Oceania is a geographical region comprising Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, at the centre of the water hemisphere, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of about 9,000,000 square kilometres (3,500,000 sq mi) and a population of around 44.4 million as of 2022. When compared to the continents, Oceania is the smallest in land area and the second-least populated after Antarctica.
A 19th-century engraving of an Aboriginal Australian encampment
Stone money transport to Yap Island in Micronesia (1880)
Moai at Ahu Tongariki on Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
New Zealand troops land on Vella Lavella, in Solomon Islands
Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from New Guinea in the west to the Fiji Islands in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea.
A pan flute from Solomon Islands, 19th century
Sailors of Melanesia in the Pacific Ocean, 1846
A Melanesian child from Vanuatu
Mount Tavurvur in Papua New Guinea