Modern Pacific Island Populations & Territories

The broadest definition of the Pacific Islands encompasses those twenty–three island states and territories of the Pacific Ocean, including Micronesia (mostly north of the equator) and Papua New Guinea, but excluding the European populations of Hawaii (Hawai‘i) and New Zealand (Aotearoa). West Papua, or Irian Jaya, has a substantial Melanesian number of people, but population figures for the indigenous inhabitants are not available on that province of Indonesia, which was seized in 1960 and in which there is a lively resistance movement.

The eight "Pacific Island Countries" or "PICs" are nominally independent, and they comprise some of the larger states in area and population, excluding the special case of Papua New Guinea. Others in this category are Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

These 23 states and territories demonstrate a wide spectrum of political status, from Rapanui (Easter Island), which is an integral part of the Chilean state, to independent states. Along the way, there are special statutes for the French territories which provide them with a kind of home rule, to the situation of the Cook Islands and Niue, whose citizens carry New Zealand passports, but who have elected assemblies for internal and, occasionally, foreign affairs.

Micronesia, except for Kiribati and Nauru, is within the sphere of influence of the United States of America and persons there have open access to their metropolitan power, though their political status exhibits considerable variation, from the total dependency of Guam (a possession) to the status of "Autonomous Self-Governing" countries. Citizens of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, for example, are citizens of the USA.

Table 1 • South Pacific Populations, Areas & Densities

Country, State or Territory	Population in 1996	Land Area (km2)	EEZ (000s km2)	Population Density (land)
American Samoa	58,900	200	390	234
Cook Islands	19,900	237	1,830	79
Easter Island (Rapanui)a	2,500	166		15
Federated States of Micronesia	109,200	701	2,978	149
Fiji	800,500	18,272	1,290	39
French Polynesia	220,000	3,521	5,030	54
Guam	153,700	541	218	246
Kiribati	78,400	811	3,550	89
Marshall Islands	57,400	181	2,131	240
Nauru	11,200	21	320	472
New Caledonia (Kanaky)	196,800	19,103	1,740	9
Niue	2,300	259	390	9
Northern Mariana Islands	62,700	471	1,823	92
Palau (Belau)	17,700	488	629	31
Papua New Guinea	4,141,800	462,243	3,120	8
Pitcairn	47	5	800	11
Samoa (formerly "Western Samoa")	165,100	2,935	120	55
Solomon Islands	395,200	28,530	1,340	10
Tokelau	1,500	10	290	158
Tonga	90,000	747	700	127
Tuvalu	9,600	26	900	348
Vanuatu	173,900	12,190	680	12
Wallis & Futuna	14,800	255	300	54
South Pacific	6,783,147	551,913	30,569	12
South Pacific Excluding Papua New Guinea	2,641,347	89,670	27,443	28

Sources:

North and South Pacific Ocean and Rim Sketch Map