Profile
Background and figures as recorded in the CIA World Factbook.
Polynesians from Tahiti were probably the first people to settle Rarotonga -- the largest of the Cook Islands -- around A.D. 900. Over time, Samoans and Tongans also settled in Rarotonga, and Rarotongans voyaged to the northern Cook Islands, settling Manihiki and Rakahanga. Pukapuka and Penrhyn in the northern Cook Islands were settled directly from Samoa. Prior to European contact, there was considerable travel and trade between inhabitants of the different islands and atolls, but they were not united in a single political entity.
- Capital
- Avarua
- Government
- parliamentary democracy
- Population
- 7,592
- Area
- 236 sq km
- Location
- Oceania, group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand
- Climate
- tropical oceanic; moderated by trade winds; a dry season from April to November and a more humid season from December to March
- Natural resources
- coconuts (copra)
- Languages
- English (official) 86.4%; Cook Islands Maori (Rarotongan) (official) 76.2%; other 8.3%
- Religions
- Protestant 55% (Cook Islands Christian Church 43.1%; Seventh Day Adventist 8.3%; Assemblies of God 3.6%); Roman Catholic 16.7%…
- Independence
- 4 August 1965 (Cook Islands became self-governing state in free association with New Zeala…
- Currency
- New Zealand dollars (NZD)
- Export partners
- Japan 33%; Thailand 15%; Greece 15%; France 11%…
- Import partners
- NZ 44%; Italy 26%; Fiji 9%; China 7%…
Source: CIA World Factbook — a work of the US government, in the public domain