Demographics of Fiji
Encyclopedia
This article is about the demographic
features of the population
of Fiji
, including population density
, ethnicity
, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
Indigenous Fijians
, the native inhabitants of Fiji
, are a mixture of Polynesian and Melanesian, resulting from the original migrations to the South Pacific many centuries ago. The Indo-Fijian population has grown rapidly from the 61,000 workers brought from India
between 1879 and 1916 to work in the sugarcane
fields, who later on ended up leasing/owning the sugar cane plantations. Thousands more Indians migrated voluntarily in the 1920s and 1930s and formed the core of Fiji's business class.
In 1977 The Economist
reported that ethnic Fijians were a minority of 255,000, in a total population of 600,000 of which fully half were of Indian descent, with the remainder Chinese
, European and of mixed ancestry.
The native Fijians live throughout the country, while the Indo-Fijians reside primarily near the urban centers and in the cane-producing areas of the two main islands. Nearly all of the indigenous Fijians are Christian
, with some two-thirds being Methodist. Some 77 percent of the Indo-Fijians are Hindu
, with a further 16 percent being Muslim
and 6 percent Christian. There are also a few Sikhs
.
A national census
is supposed to be conducted every ten years. The last was held in 1996, but the census intended for 2006 has been postponed till 2007. Finance Minister Ratu Jone Kubuabola
announced on 27 October 2005 that the Cabinet
had decided that it would not be in the country's interest to have a census and a general election
in the same year. "Peoples’ focus on the elections could have an impact on their cooperation with census officials," he said. The Statistics Office supported Kubuabola's announcement, saying that public interest in the general election would likely distract people's attention from the census, making it problematic to conduct.
† Includes atheists
and agnostics
.
Source: Fiji Statistics Department
As of the end of 2006 the LDS church reports 14,448 members in Fiji, which equal about 1.4% of the population. The LDS church also operates a temple in Fiji.
Population:
827,900
Age structure:
0-14 years:
33% (male 141,779; female 136,212)
15-64 years:
63% (male 263,127; female 262,686)
65 years and over:
4% (male 13,405; female 15,285) (2000 est.)
Population growth rate:
1.40% (2006 est.)
Birth rate:
23.48 births/1,000 population (2000 est.)
Death rate:
5.78 deaths/1,000 population (2000 est.)
Net migration rate:
-3.6 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2000 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth:
1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years:
1.04 male(s)/female
15-64 years:
1 male(s)/female
65 years and over:
0.88 male(s)/female
total population:
1.01 male(s)/female (2000 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
14.45 deaths/1,000 live births (2000 estimate)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population:
67.94 years
male:
65.54 years
female:
70.45 years (2000 est.)
Total fertility rate:
2.89 children born/woman (2000 est.) 2.65 children born/woman (2010 est.)
Nationality:
noun:
Fijian(s)
adjective:
Fijian
Ethnic groups:
Indigenous Fijian 57.25% (predominantly Melanesian with a Polynesia
n admixture), Indo-Fijian 37.64%, European, other Pacific Islanders, Chinese in Fiji
, and other 5.11%.
Languages:
English
, Fijian
, and Hindustani
have official status under the 1997 Constitution
.
Literacy:
definition:
age 15 and over can read and write
total population:
91.6%
male:
93.8%
female:
89.3% (1995 est.)
Demographics
Demographics are the most recent statistical characteristics of a population. These types of data are used widely in sociology , public policy, and marketing. Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location...
features of the population
Population
A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...
of Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
, including population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
, ethnicity
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
Indigenous Fijians
Fijian people
Fijian people are the major indigenous people of the Fiji Islands, and live in an area informally called Melanesia. The Fijian people are believed to have arrived in Fiji from western Melanesia approximately 3,500 years ago, though the exact origins of the Fijian people are unknown...
, the native inhabitants of Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
, are a mixture of Polynesian and Melanesian, resulting from the original migrations to the South Pacific many centuries ago. The Indo-Fijian population has grown rapidly from the 61,000 workers brought from India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
between 1879 and 1916 to work in the sugarcane
Sugarcane
Sugarcane refers to any of six to 37 species of tall perennial grasses of the genus Saccharum . Native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South Asia, they have stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sugar, and measure two to six metres tall...
fields, who later on ended up leasing/owning the sugar cane plantations. Thousands more Indians migrated voluntarily in the 1920s and 1930s and formed the core of Fiji's business class.
In 1977 The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
reported that ethnic Fijians were a minority of 255,000, in a total population of 600,000 of which fully half were of Indian descent, with the remainder Chinese
Chinese in Fiji
The Chinese diaspora in Fiji consists a small, but influential, community in the multiracial society that makes up modern day Fiji. In the early 2000s their numbers were estimated at around 6,000, or a little over half of one percent of Fiji's population. The most recent estimation puts the...
, European and of mixed ancestry.
