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Tahiti and 117 other islands and atolls. South of Hawaii. Parallel to and east of Australia, half way to South America. Together the islands and atolls are equivalent to 64 by 64 kilometers. Tahiti is equivalent to 32.3 by 32.3 kilometers 33 kilometers or 20 by 20 miles, with a mountain 2,241 meters or 7,352 feet high. The capital of French Polynesia is Papeete (pah pi ā tā).
The temperature varies year-round between 28 and 30 degrees Celsius - 82.4 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit.
Rain in January is at a high of around 330 millimeters for the month. In August it is down to around 40 millimeters. (In Tokyo the average rainfall is 130 mm per month. The average for New York City is 90 mm per month.)
Formal name: Territory of French Polynesia
Officially, colonial status for the islands ended in 1946. A new constitution was established that year. The islanders became French citizens, electing representatives to an assembly in the islands and sending representatives to parliament at Paris. France in 1957 changed the status of the islands to that of overseas territory. A desire for independence remained, and the French arrested independence leader Pouvanaa a Oopa. An international airport opened on the island of Tahiti in 1961, greatly increasing tourism and adding to what begins to be a change from an economy predominately of subsistence agriculture.
In 1966 the French built a nuclear test center on the atoll of Mururoa,1,200 kilometers southeast from the island of Tahiti. Testing was moved underground in 1975, on Fangataufa, forty kilometers to the south. In 1977 and again in 1984 the French granted more control over economic matters to the islanders. In 1995, France's president, Jacques Chirac, announced that new underground testing of nuclear weapons. Riots occurred in the capital, Papeete, on Tahiti, with hundreds of cars overturned and buildings set on fire.
France has promised the islanders there will be no more nuclear testing.
The President of France is represented in the islands by a High Commissioner appointed in France.
The islands have a unicameral assembly with members elected by popular vote to five-year terms. A parliamentary island government is formed, led by the President of the Territorial Government of French Polynesia.
The islands have at least six political parties, dominated by two, the "People's Rally for the Republic" and the "Union for Democracy."
Figures unless otherwise stated are from the CIA Factbook.
Estimated per capita GDP:
2003 $17,500
2002 $17,500
Labor in agriculture: 13 percent (2002).
Factbook: "Tourism accounts for about one-fourth of GDP and is a primary source of hard currency earnings. Other sources of income are pearl farming and deep-sea commercial fishing. The small manufacturing sector primarily processes agricultural products."
Around 200,000 tourists come and go every year - about 2.5 times the number that go to Samoa, and 4.4 percent of the 4.5 million or so that go to the Hawaiian Islands (2004).
Deaths 4.67. Births 16.16, down from 16.93 in 2005.
2008: 283,019 up from 270,485 in 2005. Growth rate estimated for 2008: 1.425 percent per year.
Roughly 30 percent of the people on Tahiti live in the northwest urban area, around Papeete. The population density is described as 58 persons per square kilometer, compared to 15 for New Zealand. (The island of Oahu, which includes Honolulu, has 567 persons per square kilometer ).
More arriving than leaviing. A net gain of 2.77 persons per 1,000 population, down from 2.8 in 2005.
Infant mortality for 2008: 7.7, down from 8.44 in 2005 (deaths before the age of one year per 1,000 live births.)
Average life expectancy estimated for 2008: 76:51, up from 75.9 in 2005.
HIV/AIDS: as of December 2001, 77 deaths. As of November 2003, 229 reported cases of HIV (0.09 percent of a population of 250,000). Source: HIV/AIDS Statistics for Pacific Islands Countries and Territories.
Someone has made a count that concludes that about 16.8 percent of the population is a mixture of Polynesian-Caucasian and 1.3 percent a mixture of Polynesian-Chinese. According to the CIA Factbook Chinese are 12 percent of the population, local French 6 percent, the French from France 4 percent and Polynesians 78 percent.
The capital of French Polynesia, Papeete is a city of around 80,000, with traffic congestion, noise, with many poorly fed dogs wandering around. Tourist women there should be on guard against having their purses snatched - perhaps by a couple of young people zooming by on a motor scooter, as described on the internet by one unhappy tourist. As elsewhere, the good people far outnumber the bad, and one tourist describes Papeete as a town having "culture with flair."
Arriving at the airport one might find what one tourist describes as "rude French security people."
Protestants are 54 percent, Roman Catholic 30 percent, and 6 percent claim no religion.
In 2002, 12,500 were users of the internet, around 5 percent of the population, compared to 48 percent for Australia.
SOURCES:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/
Copyright © 2008 by Frank E. Smitha. All rights reserved.