Fiji Facts

Fiji is an archipelago made up of over 300 islands, only 110 of which are permanently inhabited. The islands are formed of volcanic rock and the centre of the islands are mountainous and relatively uninhabited. It has a total land area of 18,376km, the two largest islands are Viti Levu and Vanua Levu whose inhabitants make up 87% of 83,125 population. Being a tropical island they are subject to typhoons during the wet season (Nov-April), they also experience frequent earth quakes.

Majority of the population are between the ages of 15 and 64 years old, over all the median age is 26.9, with the life expectancy around 70 years. Most of the population is fairly well educated, on average, people have formal schooling for 13 years and 97.3% of the population over 15 are literate. English and Fijian are the official languages, Hindustani is also spoken but is not an official language. 25.5% of the population lives below the poverty line. Religion: 62.5% Christian, 27.9% Hindu, 6.3% Muslim, 0.3% Sikh, 0.3% none, 0.7% none.

The GDP are 8.9% agriculture, 13.5% industry and 17.6% services however 70% of the labour force works in agriculture and 30% in services and industry. The main industries are tourism, sugar, clothing, gold, silver and lumber. Each year 400 000 - 500 000 tourists visit annually, there are large numbers of resorts and one of the main attractions is snorkeling. Unemployment rate is 7.6% and the external debt is $127 million.

Interesting Fact: there are 4 airpots with paved runways and 24 airports with unpaved runways in Fiji.