Reefs at Risk Revisited: Australia

This WRI fact sheet provides a regional analysis of coral reefs in Australia, detailing their scale, the low impact of local human threats compared to the severe projected impacts of climate change, and the extent of marine protected areas.

• Australia possesses the largest area of coral reefs of any single nation, totaling approximately 42,000 sq km, which represents 17 percent of the global total. The majority of these reefs are part of the Great Barrier Reef, which covers nearly 37,000 sq km and extends over 2,300 km in length.
• Australia has the lowest coastal population density of any region studied, with roughly 3.5 million people living on the coast within 30 km of a coral reef. Consequently, the region's reefs are the least affected by local threats, with only 15 percent affected and only 2 percent facing high or very high threat.
• While local threats are low, climate-related stressors are severe. Incorporating thermal stress increases the number of threatened reefs to over 40 percent. Projections indicate that combined local and climate change impacts will raise overall threat levels to nearly 90 percent by 2030, with 40 percent rated at high threat, and over 95 percent of Australian reefs rated as threatened by 2050.
• Approximately 75 percent of Australia's reefs are located within Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). This includes the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which contains 30,000 sq km of reef. A 2004 re-zoning of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park increased strictly protected areas from 4 percent to 33 percent, which has positively influenced fish communities and ecological resilience.

APA

World Resources Institute (2011). Reefs at Risk Revisited: Australia. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/factsheet_reefs_australia.pdf

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Reefs at Risk Revisited: Australia. 2011. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/factsheet_reefs_australia.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Reefs at Risk Revisited: Australia |date=February 2011 |url=https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/factsheet_reefs_australia.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitute2011reefs, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Reefs at Risk Revisited: Australia}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2011}, month = feb, url = {https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/factsheet_reefs_australia.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }