Vanuatu
Vanuatu (English: /ˌvɑːnuˈɑːtuː/ ⓘ VAH-noo-AH-too or /vænˈwɑːtuː/ van-WAH-too; Bislama and French pronunciation [vanuatu]), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (French: République de Vanuatu; Bislama: Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country in Melanesia, located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is 1,750 km (1,090 mi) east of northern Australia, 540 km (340 mi) northeast of New Caledonia, east of New Guinea, southeast of Solomon Islands, and west of Fiji.
Republic of Vanuatu
- 98.5% Ni-Vanuatu
- 1.5% others
- 93.4% Christianity
- 75.1% Protestantism
- 13.5% Catholicism
- 4.8% other Christian
- 93.4% Christianity
- 4.6% Animism
- 1.4% Baha'i faith
- 0.6% other / none
Ni-Vanuatu (or rarely: Vanuatuan)
30 July 1980
15 September 1981
12,189 km2 (4,706 sq mi) (157th)
300,019[5]
27.6/km2 (71.5/sq mi) (188th)
2023 estimate
$1.064 billion[6]
$3,001[6]
2023 estimate
$1.002 billion[6]
$3,188[6]
37.6[7]
medium
UTC+11 (VUT (Vanuatu Time))
right
Vanuatu was first inhabited by Melanesian people. The first Europeans to visit the islands were a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Fernandes de Queirós, who arrived on the largest island, Espíritu Santo, in 1606. Queirós claimed the archipelago for Spain, as part of the colonial Spanish East Indies and named it La Austrialia del Espíritu Santo.
In the 1880s, France and the United Kingdom claimed parts of the archipelago, and in 1906, they agreed on a framework for jointly managing the archipelago as the New Hebrides through an Anglo-French condominium.
An independence movement arose in the 1970s, and the Republic of Vanuatu was founded in 1980. Since independence, the country has become a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, and the Pacific Islands Forum.
Education[edit]
The estimated literacy rate of people aged 15–24 years is about 74% according to UNESCO figures.[190] The rate of primary school enrolment rose from 74.5% in 1989 to 78.2% in 1999 and then to 93.0% in 2004 but then fell to 85.4% in 2007. The proportion of pupils completing a primary education fell from 90% in 1991 to 72% in 2004[191] and up to 78% in 2012.
Port Vila and three other centres have campuses of the University of the South Pacific, an educational institution co-owned by twelve Pacific countries. The campus in Port Vila, known as the Emalus Campus, houses the university's law school.
