Tonga : Ask Biography

General information

Common name

Tonga

Local name

Pule anga Fakatu i o Tonga

Name

Pule anga Fakatu i o Tonga

Motto

Ko e Otua mo Tonga ko hoku tofi a
God and Tonga are my Inheritance

Anthem

Ko e fasi o e tu i o e Otu Tonga
The Song of the King of the Tongan Islands

Capital

Nuku alofa

Largest city

capital

Official languages

Tongan, English

Demonym

Tongan

Government

Government

Unitary parliamentary democracy and Constitutional monarchy

King

George Tupou V

Prime Minister

Sialeʻataongo Tuʻivakanō

Independence

Independence

from British protectorate

June 4, 1970

Geography

Total Area

289 sq mi (748.5 km2) (186th)

Water %

4.0

Demography

Population Est.

104000 (189th)

Density (pop.)

139/km² (76th¹) (360/sq mi)

Economy

GDP PPP

$728 million (2008) (206th)

GDP (PPP) per capita

$7,060 (133rd)

GDP (nominal)

$313 million (2009)

GDP (nominal) per capita

$3,032

Other information

HDI

(+)0.677 (2010) (high) (85th)

Currency

Pa anga (TOP)

Drives on the

left

Internet TLD

.to

Calling code

676

Home | Country | Tonga

Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga (Tongan: Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over 700000 km2 (270271.5 sqmi) of ocean in the South Pacific. Fifty-two of the islands are inhabited.

The Kingdom stretches over a distance of about 800 km (497.1 mi) in a north-south line located at about a third of the distance from New Zealand to Hawaii.

Tonga also became known as the Friendly Islands because of the friendly reception accorded to Captain James Cook on his first visit there in 1773. He happened to arrive at the time of the inasi festival, the yearly donation of the first fruits to the Tu i Tonga, the islands' paramount chief, and received an invitation to the festivities. According to the writer William Mariner, in reality the chiefs had wanted to kill Cook during the gathering, but could not agree on a plan.

Tonga is also the only island nation in the region to have avoided formal colonisation.

In 2010, Tonga took a decisive step towards becoming a fully functioning constitutional monarchy after legislative reforms paved the way for its first ever fully representative elections which resulted in the election of Noble Sialeʻataongo Tuʻivakanō as its first democratically elected Prime Minister.