Oceania was first explored by Europeans from the 16th century onward. The first settlers of Australia, New Guinea, and the large islands just to the east arrived more than 60,000 years ago.

Puncak Jaya in Papua is the highest peak in Oceania at 4,884 m (16,024 ft). The largest and most populous country in Oceania is Australia, and the largest city is Sydney. Oceania has a diverse mix of economies from the highly developed and globally competitive financial markets of Australia, French Polynesia, Hawaiʻi, New Caledonia, and New Zealand, which rank high in quality of life and Human Development Index, to the much less developed economies of Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Western New Guinea, while also including medium-sized economies of Pacific islands such as Fiji, Palau, and Tonga.

Its major population centres are Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Auckland, Adelaide and Honolulu. When compared with the continents, the region of Oceania is the smallest in land area and the second least populated after Antarctica. Spanning the Eastern and Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of 8,525,989 square kilometres (3,291,903 sq mi) and a population of around 44.5 million as of 2021. Oceania ( UK: / ˌ oʊ s i ˈ ɑː n i ə, ˌ oʊ ʃ i-, - ˈ eɪ n-/, US: / ˌ oʊ ʃ i ˈ æ n i ə/ ( listen), /- ˈ ɑː n-/) is a geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia.

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