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| Young couple taking a selfie at sunset on Lautoka waterfront. |
As we've just seen yesterday, Fiji itself is a young country politically, having got its independence in 1970, just above half a century old. The projected current population is around 914,000. Fiji has a share of 0.01% of the global population and the population density is about 49 people per sq km. It is not a crowded place! Off season you could walk for large stretches of coastline in complete solitude. A different matter in the tourist season, though.
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| Driftwood on a deserted beach. |
Not just Fiji is young, its population is overwhelmingly so. The median age of the population is about 28 years, and almost 70% of its population is below 40 years of age. Children below 15y make up around 29% of the population, while 65+ age bracket makes up around 5%. Male population share is 51% while female population has a share of 49%. The sex ratio in Fiji is marginally higher than the global average of 50:50.
Most of the population is settled in the cities. Nearly six out of ten people live in urban areas, mostly concentrated in Suva, Nadi and Lautoka. An important town in the smaller Vanua Levu Island is Labasa.
Indigenous Fijians are of Melanesian origins with some Polynesian influences. They comprise the majority of the current population roughly about 62% and Indo-Fijians, the descendants of the indentured Indian labourers are about 34-35%. Other ethnicities - Chinese, Europeans, etc make up the balance 4%.
Total life expectancy at birth is 71.3 years, marginally higher than the global life expectancy. Infant mortality is 18.2 per 1000 live births, lower than the global rate at 26.7/1000. The fertility rate in Fiji has declined from more than 3 in 2000 to 2.8 in 2020 in a span of 20 years.
A youthful demography has its own set of unique advantages (future human capital) and challenges (dependency rate, education, accommodation, upskilling, employment generation, prevention of brain drain).
Fiji's political situation and its unique demographics has led to waves of migration out of the country, especially of Indo Fijians. That diaspora is found in Australia, New Zealand, United States and Canda, to a lesser extent in the UK and European countries. It is estimated that 100,000 Indo Fijians have left Fiji after the upheaval of 1987. Migration of skilled people out of Fiji does pose a serious setback for some sectors of the Fijian economy.
All this month I'll be writing about Aspects of Fiji, which is where the derriere is parked at the mo. And where the sum of the constituent parts is definitely greater than the whole!
Did you know that indigenous Fijians had strong boat building skills? The traditional crafts used by them was a double hulled canoe called drua. The term canoe is a misnomer because druas were not dugouts but regular sailboats made by joining planks of wood together.
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~ Thank you for reading ~
Posted for the A-Z Challenge 2023
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteGood facts and figures! The life expectancy caught my attention. Per the global, I have but six years left to get on with things! (Thankfully, Scotland's avg for women is 80, and OZ is 84, so more promising!) YAM xx
Well, the global average is pulled way down by a few countries in Africa, where the average woman's life expectancy can be as low as 54 years. In this day and age.
DeleteThough a high life expectancy by itself means nothing - in my country the years are increasing but quality of life is diminishing at an alarming rate, so the net net is a total loss rather than a gain.
Interesting. I think yesterday you said great boat building skills but not so much with the sailing skills. But that was long ago.
ReplyDeleteYup, that was the perception of Europeans who met the Fijians in Tonga - first impressions. Nearly 500 years ago. Not sure why anyone should build complicated boats if they can't then use them to move around. And how these folks have survived for thousands of years in the South Pacific without some sailing skills :)
DeleteWow - so interesting!
ReplyDeleteMy A to Z Blogs
DB McNicol - Small Delights, Simple Pleasures, and Significant Memories
My Snap Memories - My Life in Black & White
Glad you enjoyed the entry, thanks.
DeleteCool info about Fiji which seems so exotic. I need to backtrack and read your other posts. It's only early April and I'm behind.
ReplyDeleteI'm behind too, terribly so. I've been travelling so...whole lot of catching up to do. But getting there, slowly...Exotic would have made a great word for E!
DeleteGood post, as always!
ReplyDeleteThanks.
DeleteHi Nila. I'm managing to catch your posts this year. Awesome. That explains why everyone seemed so terribly young when we were in Fiji, LOL. Bit different to the aging populations in many countries currently.
ReplyDeleteHi Denise, that has to be because we are finally in the same time zone! :)
DeleteTo me, Fiji seems entirely populated with students, sportspeople and courting couples haha. Sure it's oversimplifying but you don't usually see too many grandpas/grandmas around.