Demographics of New Caledonia

This article is about the demographic features of the population of New Caledonia, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

Historical population

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±%
1950	65,000	—
1960	78,000	+20.0%
1970	105,000	+34.6%
1980	142,000	+35.2%
1990	170,000	+19.7%
2000	212,000	+24.7%
2010	251,000	+18.4%
Source:[1]

Ethnic groups

Ethnic Melanesians known as Kanak constituted 39% of the population in 2014, followed by Europeans with 27%. The Europeans are the largest ethnic group in the province Sud (South), while Kanak are the majority in the two other provinces. There is also a large minority from other Polynesian islands, mainly from Wallis and Futana (8%), but also from Tahiti (2%) and Vanuatu (1%). The remainder of the population (23%) is mainly from Asian countries.[2][3]

Population of New Caledonia according to ethnic group 1963-2019

Ethnic group	census 1963		census 1969		census 1976		census 1983		census 1989		census 1996		census 2009		census 2014		census 2019
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Kanak	41,190	47.6	46,200	45.9	55,598	41.7	61,870	42.6	73,598	44.8	86,788	44.1	99,078	40.3	104,958	39.1
Europeans	33,355	38.6	41,268	41.0	50,757	38.1	53,974	37.1	55,085	33.6	67,151	34.1	71,721	29.2	73,199	27.1
Wallisians and Futunians	11,974	13.8	13,111	13.0	9,571	7.2	12,174	8.4	14,186	8.6	17,763	9.0	21,262	8.7	21,926	8.2
Tahitians					6,391	4.8	5,570	3.8	4,750	2.9	5,871	2.6	4,985	2.0	5,608	2.1
Ni-Vanuatu					1,050	0.8	1,212	0.8	1,683	1.0	2,244	1.1	2,327	0.9	2,568	1.0
Indonesians					5,111	3.8	5,319	3.7	5,191	3.2	5,003	2.5	3,767	1.6	3,859	1.4
Vietnamese					1,943	1.5	2,381	1.6	2,461	1.5	2,822	1.4	2,357	1.0	2,506	0.9
Others					2,812	2.1	2,868	2.0	7,219	4.4	9,894	5.0	39,865	16.2	54,143	20.1
Total	86,519		100,579		133,233		145,368		164,173		196,836		245,580		268,767		271,407

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook.[4]

Age structure

• 0–14 years: 21.74% (male 32,227/female 30,819)
• 15–24 years: 15.63% (male 23,164/female 22,163)
• 25–54 years: 43.73% (male 63,968/female 62,856)
• 55–64 years: 9.06% (male 12,700/female 13,568)
• 65 years and over: 9.84% (male 12,552/female 15,992)

Population

• 290,009

Population growth rate

• 1.25%

Birth rate

• 14.5 births/1,000 population

Death rate

• 5.9 deaths/1,000 population

Net migration rate

• 3.8 migrant(s)/1,000 population

Sex ratio

• At birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
• 0–14 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
• 15–24 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
• 25–54 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
• 55–64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
• 65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female
• Total population: 1 male(s)/female (2020 est.)

Infant mortality rate

• Total: 5 deaths/1,000 live births
• Male: 5.9 deaths/1,000 live births
• Female: 4.1 deaths/1,000 live births

Life expectancy at birth

• Total population: 78.4 years
• Male: 74.4 years
• Female: 82.5 years

Total fertility rate

• 1.88 children born/woman

Nationality

• noun: New Caledonian(s)
• adjective: New Caledonian

Religions

• Roman Catholic 60%
• Protestant 30%
• Other 10%

Ethnic groups

• Kanak 39.1%
• European 27.1%
• Wallisian and Futunian 8.2%
• Tahitian 2.1%
• Indonesian 1.4%
• Ni-Vanuatu 1%
• Vietnamese 0.9%
• Other 17.7%
• Unspecified 2.5%

Languages

• French (official)
• 33 Melanesian-Polynesian dialects

Literacy

• Definition: age 15 and over can read and write
• Total population: 96.9%
• Male: 97.3%
• Female: 96.5%

See also

• New Caledonia
• Europeans in Oceania

References

1. World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision
2. Recensement de la population en Nouvelle-Calédonie en 2014
4. "Australia-Oceania ::NEW CALEDONIA". CIA The World Factbook.