Tonga
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This article is about the Kingdom of Tonga. For other uses, see Tonga (disambiguation).
| Kingdom of Tonga
Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga
| ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||
| Motto: "Ko e ʻOtua mo Tonga ko hoku tofiʻa" "God and Tonga are my Inheritance" | ||||||
| Anthem: Ko e fasi ʻo e tuʻi ʻo e ʻOtu Tonga The Song of the King of the Tongan Islands | ||||||
.svg) | ||||||
| Capital and largest city | Nukuʻalofa 21°08′S 175°12′W | |||||
| Official languages | ||||||
| Demonym | Tongan | |||||
| Government | Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy | |||||
| • | Monarch | Tupou VI | ||||
| • | Prime Minister | ʻAkilisi Pohiva | ||||
| Legislature | Legislative Assembly | |||||
| Independence | ||||||
| • | from British protection | 4 June 1970 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| • | Total | 748 km2 (186th) 289 sq mi | ||||
| • | Water (%) | 4.0 | ||||
| Population | ||||||
| • | 2011 census | 103,036[1] | ||||
| • | Density | 139/km2 (76tha) 360/sq mi | ||||
| GDP (PPP) | 2011 estimate | |||||
| • | Total | $763 million[2] | ||||
| • | Per capita | $7,344[2] | ||||
| GDP (nominal) | 2011 estimate | |||||
| • | Total | $439 million[2] | ||||
| • | Per capita | $4,220[2] | ||||
| HDI (2014) |  0.717[3]high · 100th | |||||
| Currency | Paʻanga (TOP) | |||||
| Time zone | (UTC+13) | |||||
| DST not observed | ||||||
| Drives on the | left | |||||
| Calling code | +676 | |||||
| ISO 3166 code | TO | |||||
| Internet TLD | .to | |||||
| a. | Based on 2005 figures. | |||||
Tonga ([ˈtoŋa]; Tongan: Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is a Polynesian sovereign state and archipelago comprising 169 islands of which 36 are inhabited.[4] The total surface area is about 750 square kilometres (290 sq mi) scattered over 700,000 square kilometres (270,000 sq mi) of the southern Pacific Ocean. It has a population 103,000 people[5] of whom 70% reside on the main island ofTongatapu.
Tonga stretches over about 800 kilometres (500 mi) in a north-south line – about a third of the distance from New Zealand to Hawaii. It is surrounded by Fiji and Wallis and Futuna (France) to the northwest, Samoa to the northeast, Niue to the east, Kermadec (part of New Zealand) to the southwest, and New Caledonia (France) and Vanuatu to the farther west.
Tonga became known as the Friendly Islands because of the congenial reception accorded to Captain James Cook on his first visit in 1773. He arrived at the time of the ʻinasi festival, the yearly donation of the First Fruits to the Tuʻi Tonga (the islands' paramount chief) and so received an invitation to the festivities. According to the writer William Mariner, the chiefs wanted to kill Cook during the gathering but could not agree on a plan.[6]
Tonga became fully independent from Britain in May 1970, but had never relinquished its sovereignty to any foreign power.[7] In 2010, Tonga took a decisive step towards becoming a fully functioning constitutional monarchy, after legislative reforms paved the way for its first partial representative elections.
Contents
[hide]- 1Etymology
- 2History
- 3Politics
- 4Geography
- 5Economy
- 6Demographics
- 7Culture
- 8See also
- 9References
- 10Further reading
- 11External links
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