In which country is the Great Barrier Reef located?

In which country is the Great Barrier Reef located? The answer is Australia.

The Great Barrier Reef lies in the Coral Sea off Queensland’s northeastern coast. It is not a single reef but a vast system containing more than 2,900 individual reefs and about 900 islands, extending for roughly 2,300 kilometres.

Billions of tiny coral polyps build the reef’s limestone framework. The modern reef began developing on older platforms after sea levels rose following the last ice age, with much of its present structure forming over the past 6,000–8,000 years.

A common mix-up is to associate the reef with nearby Pacific island nations such as Fiji or the Philippines. Those countries have important coral reefs, but the Great Barrier Reef is distinctly Australian. Much of it is protected within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, and UNESCO added the area to its World Heritage List in 1981.