Western Australia
Facts
Climate
From its tropical north to temperate areas in its south-west corner, Western Australia experiences a variety of climatic conditions.
With distance from the coast, rainfall decreases, and temperature variations are more pronounced.
Perth averages eight hours of sunshine per day and 118 clear days per year. Mean monthly maximum temperatures range from 17ºC in July to 30ºC in February. Even in the coldest months, minimum temperatures rarely fall below 5ºC. Most of its 802mm annual rainfall occurs in the winter months
Population
Despite its size, the population density is amongst the lowest in the world. Approximately 23 million people live in Australia and 2.5 million in Western Australia.
Within Western Australia, over 35%* of people were born overseas, creating a multicultural environment.
The State has about 2.6 million inhabitants – around 11 percent of the national total – of whom the vast majority (92 percent) live in the south-west corner; 79 percent of the population lives in the Perth area, leaving the remainder of the State sparsely populated.
Geography
Main page: Geography of Western Australia
Western Australia is bounded to the east by longitude 129°E, the meridian 129 degrees east of Greenwich, which defines the border with South Australia and the Northern Territory, and determined by the Indian Ocean the west and north. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) designates the water south of the continent as part of the Indian Ocean; it is officially gazetted as the Southern Ocean in Australia.
The total length of the State’s eastern border is 1,862 km (1,157 mi). There are 20,781 km (12,913 mi) of coastline, including 7,892 km (4,904 mi) of island coastline. The total land area occupied by the State is 2.5 million km2.