Country in Oceania
Commonwealth of Australia
Anthem: "Advance Australia Fair "[ N 1] Commonwealth of Australia
Capital Canberra 35°18′29″S 149°07′28″E / 35.30806°S 149.12444°E / -35.30806; 149.12444 Largest city Sydney (metropolitan)Melbourne (urban)[ N 2] Official language and national language English (de facto ) None (de jure )Religion Demonym(s) Government Federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy Charles III Sam Mostyn Anthony Albanese
Legislature Parliament Senate House of Representatives 1 January 1901 15 November 1926 9 October 1942 3 March 1986
• Total
7,688,287[ 8] [ 9] [ 10] km2 (2,968,464 sq mi) (6th ) • Water (%)
1.79 (2015)[ 10] • 2024 estimate
27,523,900[ 11] (54th )• 2021 census
25,890,773[ 12] • Density
3.6/km2 (9.3/sq mi) (244th ) GDP (PPP ) 2024 estimate • Total
$1.898 trillion[ 13] (19th )• Per capita
$69,475[ 13] (23rd )GDP (nominal) 2024 estimate • Total
$1.802 trillion[ 13] (14th )• Per capita
$65,966[ 13] (12th )Gini (2020) 32.4[ 14] medium inequality HDI (2022) 0.946[ 15] very high (10th )Currency Australian dollar ($) (AUD )Time zone UTC +8; +9.5; +10 (AWST, ACST, AEST [ N 4] )UTC +10.5; +11 (ACDT, AEDT [ N 4] )DST not observed in Qld, WA and NTDate format dd /mm /yyyy [ 16] Drives on left Calling code +61 ISO 3166 code AU Internet TLD .au
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia ,[ 17] is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent , the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands .[ 18] Australia has a total area of 7,688,287 km2 (2,968,464 sq mi), making it the sixth-largest country in the world and the largest country by area in Oceania . It is the world's oldest,[ 19] flattest,[ 20] and driest inhabited continent,[ 21] [ 22] with some of the least fertile soils.[ 23] [ 24] It is a megadiverse country , and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates including deserts in the interior and tropical rainforests along the coast .
The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south-east Asia 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, during the last glacial period .[ 25] [ 26] [ 27] By the time of British settlement, Aboriginal Australians spoke 250 distinct languages and had the oldest living culture in the world.[ 28] Australia's written history commenced with Dutch exploration of most of the coastline in the 17th-century. British colonisation began in 1788 with the establishment of the penal colony of New South Wales . By the mid-19th century, most of the continent had been explored by European settlers and five additional self-governing British colonies were established, each gaining responsible government by 1890. The colonies federated in 1901, forming the Commonwealth of Australia.[ 29] This continued a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942 , and culminating in the Australia Acts of 1986.[ 29]
Australia is a federal parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy comprising six states and ten territories . Its population of more than 28 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard.[ 11] [ 30] Canberra is the nation's capital, while its most populous cities are Sydney and Melbourne , both with a population of more than 5 million.[ 31] Australia's culture is diverse, and the country has one of the highest foreign-born populations in the world .[ 32] [ 33] It has a highly developed market economy and one of the highest per capita incomes globally .[ 34] [ 35] [ 36] Its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade relations are crucial to the country's economy. It ranks highly for quality of life, health, education, economic freedom, civil liberties and political rights.[ 37]
Australia is a middle power , and has the world's thirteenth-highest military expenditure .[ 38] [ 39] It is a member of international groups including the United Nations; the G20 ; the OECD ; the World Trade Organization ; Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ; the Pacific Islands Forum ; the Pacific Community ; the Commonwealth of Nations ; and the defence and security organisations ANZUS , AUKUS , and the Five Eyes . It is also a major non-NATO ally of the United States.[ 40]
^ "Australian National Anthem" . Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet . 19 January 2022. Archived from the original on 27 October 2023. Retrieved 9 January 2024 .
^ "Regional population, 2021-22 financial year" . Australian Bureau of Statistics. 20 April 2023. Archived from the original on 20 April 2023. Retrieved 27 May 2023 .
^ Turnbull, Tiffanie (17 April 2023). "Melbourne overtakes Sydney as Australia's biggest city" . BBC News . Archived from the original on 21 May 2023. Retrieved 27 May 2023 .
^ Cite error: The named reference Australian-Bureau-of-Statistics-2022
was invoked but never defined (see the help page ).
^ Pronounced "Ozzy"
^ "Aussie" . Macquarie Dictionary . 16 October 2023. Archived from the original on 10 June 2024. Retrieved 8 February 2024 .
^ Collins English Dictionary . Bishopbriggs, Glasgow: HarperCollins . 2009. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-0078-6171-2 .
^ "Area of Australia - States and Territories" . Geoscience Australia . 27 June 2014. Archived from the original on 18 January 2024. Retrieved 18 February 2024 .
^ "Australia § Geography" . The World Factbook (2024 ed.). Central Intelligence Agency . Retrieved 16 August 2024 .
^ a b "Surface water and surface water change" . Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Archived from the original on 24 March 2021. Retrieved 11 October 2020 .
^ a b "Population clock and pyramid" . Australian Bureau of Statistics website . Commonwealth of Australia. 5 March 2024. Archived from the original on 8 February 2024. Retrieved 5 March 2024 . The population estimate shown is automatically calculated daily at 00:00 UTC and is based on data obtained from the population clock on the date shown in the citation.
