Portal:Oceania/Daily article
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The population is 57,902 (July 2004 est). Persons born in American Samoa are United States nationals, but not United States citizens. This is the only circumstance under which an individual would be one and not the other. The capital is Pago Pago. List of daily articles
By far the largest part of Australia is desert or semi-arid. Australia is the driest inhabited continent, the flattest, and has the oldest and least fertile soils. Only the south-east and south-west corners of the continent have a temperate climate. The majority of the population of 20.4 million (Sep 2005 est) lives in these temperate zones. The capital is Canberra. List of daily articles
The population is 21,388 (July 2005 est). The capital is Avarua on Rarotonga. Cook Islanders are citizens of New Zealand. List of daily articles
Formerly Portuguese Timor, East Timor was invaded by Indonesia in 1975, which occupied it until 1999. Following the UN-sponsored act of self-determination that year, Indonesia relinquished control of the territory, which achieved full independence on May 20, 2002. The population is 1,040,880 (2005) and the capital is Dili. List of daily articles
The island is approximately triangular in shape, with an area of 163.6 km² (63 sq. miles), and a population of 3,791 (2002 census), 3,304 of which live in the capital of Hanga Roa. The island is famous for its numerous moai, the stone statues now located along the coastlines. List of daily articles
The population is 893,354 (2005), made up of 54.3% native Fijians, and 38.1% Indo-Fijians (38.1%), descendants of Indian contract labourers brought to the islands in the 19th century. The capital is Suva. List of daily articles
French Polynesia has a moderately developed economy, which is dependent on imported goods, tourism, and the financial assistance of mainland France. Tourist facilities are well developed on the major islands. List of daily articles
The population is 163,941 (July 2003 est) and the capital is Hagåtña, formerly Agana (pronounced Agaña). Guam's economy is mainly supported by tourism (particularly from Japan) and United States armed forces bases. The latter takes up one-third of the entire land mass of the island. List of daily articles
As of the 2000 U.S. Census it had a population of 1,211,537 people. Honolulu is the largest city and the state capital. Other large cities and towns include Hilo, Kahului and Līhuʻe. List of daily articles
The population is 91,985 (2001) and the capital and largest city is Bairiki, South Tarawa. Kiribati is the easternmost country in the world, and was the first country to enter into the year 2000 at Caroline Island, which, not coincidentally, has been renamed Millennium Island. List of daily articles
Two-thirds of the nation's population of 56,429 (2003) lives on Majuro (which is also the capital) and Ebeye. The outer islands are sparsely populated due to lack of employment opportunities and economic development. Life on the outer atolls is generally still fairly traditional. List of daily articles
It consists of 607 islands extending 1,800 miles across the archipelago of the Caroline Islands. The four constituent island groups are Yap, Chuuk (called Truk until January 1990), Pohnpei (called Ponape until November 1984), and Kosrae. The population is 135,869 (2000) and the capital is Palikir, on Pohnpei. List of daily articles
Much of its past prosperity derived from the phosphate deposits on the island, but with the exhaustion of these supplies, Nauru faces an uncertain future. Nauru currently houses a detention centre, which holds and processes asylum seekers as part of Australia's Pacific Solution. List of daily articles
The population at the 2004 census was 230,789 inhabitants. It has an Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) of .nc. The capital and largest city of the territory is Nouméa. The currency is the CFP franc. List of daily articles
The population (total 4.1 million in 2005) is mostly of European descent, with Māori being the largest minority. Non-Māori Polynesian and Asian peoples are also significant minorities, especially in the nation's cities. The capital is Wellington, and the largest city is Auckland. List of daily articles
The population is 2,145 (2003) and the capital is Alofi. At 260 km², Niue is one of the world's largest coral islands. The terrain consists of steep limestone cliffs along the coast with a central plateau rising to about 60 metres above sea level. A coral reef surrounds the island. List of daily articles
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The only major natural resource of Norfolk Island is fish. There are no major arable lands or permanent farmlands, though about 25% of the island is a permanent pasture. There is no irrigated land. The population is 1841 (2004 est) and the capital is Kingston. List of daily articles
