ACOG - Western Samoa  - IBM

Geography

Location: Oceania, group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, about one-half of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand

Area:
total area: 2,860 sq km
land area: 2,850 sq km
comparative area: slightly smaller than Rhode Island

Land boundaries: 0 km

Coastline: 403 km


People

Population: 209,360 (July 1995 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 40% (female 41,503; male 42,844)
15-64 years: 56% (female 55,683; male 61,065)
65 years and over: 4% (female 4,323; male 3,942)

Population growth rate: 2.37% (1995 est.)

Birth rate: 31.74 births/1,000 population

Death rate: 5.88 deaths/1,000 population

Net migration rate: -2.14 migrant(s)/1,000 population

Infant mortality rate: 35.5 deaths/1,000 live births

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 68.38 years
male: 65.99 years
female: 70.88 years

Total fertility rate: 4.04 children born/woman

Ethnic divisions: Samoan 92.6%, Euronesians 7% (persons of European and Polynesian blood), Europeans 0.4%

Religions: Christian 99.7% (about one-half of population associated with the London Missionary Society; includes Congregational, Roman Catholic, Methodist, Latter Day Saints, Seventh-Day Adventist)

Languages: Samoan (Polynesian), English

Literacy: age 15 and over can read and write (1971)
total population: 97%
male: 97%
female: 97%


Government

Names:
conventional long form: Independent State of Western Samoa
conventional short form: Western Samoa

Type: constitutional monarchy under native chief

Capital: Apia

Independence: 1 January 1962 (from UN trusteeship administered by New Zealand)

Constitution: 1 January 1962


Economy

National product: GDP - purchasing power parity - $400 million

National product real growth rate: -4.3%

National product per capita: $2,000

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 14%

Unemployment rate:

Electricity:
capacity: 29,000 kW
production: 50 million kWh
consumption per capita: 200 kWh



Olympic Factoid
More tickets were sold to the competitions of the 1996 Games than to any other Olympic Games or sports event in history. The 8.6 million ticket sales figures topped sales to the Los Angeles and Barcelona Games combined.