If you are a beach person, this island continent has it all. Over 80 percent of Australians live within 30 miles of the country’s over 22,000 mile mainland coastline and enjoy the famous Aussie laid back lifestyle of sea and sand.

From surf-club training for kids to a game of beach cricket after a barbeque, Australians love life on the beach where they can sun, surf, sail, parasail, fish or snorkel. In fact, the beach is so popular that many beaches host citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day.

An island continent just southeast of Asia, Australia is surrounded by the Indian Ocean to its west, the Pacific to its east, the Southern Ocean to its south and the Arafura and Timor seas to its north. Australia is the smallest continent in the world but the sixth largest country by area, only slightly smaller than the continental United States. The country also owns over 8,000 islands, including the state of Tasmania.

Australia is divided into the states of Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania and the two territories of the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory.

Since 1945, more than six million people from across the world have come to Australia to live. Today, nearly 25 percent of Australians are foreign born and more than 40 percent are of mixed cultural origin.

As part of the Commonwealth of Nations, Australia is an English-speaking country, although many other languages are spoken in this ethnically diverse country. Besides English, over 225 languages are spoken in Australian homes. The most popular are Italian, Greek, Cantonese and Arabic.

And, like the UK, English is spoken a little differently in Australia. The colloquial language used in the country, which was named “string” by linguist Alastair Morrison in 1966, combines many long lost cockney and Irish sayings of the early convicts with words from Aboriginal languages. Aussies often abbreviate words and then add an “o” or “ie” on the end, as in “barbie” for a barbeque. Reverse nicknames are also used a lot, like calling people with red hair “bluey” or referring to someone with small stature as “lofty.”