Australia - The Facts
- Full name: Commonwealth of Australia
- Population: 20.7 million (UN, 2007)
- Capital: Canberra
- Largest city: Sydney
- Area: 7.7 million sq km (2.9 million sq miles)
- Major language: English
- Major religion: Christianity
- Life expectancy: 79 years (men), 84 years (women) (UN)
- Monetary unit: 1 Australian dollar = 100 cents
- Main exports: Ores and metals; wool, food and live animals; fuels, transport machinery and equipment
- GNI per capita: US $32,220 (World Bank, 2006)
- Internet domain: .au
- International dialling code: +61
- Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by Governor-General Michael Jeffery
- Prime minister: Kevin Rudd
- The press
- The Sydney Morning Herald - daily
- Herald Sun - Melbourne-based daily
- The Australian - national daily
- The Daily Telegraph - Sydney-based daily
- The Courier-Mail - Brisbane-based daily
- The West Australian - Perth-based daily
- The Age - Melbourne-based daily
- The Advertiser - Adelaide-based daily
- Australian Financial Review - business daily
- Television
- ABC - national public network
- Australia Network - international channel, run by ABC
- SBS TV - national multicultural public broadcaster, programmes in English and 60 other languages
- Seven Network - national, commercial
- Nine Network - national, commercial
- Ten Network - national, commercial
- Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) - licenses and regulates TV stations; station lists available
- Foxtel - pay-TV operator, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, the Packer group and telecommunications giant Telstra
- Optus - pay TV operator
- Radio
- ABC - public, operates speech-cultural network Radio National, news station ABC NewsRadio, youth-oriented Triple J, classical and contemporary music network ABC Classic FM and local-regional services
- Radio Australia - ABC's external service, targeted at Asia-Pacific region via shortwave and internet
- SBS Radio - national multicultural, multilingual public network, broadcasts in 68 languages
- Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) - licenses and regulates radio stations; station lists available
- Links