The native Fijians live throughout the country, while the Indo-Fijians reside primarily near the urban centers and in the cane-producing areas of the two main islands. Nearly all of the indigenous Fijians are Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, with some two-thirds being Methodist. Some 77 percent of the Indo-Fijians are Hindu
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
, with a further 16 percent being Muslim
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
and 6 percent Christian. There are also a few Sikhs
Sikhism
Sikhism is a monotheistic religion founded during the 15th century in the Punjab region, by Guru Nanak Dev and continued to progress with ten successive Sikh Gurus . It is the fifth-largest organized religion in the world and one of the fastest-growing...
.
A national census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
is supposed to be conducted every ten years. The last was held in 1996, but the census intended for 2006 has been postponed till 2007. Finance Minister Ratu Jone Kubuabola
Jone Kubuabola
Ratu Jone Yavala Kubuabola was Fiji's Minister for Finance, a position he held starting in 2000. He also represented the South West Urban Fijian Communal constituencies in the House of Representatives, to which he was elected as a candidate of the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua in...
announced on 27 October 2005 that the Cabinet
Cabinet (Fiji)
Fiji has the Westminster system - executive authority is vested nominally in a President, but exercised in practice by a Cabinet of Ministers, presided over by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is formally appointed, but not chosen, by the President: the President must appoint as Prime...
had decided that it would not be in the country's interest to have a census and a general election
Fiji election of 2006
The Constitution of Fiji requires general elections for the House of Representatives to be held at least once every five years. The latest election was held on 6-13 May 2006. Acting President Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi issued a proclamation on 2 March, effective from 27 March, dissolving Parliament...
in the same year. "Peoples’ focus on the elections could have an impact on their cooperation with census officials," he said. The Statistics Office supported Kubuabola's announcement, saying that public interest in the general election would likely distract people's attention from the census, making it problematic to conduct.
Religions (1996 census)
| Religion | Indigenous Fijian | Indo-Fijian | Others | TOTAL | ||||
| 393,575 | % | 338,818 | % | 42,684 | % | 775,077 | % | |
| Methodist Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma The Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma is the largest Christian denomination in Fiji, with 36.2 percent of the total population at the 1996 census... |
261,972 | 66.6 | 5,432 | 1.6 | 13,224 | 31.0 | 280,628 | 36.2 |
| Roman Catholic Roman Catholic Church in Fiji The Roman Catholic Church in Fiji is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and curia in Rome.-Demographics and organization:... |
52,163 | 13.3 | 3,520 | 1.0 | 13,637 | 31.9 | 69,320 | 8.9 |
| Assemblies of God Assemblies of God The Assemblies of God , officially the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, is a group of over 140 autonomous but loosely-associated national groupings of churches which together form the world's largest Pentecostal denomination... |
24,717 | 6.2 | 4,620 | 1.4 | 1,735 | 4.1 | 31,072 | 4.0 |
| Seventh-day Adventist Seventh-day Adventist Church The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ... |
19,896 | 5.1 | 572 | 0.2 | 1,719 | 4.0 | 22,187 | 2.9 |
| Anglican Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is an international association of national and regional Anglican churches in full communion with the Church of England and specifically with its principal primate, the Archbishop of Canterbury... |
2,508 | 0.6 | 1,208 | 0.4 | 2,609 | 6.2 | 6,325 | 0.8 |
| Jehovah's Witness | 4,815 | 1.2 | 486 | 0.1 | 801 | 1.9 | 6,102 | 0.8 |
| CMF (Every Home) | 5,149 | 1.3 | 269 | 0.1 | 255 | 0.6 | 5,673 | 0.7 |
| Latter Day Saints | 2,253 | 0.6 | 633 | 0.2 | 589 | 1.4 | 3,475 | 0.4 |
| Apostolic | 2,237 | 0.6 | 250 | 0.1 | 106 | 0.2 | 2,593 | 0.3 |
| Gospel | 618 | 0.2 | 514 | 0.2 | 222 | 0.5 | 1,354 | 0.2 |
| Baptist Baptist Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion... |
695 | 0.2 | 382 | 0.1 | 219 | 0.5 | 1,296 | 0.2 |
| Salvation Army Salvation Army The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries.... |
628 | 0.2 | 251 | 0.1 | 110 | 0.3 | 989 | 0.1 |
| Presbyterian | 105 | 0.0 | 90 | 0.0 | 188 | 0.4 | 383 | 0.0 |
| Other Christian | 12,624 | 3.2 | 2,492 | 0.7 | 2,969 | 7.0 | 18,085 | 2.3 |
| All Christians Christianity Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings... |
