Although Australia is considered the smallest continent in the world, its area is very large - approximately 7.7 million square kilometers. This figure is almost comparable to the total area of Europe, BBC Earth wrote.
The European continent stretches for 10.2 million square kilometers. However, a large part of this territory - approximately one-third - belongs to Russia. If we exclude Russia, the actual area of Europe will be about 6.6 million square kilometers.
For comparison, the total area of the European Union is 4.2 million square kilometers, which is much smaller than that of Australia. But the situation with the population is completely opposite - more than 450 million people live in the European Union, while throughout Europe this figure has reached 744 million.
The total population of Australia is about 27 million people. This is a very small number compared to Europe. The reason for this is that large areas of the continent's interior are dry, low-water, and uninhabitable, so the population is mainly concentrated along the coast.
According to 2024 data, more than a third of Australia's population lives in only two megacities - Sydney (5.23 million people) and Melbourne (4.95 million people). The remaining territories, especially the center of the country, remain practically uninhabited.
Thus, Australia, geographically no less than Europe, has a completely different appearance in terms of population concentration and economic activity. Although this continent has vast territories, its main life centers are limited to the ocean shores.
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