^ "National, state and territory population" . Australian Bureau of Statistics. 26 September 2022. Archived from the original on 21 November 2022. Retrieved 26 September 2022 .
^ a b c d "World Economic Outlook Database, October 2024 Edition. (Australia)" . www.imf.org . International Monetary Fund . 22 October 2024. Retrieved 22 October 2024 .
^ "Australia Gini Coefficient, 1995 – 2023 | CEIC Data" . www.ceicdata.com . Archived from the original on 4 March 2024. Retrieved 4 March 2024 .
^ "Human Development Report 2023/24" (PDF) . United Nations Development Programme . 13 March 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 March 2024. Retrieved 13 March 2024 .
^ Australian Government (March 2023). "Dates and time" . Style Manual . Archived from the original on 29 May 2023. Retrieved 6 May 2023 .
^ Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act (Imp) 63 & 64 Vict, c 12, s 3 Archived 9 January 2024 at the Wayback Machine
^ 41% of the Antarctic continent is also claimed by the country , however this is only recognised by the UK, France, New Zealand and Norway.
^ Korsch RJ.; et al. (2011). "Australian island arcs through time: Geodynamic implications for the Archean and Proterozoic". Gondwana Research . 19 (3): 716–734. Bibcode :2011GondR..19..716K . doi :10.1016/j.gr.2010.11.018 . ISSN 1342-937X .
^ Macey, Richard (21 January 2005). "Map from above shows Australia is a very flat place" . The Sydney Morning Herald . ISSN 0312-6315 . OCLC 226369741 . Archived from the original on 10 October 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2010 .
^ "The Australian continent" . australia.gov.au . Archived from the original on 13 March 2020. Retrieved 13 August 2018 .
^ "Deserts" . Geoscience Australia . Australian Government. 15 May 2014. Archived from the original on 5 June 2014. Retrieved 13 August 2018 .
^ Kelly, Karina (13 September 1995). "A Chat with Tim Flannery on Population Control" . Australian Broadcasting Corporation . Archived from the original on 13 January 2010. Retrieved 23 April 2010 . "Well, Australia has by far the world's least fertile soils".
^ Grant, Cameron (August 2007). "Damaged Dirt" (PDF) . The Advertiser . Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 23 April 2010 . Australia has the oldest, most highly weathered soils on the planet.
^ Clarkson, Chris; et al. (2017). "Human occupation of northern Australia by 65,000 years ago". Nature . 547 (7663): 306–310. Bibcode :2017Natur.547..306C . doi :10.1038/nature22968 . hdl :2440/107043 . ISSN 0028-0836 . PMID 28726833 . S2CID 205257212 .
^ Cite error: The named reference Veth
was invoked but never defined (see the help page ).
^ Williams, Martin A. J.; Spooner, Nigel A.; McDonnell, Kathryn; O'Connell, James F. (January 2021). "Identifying disturbance in archaeological sites in tropical northern Australia: Implications for previously proposed 65,000-year continental occupation date" . Geoarchaeology . 36 (1): 92–108. Bibcode :2021Gearc..36...92W . doi :10.1002/gea.21822 . ISSN 0883-6353 . S2CID 225321249 . Archived from the original on 4 October 2023. Retrieved 16 October 2023 .
^ Cite error: The named reference Flood
was invoked but never defined (see the help page ).
^ a b Contiades, X.; Fotiadou, A. (2020). Routledge Handbook of Comparative Constitutional Change . Taylor & Francis. p. 389. ISBN 978-1-3510-2097-8 . Archived from the original on 19 April 2023. Retrieved 17 July 2023 .
^ "Geographic Distribution of the Population" . 24 May 2012. Archived from the original on 14 April 2021. Retrieved 1 December 2012 .
^ "Regional population" . Australian Bureau of Statistics . 20 April 2023. Archived from the original on 10 October 2023. Retrieved 23 April 2023 .
^ "Culturally and linguistically Diverse Australian" . Australian Government, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare . 2024. Archived from the original on 19 February 2024. Retrieved 20 February 2024 .
^ O'Donnell, James (27 November 2023). "Is Australia a cohesive nation?" . ABC Australia . Archived from the original on 20 February 2024. Retrieved 21 February 2024 .
^ "World Economic Outlook Database, April 2015" . International Monetary Fund . 6 September 2015. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 1 April 2019 .
^ "Human Development Report 2021-22" (PDF) . United Nations Development Programme . 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 September 2022. Retrieved 9 September 2022 .
^ "Australians the world's wealthiest" . The Sydney Morning Herald . 31 October 2011. Archived from the original on 10 July 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2012 .
^ "Statistics and rankings" . Global Australia . 18 May 2021. Archived from the original on 28 March 2023. Retrieved 28 March 2023 .
^ Lowy Institute Asian Power Index (PDF) (Report). 2023. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-6480189-3-3 . Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 February 2024. Retrieved 4 February 2024 .
^ "Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2017" (PDF) . www.sipri.org . Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 May 2018. Retrieved 12 August 2018 .
^ Rachman, Gideon (13 March 2023). "Aukus, the Anglosphere and the return of great power rivalry" . Financial Times . Archived from the original on 20 March 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2023 .
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