Oceania
Oceania is a geographical region that includes Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. It is often referred to as the countries of the Pacific Ocean, as most of their territory falls within the world's largest group of islands (approximately 10,000) in the central and southwest parts of the Pacific Ocean. Oceania covers a land area of approximately 9 million km² with a population of about 44.4 million people.
Oceania is the smallest territory in terms of continental land area and the second most populous after Antarctica. At the same time, Oceania's economy is diverse: from highly developed Australia, French Polynesia, Hawaii, New Caledonia and New Zealand to less developed Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Western New Guinea, as well as the economies of Fiji, Palau and Tonga.
Oceania was explored by Europeans in the 16th century. And since 1812, the Danish-French geographer and creator of the "Complete and Universal Geographical Atlas" Conrad Malt-Brun introduced this term, which comes from the French Océanie, based on the Greek — ὠκεανός ("ocean").
