Profile
Background and figures as recorded in the CIA World Factbook.
Settlers from Papua arrived on the Solomon Islands around 30,000 years ago. About 6,000 years ago, Austronesian settlers came to the islands, and the two groups mixed extensively. Despite significant inter-island trade, no attempts were made to unite the islands into a single political entity. In 1568, a Spanish explorer became the first European to spot the islands. After a failed Spanish attempt at creating a permanent European settlement in the late 1500s, the Solomon Islands remained free of European contact until a British explorer arrived in 1767.
- Capital
- Honiara
- Government
- parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy; a Commonwealth realm
- Population
- 738,774
- Area
- 28,896 sq km
- Location
- Oceania, group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, east of Papua New Guinea
- Climate
- tropical monsoon; few temperature and weather extremes
- Natural resources
- fish; forests; gold; bauxite; phosphates; lead…
- Languages
- Melanesian pidgin (lingua franca in much of the country); English (official but spoken by only 1%-2% of the population); 120 indigenous languages
- Religions
- Protestant 73.4% (Church of Melanesia 31.9%; South Sea Evangelical 17.1%; Seventh Day Adventist 11.7%; United Church 10.1%…
- Independence
- 7 July 1978 (from the UK)
- Administrative divisions
- 9 provinces and 1 city*; Central, Choiseul, Guadalcanal, Honiara*, Isabel, Makira and Ulawa, Malaita, Rennell and Bellon…
- Currency
- Solomon Islands dollars (SBD)
- Export partners
- China 56%; Australia 11%; Italy 10%; Spain 5%…
- Import partners
- China 42%; Singapore 13%; Australia 13%; Taiwan 5%…
Source: CIA World Factbook — a work of the US government, in the public domain