home | 1945-21st century | country profiles

The Republic of the Fiji Islands

Wealth and National Well-Being

Country Comparisons: chart

World Factbook: "Fiji, endowed with forest, mineral, and fish resources, is one of the most developed of the Pacific island economies though still with a large subsistence sector. Sugar exports, remittances from Fijians working abroad, and a growing tourist industry - with 400,000 to 500,000 tourists annually - are the major sources of foreign exchange."

Economic growth rate
2011: 1.5%
2010: 0.3%
2009: minus 1.3%

Labor force in agriculture
2001: 70%

Export commodities
Sugar, garments, gold, timber, fish, molasses, coconut oil

Export partners
2010: US 15.7%, Australia 14.6%, Japan 6.1%, Samoa 5.7%, Tonga 5%

Export/Import ratio
2011: exports $0.625 billion, imports $1.3 billion

Health expenditures
2009: 9.7% of GDP

People

Living in an urban area
2010: 52%

Net migration rate
2012: A net loss of 7.11 persons per 1,000 population per year

Ethnic groups
2007 census: Fijian 57.3% (predominantly Melanesian with a Polynesian admixture), Indian 37.6%, Rotuman 1.2%, other 3.9% (European, other Pacific Islanders, Chinese). Note: at the turn of the century the indigenous Fijian and ethnic Indians were about equal, but the Indians have been fleeing agitation.

Religions
2007 census: Christian 64.5% (Methodist 34.6%, Roman Catholic 9.1%, Assembly of God 5.7%, Seventh Day Adventist 3.9%, Anglican 0.8%, other 10.4%), Hindu 27.9%, Muslim 6.3%, Sikh 0.3%, other or unspecified 0.3%, none 0.7%

Geography

A group of islands in the South Pacific. East of Australia. Southwest from the Samoan Islands. Equivalent to 135 by 135 kilometers or 84.5 by 84.5 miles.

Government

Chief of state and head of government: Epeli Nailatikau (president) since 30 July 2009, Independent.

President is elected for a five-year term and eligible for a second term.

Bicameral parliament. Members of the lower house are elected to five-year terms.

Capital: Suva

Recent History

October 10, 1970: independence from Britain. Fiji joins the Commonwealth of Nations (formerly known as the British Commonwealth).

1987: Indigenous Fijians overthrow a duly an Indian-dominated coalition government.

Elections in 1999 resulted in a government with a prime minister of Indian descent. A coup in May 2000 overthrew the new government, hurting Fiji's tourist industry and its claim to be a democracy.

Parliamentary elections in August 2001 provided Fiji with a democratically elected government.

In 2006 there was a bloodless military coup.

September 2009: Fiji is suspended from the Commonwealth because of its lack of progress toward democracy.

SOURCES:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/