French Polynesia is a set of archipelagos in the Pacific Ocean that lie across over 5 million km2 or the area of Western Europe. The country has five major island groups: Tubai Islands; Tuamotu Archipelago; Society Islands, Gambier Islands and the Marquesas Islands. Within these there are also minor island groups such as the Austral Islands. The main island of French Polynesia is Tahiti in the Society Islands and the capital is Papeete. Of French Polynesia’s 121 islands, 76 have no inhabitants and Tahiti has almost 70% of French Polynesia’s population (Fer and Malogne-Fer 2006). The official languages are French and Polynesian (BBCNews 2008; DFAT 2008a; CIA 2008).
The mainly Polynesian population was estimated at about 283,000 in 2008; median age being almost 29 years and life expectancy 76.5 years. Ethnic Chinese are 12% of the population; local French, 6%; and ‘metropolitan French’, 4% (CIA 2008). Polynesians call themselves Ma’ohi (Fer and Malogne-Fer 2006). The head of state is the French President, but a French High Commissioner resides in the territory. French Polynesia also has an elected President. In 2008 the President of French Polynesia was Gaston Flosse who had had four presidential terms in the previous 25 years (BBC 2008). The main industries are tourism, fishing, pearling, land agriculture and phosphates. French Polynesia also receives considerable aid from France (DFAT 2008b). However the main employer is the public service which is supported by the Centre for Nuclear Experimentation of the Pacific and the Tahiti-Faa’a international airport (Fer and Malogne-Fer 2006).
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