760 km. Walking it end to end, at twenty kilometres a day, would take roughly 1 288 days.
It lies between the tropics and the poles, which is the single biggest reason its weather is the way it is.
What makes Australia different?
Dishes the country is known for: Meat pie and Roast lamb.
Websites from here often end in .au.
Australia and the rest of the world
Out of every thousand people alive on Earth, about 3 live in Australia.
It takes up about 5.8 % of all the land that countries stand on.
Within Oceania it is the largest of 14 countries, and the first by population.
Nature and animals
Of the animals on this site, 52 live wild in Australia: Red fox, Koala, Red kangaroo, Wombat, Tasmanian devil, Quokka and more. The highest mountain in the country is Mount Kosciuszko, at 2 228 metres. The longest river in the country is the Murray. The largest lake in the country is Lake Eyre.
Red fox
Koala
Red kangaroo
Wombat
Tasmanian devil
Quokka
European rabbit
Dromedary
Barn owl
Emu
Humpback whale
Bottlenose dolphin
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons under free licences — every credit is on the page itself and in the picture credits.
Where this country lands in the record lists
How big is Australia compared with the United States?
- The United States is about 1.2 times as big as Australia: 9 372 610 km² against 7 692 024 km². See both on one map
- Australia is about 32 times as big as the United Kingdom: 7 692 024 km² against 242 900 km². See both on one map
Questions children ask
What is the capital of Australia?
The capital of Australia is Canberra. It is the city where the country's government works from.
How many people live in Australia?
About 25 million people live in Australia, which makes it the 55th most populated country in the world. (Source: World Bank, 2018.)
How big is Australia?
Australia covers 7 692 024 square kilometres, making it the 6th largest country in the world. That is about 7.7 times the size of Egypt.
What is the highest mountain in Australia?
The highest mountain in Australia is Mount Kosciuszko, 2 228 metres above sea level. It is the country's highest point.
What is the longest river in Australia?
The longest river in Australia is the Murray, about 2 508 kilometres long.
What is the largest lake in Australia?
The largest lake in Australia is Lake Eyre. It covers about 9 500 km².
Which continent is Australia in?
Australia is in Oceania, in the part called Australia and New Zealand.
Where these numbers come from
Borders and outlines: Natural Earth. Names, capitals, areas, languages and currencies: ISO 3166 data (world-countries). Population: World Bank, 2018. Every derived figure on this page (ranks, density, distance from the equator) is calculated from those values.
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