Vanuatu Country Info - Oceania

Description and Basic Information

Vanuatu with its capital Port Vila is located in Oceania (Oceania, group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean). It covers some 12,201 square kilometres (slightly larger than Connecticut) with 215,000 citizens. Bislama, English and French are the languages commonly used by the people in Vanuatu (consider regional differences).

Vanuatu is an archipelago nation consisting of 83 islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, north of New Zealand and east of Australia. The Vanuatu people are a delight to photograph, friendly, co-operative and photogenic especially the children who are simply gorgeous. Yes, they love to be photographed but please do not offer to pay to photograph local people as this will quickly discourage spontaneity and encourage commercialisation. Always ask before taking photos of local people.

Pictures from Capital (Port Vila)

Photos provided by Panoramio are under the copyright of their owners.

About Vanuatu

The landscape features mostly mountainous islands of volcanic origin and narrow coastal plains. The average density of population is about 17 per km². The climate in Vanuatu can be described as tropical with moderated by southeast trade winds from May to October, moderate rainfall from November to April, may be affected by cyclones from December to April. Potential threats by nature are tropical cyclones or typhoons (January to April) or volcanic eruption on Aoba (Ambae) island began on 27 November 2005, volcanism also causes minor earthquakes or tsunamis.

To reach someone in Vanuatu dial +678 prior to a number. There are 7,200 installed telephones. And there are 126,500 registered mobile phones. The cellular networks operate on frequencies of 900 Mhz. Websites typically end with the top level domain ".vu". If you want to bring electric appliances (e.g. battery charger), keep in mind the local 230V - 50Hz. The following list are the 6 regions/states in Vanuatu we know off.

Demographic Statistics

In the year 2010, the total Ni-Vanuatu population grew at a rate of 1.36% (or by 3,011 citizens). With 1,659 deaths and 4,670 babies born, the natural increase rate lies at 1.36%. 0 persons more in total immigrated to the country than emmigrated.

An overview of age distribution in Vanuatu: Each pair of bars represents a single age group (male/female). Each group is spanning 5 years. E.g. 0 to 5 years, 5 to 10 etc. and group "0 to 5" being at the left end and "100 +" at the right end of the chart.

Based on content from wikitravel.org. The original article can be found here based on the work of these users.
Geographic information is based on the data provided by geonames.org, CIA factsbook and Unesco.