The southern islands are limestone with level terraces and fringing coral reefs; the northern islands are volcanic, with active volcanoes on Anatahan, Pagan and Agrihan. The volcano on Agrihan is the highest elevation in the islands at 965 meters. About one-fifth of the land is arable, another tenth is permanent pasture. The primary natural resource is fish. List of daily articles
Palau's most important islands are Angaur, Babeldaob, Koror, and Peleliu, which lie together within the same barrier reef. About two thirds of the population lives on Koror. The population is 20,303 (2005 est.). The capital is Koror, with the same name as the island. List of daily articles
It is one of the most diverse countries on Earth, with over 700 indigenous languages and at least as many indigenous societies, out of a population of just over 5 million. It is also one of the most rural, with only 18% living in urban centres. The majority of the population live in indigenous societies and practise subsistence-based agriculture. List of daily articles
With only about fifty inhabitants (from nine families), Pitcairn is also famed for being the least populated country in the world (although it is not a sovereign nation). The capital is Adamstown, Pitcairn Island. List of daily articles
The Samoas are of volcanic origin and the total land area is 2934 km², consisting of the two large islands of Upolu and Savai'i which account for 96% of the total land area, and eight small islets. The main island of Upolu is home to nearly three-quarters of Samoa's population of 177,714 (Jul 2004 est) and its capital city is Apia. List of daily articles
Volcanoes with varying degrees of activity are situated on some of the larger islands, while many of the smaller islands are simply tiny atolls covered in sand and palm trees. The population is 538,032 (2004 est) and the capital is Honiara. List of daily articles
Tokelau has fewer than 1500 Polynesian inhabitants living in three villages, who speak Tokelauan and English. Their isolation and lack of resources greatly restrains economic development and confines agriculture to the subsistence level. The very limited natural resources and overcrowding are contributing to emigration to New Zealand, resulting in a population decline of about 0.9% per year. List of daily articles
The largest island, Tongatapu, on which the capital city of Nuku'alofa is located, covers 257 square kilometres (99 sq mi). The population is 112,422 (2005 est). List of daily articles
Due to their low elevation (5 meters, or 16 feet maximum), the islands that make up this nation are threatened by any future sea level rise. The population of 11,636 (July 2005 est.) may evacuate during the next decades to New Zealand, or Niue. List of daily articles
Vanuatu is an 83-island archipelago, of which two — Matthew and Hunter — are also claimed by the French overseas department of New Caledonia. Of all the 83 islands, 14 have surface areas of more than 100 square kilometers. Most of the islands are mountainous and of volcanic origin. The population is 202,609 (July 2004), and the capital is Port Vila. List of daily articles
Only five percent of the islands' land area is arable land; permanent crops cover another 20%. Deforestation is a serious problem; leaving the mountainous terrain of Futuna prone to erosion. There are no permanent settlements on Alofi because of the lack of natural fresh water resources. The population is 14,944 (2003) and the capital is Mata-Utu. List of daily articles
The term was first used by Jules Dumont d'Urville in 1832 to denote an ethnic and geographical grouping of islands distinct from Polynesia and Micronesia. Today d'Urville's racial classification is known to be inaccurate because it obscures Melanesia's cultural, linguistic, and genetic diversity. Most importantly, this term combines two quite distinct groups, the Austronesians and the Papuans. List of daily articles
The term "Polynesia" was first coined by Charles de Brosses in 1756, and originally applied to all the islands of the Pacific. Jules Dumont d'Urville in an 1831 lecture to the Geographical Society of Paris proposed a restriction on its use, and also introduced the terms Micronesia and Melanesia. This division into three distinct Pacific subregions remains in widespread use today. List of daily articles
This region of Oceania consists of many hundreds of small islands spread over a large region of the western Pacific. The only empire known to have originated in Micronesia was based in Yap. The term "Micronesia" was first proposed to distinguish the region in 1831 by Jules Dumont d'Urville; before this the term "Polynesia" was in use to generally describe the islands of the Pacific. List of daily articles
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