How Many Countries In Australia? (2024)

How Many Countries In Australia?

If you google how many countries in Australia you’ll be surprised by how many different answers you can find, somewhere between 3 and 16 countries. The total number of countries, however, is 3.

First of all, is the confusion about Australia. Is it a Country? Continent? Hmmm. Let’s have a look below and finally get to the bottom of it.

Table of contents

  • How Many Countries In Australia?
  • Is The Continent Called Australia, Australasia or Oceania?
    • Is Oceania a continent?
  • How Many Countries Are There in Australia/Australasia?
  • Dependent Territories In Oceania (but not part of the Australia continent)
  • Is Tasmania A Country?
  • Let’s Add All That Up
How Many Countries In Australia? (1)

Is The Continent Called Australia, Australasia or Oceania?

You thought Australia was a country, right? NOT A CONTINENT?

Well, first things first, we need to clear up some confusion about the name of this continent before we get to looking at how many countries in Australia. There are probably a few of you reading this thinking that Australia isn’t a continent. That’s because you know the continent as Australasia.The continent can be called Australia or Australasia. Both are correct.

That means that when you say Australia, you can be referring to either Australia the country, or Australia the continent (which includes 3 countries). This is because 3 countries fall on top of the Australian tectonic plate.

Is Oceania a continent?

So what is Oceania then? That is a region, not a continent. It includes the Continent of Australia (also known as Australasia) + the Pacific island countries.

If you want to read about how many continents there are, read my blog post here.

How Many Countries In Australia? (2)

How Many Countries Are There in Australia/Australasia?

There are a number of countries in the Oceania region, if we counted them all we would get 14 countries and 12 dependencies. I’ll break this all down for you starting with the 3 countries that are officially part of Australia:

  1. Australia
  2. New Zealand
  3. Papua New Guinea

To confirm how many countries are in Australia? 3! All listed above.

The other countries that are located within the Oceania Region (but not officially part of the Australasia continent) are the islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. There are 11 more countries which we can add to the 3 above. Remember, these next 11 are not part of the Australian continent but ARE part of the Oceania region (confusing I know!)

  1. Fiji
  2. Kiribati
  3. The Marshall Islands
  4. The Federated States of Micronesia
  5. Nauru (The least visited country on earth officially!)
  6. Palau
  7. Samoa
  8. Solomon Islands
  9. Tonga
  10. Tuvalu
  11. Vanuatu
How Many Countries In Australia? (3)

Dependent Territories In Oceania (but not part of the Australia continent)

Some people, including myself, class a few of these places as independent countries, but they actually belong to a member state of the UN. I would say that both Niue and The Cook Islands could both be added to the list of countries (I don’t include them in the official list of 197 countries, but there are in the next list of 215 ‘countries’ which is a bit less strict).

If you’re not too sure about what’s classed as a dependent territory then just click here and you’ll be able to read my super simple definition. Here is a list of the 12 dependent territories within the Pacific Island region of Oceania (and not part of the continent of Australia):

  1. American Samoa (Belongs to the USA)
  2. Cook Islands (New Zealand)
  3. French Polynesia (France) PERSONAL NOTE: I proposed to my girlfriend in Bora Bora, French Polynesia
  4. Guam (USA)
  5. New Caledonia (France)
  6. Niue (New Zealand)
  7. Norfolk Island (Australia)
  8. Northern Mariana Islands (USA)
  9. Pitcairn Islands (UK)
  10. Tokelau (New Zealand)
  11. Wake Island (USA)
  12. Wallis and Futuna (France)

Is Tasmania A Country?

Tasmania is an Island located 150 miles off the south coast of Australia. Tasmania is not a country (if you ask its residents they may disagree!), but it does deserve a special mention before we finish off our list of places in Australia. It’s officially a state of Australia and interestingly it’s the smallest state in the country. If you’re in Australia then you need to make an effort to visit Tanzania because it’s unique in its own right.

Let’s Add All That Up

So officially it’s clear to see that there are 3 countries in Australia(Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea).

Those 3 countries, plus 11 Pacific Island countries make up the 14 countries in the Oceania region. Finally, there are an additional 12 dependent territories to finish it off (and of course Tasmania too).

How Many Countries In Australia? (4)

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How Many Countries In Australia? (5)

How Many Countries In Australia? (6)

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How Many Countries In Australia? (2024)

FAQs

How Many Countries In Australia? ›

Australia

Australia
With a total land area of 8.56 million square kilometres (3,310,000 sq mi), the Australian continent is the smallest, lowest, flattest, and second-driest continent (after Antarctica) on Earth.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Australia_(continent)
(the nation), Papua New Guinea, and New Zealand are the three independent nations that make up the Australian continent.

Are there three or 14 countries in Australia? ›

The first one goes like this: The Australian continent consists of three sovereign countries which are Australia (the country) itself, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. It also encompasses portions of the island of New Guinea which are under the jurisdiction of Indonesia, namely Papua and West Papua.

Does Australia have 23 countries? ›

I think you mean "in Australasia", not "in Australia". The countries are: Australia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua and New Guinea, Samoa, Solomons, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu. Australia is one country. There are no other sovereign nations in the Australian mainland.

Which countries make up Australia? ›

The continent includes mainland Australia, Tasmania, the island of New Guinea (Papua New Guinea and Western New Guinea), the Aru Islands, the Ashmore and Cartier Islands, most of the Coral Sea Islands, and some other nearby islands.

What are the 14 countries in Australia with capital? ›

Australia – countries, languages, inhabitants, capitals
Nationality platesCountryCapital
AUSAustraliaCanberra
FJIFijiSuva
WBIKiribatiTarawa
MLIMarshall IslandsMajuro
10 more rows

Are there 14 countries in Oceania? ›

How many countries are in the Oceania continent? There are a total of 14 countries that are within Oceania. These 14 countries include Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Federated States Of Micronesia, Vanuatu, Samoa, Kiribati, Tonga, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Tuvalu, and Nauru.

Is Australia bigger than the USA? ›

Is Australia bigger than the USA? No, Australia is slightly smaller than the USA in terms of land area.

Is Australia technically a country? ›

Australia is the only country in the world that covers an entire continent. It is one of the largest countries on Earth. Although it is rich in natural resources and has a lot of fertile land, more than one-third of Australia is desert.

What is the difference between Australia and Oceania? ›

The difference is based on scale. Australia is a country or continent. Australasia is a location that includes Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, and surrounding islands. Oceania is a location that includes Australasia, Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia.

Why is Australia called Oz? ›

Why is Australia called Oz? The word Australia when referred to informally with its first three letters becomes Aus. When Aus or Aussie, the short form for an Australian, is pronounced for fun with a hissing sound at the end, it sounds as though the word being pronounced has the spelling Oz.

Is Fiji part of Australia? ›

Fiji is an independent country lying on the border between the Polynesian and Melanesian regions of the Pacific. After Papua New Guinea, Fiji is the most populous Pacific island country and hosts a number of regional and international organisations.

What is Australia used to be called? ›

After Dutch navigators charted the northern, western and southern coasts of Australia during the 17th Century this newly found continent became known as 'New Holland'. It was the English explorer Matthew Flinders who suggested the name we use today.

Why is Sydney not the capital of Australia? ›

Following a long dispute over whether Sydney or Melbourne should be the national capital, a compromise was reached: the new capital would be built in New South Wales, so long as it was at least 100 mi (160 km) from Sydney. The capital city was founded and formally named as Canberra in 1913.

Are there 23 countries in Australia? ›

There are 14 independent countries and 12 dependent overseas territories. The largest sovereign state is Australia, occupying about 86% of the region's total area. The smallest independent country is Nauru, which is so tiny that you need less than an hour to drive around it.

What is Australia's language? ›

English is the national language of Australia but Australians speak around 300 different languages, including many Indigenous languages. The 2021 census found that 72% of people speak only English at home.

Why does Australia have two capitals? ›

Canberra in Australia Capital Territory is a small city of around 450,000 people that sits between Sydney and Melbourne. The site was chosen as the location for Australia's capital in 1908 as a compromise between the two aforementioned cities.

What are the 14 states in Australia and their capitals? ›

States
StatePostalCapital
VictoriaVICMelbourne
QueenslandQLDBrisbane
Western AustraliaWAPerth
South AustraliaSAAdelaide
2 more rows

Is New Zealand a territory of Australia? ›

Ultimately it declined to accept the invitation to join the Commonwealth of Australia resultingly formed in 1901, remaining as a self-governing colony until becoming the Dominion of New Zealand in 1907 and with other territories later constituting the Realm of New Zealand effectively as an independent country of its ...

Does Australia have 2 or 3 territories? ›

The country is divided into six states and two territories.

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