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Tonga (/ ˈ t ɒ ŋ ə / TONG-ə, / ˈ t ɒ ŋ ɡ ə / ⓘ TONG-gə; [a] Tongan:), officially the Kingdom of Tonga (Tongan: Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. [1]
In the 1930s, Tonga had a population of about 32,000. Starting in the 1970s large scale migration began to Australia and New Zealand. By the 1970s the emigration rate from Tonga to Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Canada, France and the United States was over 2% annually. [2] The country has over 100,000 residents.
Almost two-thirds of the population live on its main island, Tongatapu. Although an increasing number of Tongans have moved into the only urban and commercial center, Nukuʻalofa , where European and Indigenous cultural and living patterns have blended, village life and kinship ties continue to be important throughout the country.
Tongatapu is the main island of Tonga and the site of its capital, Nukuʻalofa.It is located in Tonga's southern island group, to which it gives its name, and is the country's most populous island, with 74,611 residents (2016), 70.5% of the national population, on 260 square kilometres (100 square miles).
Previously, attempts were made to temporarily exile young offenders to Tau, a small island offshore Tongatapu but this was later abandoned. In the 1990s Chinese immigration caused resentment among the native Tongan population (especially those from Hong Kong , who purchased Tongan passports to escape the Beijing takeover).
Martin J, An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands, in the south pacific ocean. with an original grammar and vocabulary of their language. Compiled and arranged from the extensive communication of Mr William Mariner, several years resident in those islands, 1817
There are approximately 57,000 Tongan Americans living in the United States, as of 2012. [2] Tongans are considered to be Pacific Islanders in the United States census , and are the country's fourth largest Pacific Islander American group in terms of population, after Native Hawaiians , Samoan Americans , and Guamanian/Chamorro Americans .
Tonga is a sovereign island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. [1] Tonga comprises the Tonga Archipelago of 169 islands, 36 of them inhabited, stretching over a distance of about 800 kilometres (500 mi) in a north–south line.