Geography ExpertM.A., Geography, California State University - NorthridgeB.A., Geography, University of California - Davis
Matt Rosenberg is an award-winning geographer và the author of "The Handy Geography Answer Book" and "The Geography Bee Complete Preparation Handbook."

There are seven continents in the world và Asia is the largest, and according to land-mass, Australia is the smallest at almost a fifth of the kích thước of Asia, but Europe is not far behind as it has just over a million more square miles than Australia.

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The measurement of nước Australia is just shy of three million square miles, but this includes the major island continent of Australia as well as surrounding islands, which are collectively referred lớn Oceania.


As a result, if you"re judging kích thước compared lớn population, nước Australia ranks number two with just over 40 million residents in all of Oceania (which includes New Zealand). Antartica, the least populated continent in the world, only has a few thousand researchers that call the frozen wastelvà their trang chủ.


How Small Is Australia by Land Area và Population?

In terms of lvà area, the continent of Australia is the world's smallest continent. In total, it includes 2,967,909 square miles (7,686,884 square kilometers), which is slightly smaller than the country of Brazil as well as the contiguous United States. Keep in mind, though, this number includes the small islvà nations that surround it in the Pacific Island region of the globe.


Europe is nearly a million square miles larger as the second smallest continent, measuring at a total of 3,997,929 square miles (10,354,636 square kilometers) while Antarctica is the third smallest continent at approximately 5,500,000 square miles (14,245,000 square kilometers).


When it comes lớn population, technically nước Australia is the second smallest continent. If we exclude Antarctica, then Australia is the smallest, và as a result, we might say that nước Australia is the smallest populated continent. After all, the 4,000 researchers on Antarctica only stay through the summer while 1,000 remain through the winter.


According to lớn 2017world population statistics, Oceania has a population of40,467,040; South America of 426,548,297; North và Central America of 540,473,499; Europe of739,207,742; Africa of1,246,504,865; & Asia of4,478,315,164


How nước Australia Compares in Other Ways

Australia is an islvà since it"s surrounded by water but it is also large enough khổng lồ be considered a continent, which makes nước Australia the largest isl& in the world—though technically since the islvà nation is technically a continent, most ascribeGreenland as the largest in the world.

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Still, Australia is also the largest country without lvà borders và the world's six-largest country on earth. Additionally, it is the largest single country khổng lồ exist entirely within the Southern Hemisphere—though this accomplishment isn't much considering more than half of the world's country are in the Northern Hemisphere.


Although it has nothing khổng lồ vày with its kích cỡ, nước Australia is also comparatively the driest, most arid continent of the seven, and it also boasts some of the most dangerous & exotic creatures outside of the Amazon rainforest of South America.


Australia's Relationship With Oceania

According to the United Nations, Oceania represents a geographic region made up of islands of the Pacific Ocean which includes nước Australia, Papua New Guinea và excludes Indonesian New Guinea and the Malay Archipelago. However, others include New Zealand, Melanesia, Micronesia, & Polynesia as well as the U.S. isl& of Hawaii & the nhật bản isl& of the Bonin Islands in this geographic grouping.


Quite often, when referring to this southern Pacific region, people will use the term "Australia and Oceania" rather than adding Australia into Oceania. Additionally, the grouping of nước Australia và New Zealand is often referred khổng lồ as Australiasia.


These definitions largely depkết thúc on the context of their use. For instance, the United Nations definition which only includes Australia and "unclaimed" independent territories is used for organized international relations và competitions lượt thích the Olympics, và since Indonesia owns part of New Guinea, that part is excluded from the definition of Oceania.


Rosenberg, Matt. "Australia: The Smallest Continent." man-city.net, Aug. 26, 20trăng tròn, man-city.net/which-continent-is-the-smallest-4071950.Rosenberg, Matt. (20trăng tròn, August 26). Australia: The Smallest Continent. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtteo.com/which-continent-is-the-smallest-4071950Rosenberg, Matt. "Australia: The Smallest Continent." man-city.net. https://www.man-city.net/which-continent-is-the-smallest-4071950 (accessed July 7, 2022).
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