UV Index Australia & Oceania
UV index for cities in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific. The southern hemisphere ozone layer is thinner — UV can be extreme even on mild days.
Australia & Oceania UV summary
UV radiation overview
Australia and New Zealand record the world's highest skin cancer rates, a direct consequence of intense ambient UV combined with a largely fair-skinned population of European descent. About two in three Australians will be diagnosed with some form of skin cancer in their lifetime, and the country sees more than 750,000 new cases and over 2,000 deaths from skin cancer each year. These figures make Oceania the world's most striking case of a UV-driven public health burden.
Two physical factors push Southern Hemisphere UV above its Northern equivalent. Earth reaches perihelion — its closest approach to the sun — in early January, during the Southern summer, increasing top-of-atmosphere solar irradiance compared with Northern summer. Stratospheric ozone over the high southern latitudes is also reduced by the Antarctic ozone hole each spring. New Zealand's UV index regularly exceeds 13, around 40% higher than at comparable latitudes in North America, and a long-term study in Punta Arenas at the southern tip of Chile recorded a 56% rise in melanoma cases over seven years alongside reduced ozone and increased UVB.
Australia pioneered modern UV public-health messaging. The "Slip, Slop, Slap" campaign launched in 1981, and the SunSmart program followed in 1987, later updated to "Slip, Slop, Slap, Seek, Slide" to add seeking shade and sliding on sunglasses. Melanoma mortality in Australia has been steadily declining from 1990 onward.
