Pre-Trip Information

Fiji's population numbers close to 900,000 in total. More than half of Fiji's population lives on the island coasts, either in Suva, the capital, or in smaller urban centers. The interior regions of the two main islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, are sparsely populated because of their rough terrain.


Cultural Demography

Indigenous Fijians are a mixture of Polynesian and Melanesian, resulting from the original migrations to the South Pacific many centuries ago. Human arrival on the islands dates back approximately 3,500 years. The inhabitants were not just seafarers, but apparently also horticulturists, at the time of earliest settlement. They gradually incorporated a variety of cultural influences from throughout Oceania into their way of life. Indigenous Fijians make up close to 55 percent of the population today.

The arrival of Christian missionaries from Europe added to the cultural and ethnic mix of Fiji. In contemporary times, they make up about five percent of the population.  As well, a substantial population of mixed European and Fijian ancestry is concentrated in the urban centers and near Savusavu on Vanua Levu.

The Indian population grew rapidly from the 60,000 indentured laborers forcibly brought from India by the British between 1879 and 1916 to work on the sugar cane plantations. This was followed by several thousand Gujaratis from Bombay, who migrated voluntarily during the 1920s and 1930s. These migrants formed the core of Fiji's urban shop keeping and business class. Unlike the native Fijians, who live throughout the country, the ethnic Indians reside primarily near the urban centers and in the cane-producing areas of the two main islands. Many have become economically successful in the arena of agricultural production. Today Indo-Fijians make up over 40 percent of the population.

Almost all indigenous Fijians are Christian; 78 percent of them Methodist, reflecting the fact that Methodist missionaries were the first Christian proselytizers on the islands and successfully converted many of the original inhabitants to that faith. Roman Catholics account for about 8.5 percent of the population; nearly half are part European or Chinese. Other Christian denominations in Fiji are Anglican, Seventh-Day Adventist, Presbyterian, Mormon and Christian Brethren. About 80 percent of the ethnic Indians are Hindu, 15 percent Muslim, and the rest mostly Sikh, with a few Christians.

English is the official language of Fiji, however, reflecting the ethnic and cultural mix of the country, Fijian and Hindi are also spoken languages.

According to recent estimates, the population of Fiji has a life expectancy at birth of  70.44 years of age (67.9 years for males and 73.1 years for females), and an infant mortality rate of 11.88 deaths/1,000 live births. In terms of literacy, about 94 percent of the total population, age 15 and over, can read and write.

One notable measure used to determine a country's quality of life is the Human Development Index (HDI), which has been compiled annually since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The HDI is a composite of several indicators, which measure a country's achievements in three main arenas of human development: longevity, knowledge and education, as well as economic standard of living. In a ranking of 169 countries, the HDI placed Fiji in the medium human development category, at 86th place.

Although the concept of human development is complicated and cannot be properly captured by values and indices, the HDI, which is calculated and updated annually, offers a wide-ranging assessment of human development in certain countries, not based solely upon traditional economic and financial indicators.