Australia

This article is about the country. For the continent, see Australia (continent). For other uses, see Australia (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Australasia, Austrasia, or Austria.

Commonwealth of Australia
Anthem: "Advance Australia Fair"[N 1]
A map of the eastern hemisphere centred on Australia, using an orthographic projection
  Commonwealth of Australia
  Australian territorial claim in Antarctica
CapitalCanberra
35°18′29″S 149°07′28″E / 35.30806°S 149.12444°E / -35.30806; 149.12444
Largest citySydney (metropolitan)
Melbourne (urban)[N 2]
Official language and national languageEnglish (de facto)
None (de jure)
Religion
(2021)[4]
Demonym(s)
GovernmentFederal parliamentary constitutional monarchy
• Monarch
Charles III
Sam Mostyn
Anthony Albanese
LegislatureParliament
• Upper house
Senate
• Lower house
House of Representatives
Independence 
from the United Kingdom
• Federation and creation of the Constitution
1 January 1901
15 November 1926
9 October 1942
3 March 1986
Area
• Total
7,688,287[8][9][10] km2 (2,968,464 sq mi) (6th)
• Water (%)
1.79 (2015)[10]
Population
• 2024 estimate
Neutral increase 27,525,600[11] (54th)
• 2021 census
Neutral increase 25,890,773[12]
• Density
3.6/km2 (9.3/sq mi) (244th)
GDP (PPP)2024 estimate
• Total
Increase $1.898 trillion[13] (19th)
• Per capita
Increase $69,475[13] (23rd)
GDP (nominal)2024 estimate
• Total
Increase $1.802 trillion[13] (14th)
• Per capita
Increase $65,966[13] (12th)
Gini (2020)Positive decrease 32.4[14]
medium inequality
HDI (2022)Increase 0.946[15]
very high (10th)
CurrencyAustralian dollar ($) (AUD)
Time zoneUTC+8; +9.5; +10 (AWST, ACST, AEST[N 4])
• Summer (DST)
UTC+10.5; +11 (ACDT, AEDT[N 4])
DST not observed in Qld, WA and NT
Date formatdd/mm/yyyy[16]
Drives onleft
Calling code+61
ISO 3166 codeAU
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]

  1. ^ "Australian National Anthem". Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. 19 January 2022. Archived from the original on 27 October 2023. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  2. ^ "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.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Australian-Bureau-of-Statistics-2022 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Pronounced "Ozzy"
  6. ^ "Aussie". Macquarie Dictionary. 16 October 2023. Archived from the original on 10 June 2024. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
  7. ^ Collins English Dictionary. Bishopbriggs, Glasgow: HarperCollins. 2009. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-0078-6171-2.
  8. ^ "Area of Australia - States and Territories". Geoscience Australia. 27 June 2014. Archived from the original on 18 January 2024. Retrieved 18 February 2024.
  9. ^ "Australia § Geography". The World Factbook (2024 ed.). Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ "National, state and territory population". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 26 September 2022. Archived from the original on 21 November 2022. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ "Australia Gini Coefficient, 1995 – 2023 | CEIC Data". www.ceicdata.com. Archived from the original on 4 March 2024. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
  15. ^ "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.
  16. ^ Australian Government (March 2023). "Dates and time". Style Manual. Archived from the original on 29 May 2023. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
  17. ^ Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act (Imp) 63 & 64 Vict, c 12, s 3 Archived 9 January 2024 at the Wayback Machine
  18. ^ 41% of the Antarctic continent is also claimed by the country, however this is only recognised by the UK, France, New Zealand and Norway.
  19. ^ 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.
  20. ^ 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.
  21. ^ "The Australian continent". australia.gov.au. Archived from the original on 13 March 2020. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
  22. ^ "Deserts". Geoscience Australia. Australian Government. 15 May 2014. Archived from the original on 5 June 2014. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
  23. ^ 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".
  24. ^ 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.
  25. ^ 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.
  26. ^ Cite error: The named reference Veth was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  27. ^ 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.
  28. ^ Cite error: The named reference Flood was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  29. ^ 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.
  30. ^ "Geographic Distribution of the Population". 24 May 2012. Archived from the original on 14 April 2021. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
  31. ^ "Regional population". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 20 April 2023. Archived from the original on 10 October 2023. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
  32. ^ "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.
  33. ^ 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.
  34. ^ "World Economic Outlook Database, April 2015". International Monetary Fund. 6 September 2015. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  35. ^ "Human Development Report 2021-22" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 September 2022. Retrieved 9 September 2022.
  36. ^ "Australians the world's wealthiest". The Sydney Morning Herald. 31 October 2011. Archived from the original on 10 July 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  37. ^ "Statistics and rankings". Global Australia. 18 May 2021. Archived from the original on 28 March 2023. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  38. ^ 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.
  39. ^ "Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2017" (PDF). www.sipri.org. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 May 2018. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
  40. ^ 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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