390,380 | 99.2 | 20,719 | 6.1 | 38,383 | 89.9 | 449,482 | 58.0 |
| Sanatan | 551 | 0.1 | 193,061 | 57.0 | 315 | 0.7 | 193,927 | 25.0 |
| Arya Samaj Arya Samaj Arya Samaj is a Hindu reform movement founded by Swami Dayananda on 10 April 1875. He was a sannyasi who believed in the infallible authority of the Vedas. Dayananda emphasized the ideals of brahmacharya... |
44 | 0.0 | 9,493 | 2.8 | 27 | 0.1 | 9,564 | 1.2 |
| Kabir Panthi | 43 | 0.0 | 73 | 0.0 | 2 | 0.0 | 118 | 0.0 |
| Satya Sai Baba | 7 | 0.0 | 52 | 0.0 | 1 | 0.0 | 60 | 0.0 |
| Other Hindu | 219 | 0.1 | 57,096 | 16.9 | 113 | 0.3 | 57,428 | 7.4 |
| All Hindus Hinduism Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions... |
864 | 0.2 | 259,775 | 76.7 | 458 | 1.1 | 261,097 | 33.7 |
| Sunni Islam | 175 | 0.0 | 32,082 | 9.5 | 94 | 0.2 | 32,351 | 4.2 |
| Ahmadiya | 18 | 0.0 | 1,944 | 0.6 | 14 | 0.0 | 1,976 | 0.3 |
| Other Muslim | 131 | 0.0 | 19,727 | 5.8 | 138 | 0.3 | 19,996 | 2.6 |
| All Muslims Islam Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~... |
324 | 0.1 | 53,753 | 15.9 | 246 | 0.6 | 54,323 | 7.0 |
| Sikh Sikh A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"... |
0 | 0.0 | 3,076 | 0.9 | 0 | 0.0 | 3,076 | 0.4 |
| Bahá'í Bahá'í Faith The Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in 19th-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are an estimated five to six million Bahá'ís around the world in more than 200 countries and territories.... |
389 | 0.1 | 25 | 0.0 | 149 | 0.3 | 563 | 0.1 |
| Confucianism Confucianism Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han... |
8 | 0.0 | 21 | 0.0 | 336 | 0.8 | 365 | 0.0 |
| Other religions Religion Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to... |
61 | 0.0 | 314 | 0.1 | 664 | 1.6 | 1,039 | 0.1 |
| No religion† | 1549 | 0.4 | 1,135 | 0.3 | 2,448 | 5.7 | 5,132 | 0.7 |
† Includes atheists
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
and agnostics
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....
.
Source: Fiji Statistics Department
As of the end of 2006 the LDS church reports 14,448 members in Fiji, which equal about 1.4% of the population. The LDS church also operates a temple in Fiji.
CIA World Factbook demographic statistics
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.Population:
827,900
Age structure:
0-14 years:
33% (male 141,779; female 136,212)
15-64 years:
63% (male 263,127; female 262,686)
65 years and over:
4% (male 13,405; female 15,285) (2000 est.)
Population growth rate:
1.40% (2006 est.)
Birth rate:
23.48 births/1,000 population (2000 est.)
Death rate:
5.78 deaths/1,000 population (2000 est.)
Net migration rate:
-3.6 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2000 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth:
1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years:
1.04 male(s)/female
15-64 years:
1 male(s)/female
65 years and over:
0.88 male(s)/female
total population:
1.01 male(s)/female (2000 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
14.45 deaths/1,000 live births (2000 estimate)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population:
67.94 years
male:
65.54 years
female:
70.45 years (2000 est.)
Total fertility rate:
2.89 children born/woman (2000 est.) 2.65 children born/woman (2010 est.)
Nationality:
noun:
Fijian(s)
adjective:
Fijian
Ethnic groups:
Indigenous Fijian 57.25% (predominantly Melanesian with a Polynesia
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...
n admixture), Indo-Fijian 37.64%, European, other Pacific Islanders, Chinese in Fiji
Chinese in Fiji
The Chinese diaspora in Fiji consists a small, but influential, community in the multiracial society that makes up modern day Fiji. In the early 2000s their numbers were estimated at around 6,000, or a little over half of one percent of Fiji's population. The most recent estimation puts the...
, and other 5.11%.
Languages:
English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Fijian
Fijian language
Fijian is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family spoken in Fiji. It has 450,000 first-language speakers, which is less than half the population of Fiji, but another 200,000 speak it as a second language...
, and Hindustani
Hindustani language
Hindi-Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language and the lingua franca of North India and Pakistan. It is also known as Hindustani , and historically, as Hindavi or Rekhta...
have official status under the 1997 Constitution
Constitution of Fiji
The 1997 Constitution of Fiji was the supreme law of Fiji from its adoption in 1997 until 2009 when President Josefa Iloilo purported to abrogate it. It was also suspended for a period following the 2000 coup d'état led by Commodore Frank Bainimarama....
.
Literacy:
definition:
age 15 and over can read and write
total population:
91.6%
male:
93.8%
female:
89.3% (1995 est.)