Solomon Islands Population, Main Cities and Geography

By | January 27, 2023

Solomon Islands: Population and Cities

Population

According to Countryaah website, the Solomon Islands have about 550,000 residents.

Ethnic groups

Melanesians 93%, Polynesians 4%, Micronesians 1.5%, Europeans 0.8%, Chinese 0.3%, others 0.4%

Albinos

Albinism is particularly widespread in some regions of the Solomon Islands. These are Santa Cruz, the Reef Islands, and the Duff Islands. For the albinos, everyday life is quite difficult under the climatic conditions.

Their life expectancy is therefore relatively low. They seldom find a partner because few want to risk passing the disease on to their children.

Religions

The main religion is Christianity with roughly the following groups:

Anglicans 45%, Catholics 18%, United Methodists and Presbyterians 12%, Baptists 9%, Seventh-Day Adventists 7%, Protestants 5% and native faiths 4%.

Languages

The official language is English, which surprisingly is only spoken by 1-2% of the population.

In contrast, Pidgin-English and Tok-Pidgin, which belong to the so-called contact languages, are the most widely used languages. There are a total of 120 native languages. The Solomon Islands, like the neighboring state of Vanuatu, belong to a region with the highest density of different languages.

Due to the various migratory movements from Southeast Asia, Papua New Guinea, Taiwan and other countries as well as the remoteness within and between the islands, this unique language diversity was able to develop and maintain it to this day.

Capital, other cities

The capital of the Solomon Islands is Honiara, located on the island of Guadalcanal, with a population of around 75,000. According to Abbreviation Finder, SLB stands for Solomon Islands in English. Click to see other meanings of this 3-letter acronym.

Other cities are:

Auki, the capital of the Malaita Province, with around 4,000 residents

Gizo, the capital of the Western Province, it is located on the small island of Ghizo and has around 6,000 residents.

Solomon Islands: Geography and Map

The state of the Solomon Islands covers a total area of 1.35 million km² – including its water areas – of which about 28,370 km² are land. Of this area, 22,000 km² are covered with forest. Check topmbadirectory for politics, flags, famous people, animals and plants of Solomon Islands.

About 345 of the 999 islands are inhabited. The largest island is Guadalcanal with the capital Honiara with an area of 5,336 km². The island was the site of heavy and bloody fighting between US and Japanese forces during World War II.

Other large islands are:

  • Malaita, with the island’s capital Auki and an area of 4,243 km²
  • Renell and Bellona, with the island’s capital Tingoa and an area of 276 km²
  • Central, with the island’s capital Tulagi and an area of 1,000 km²
  • Western, with the island’s capital Gizo and an area of 5,279 km²
  • Choiseul, with the island capital Taro and an area of 3,294 km²
  • Santa Isabel, with the island’s capital Buala and an area of 4,014 km²
  • Makira, with the island’s capital Kirakira and an area of 3,188 km²
  • Temotu, with the island’s capital Lata and an area of 926 km²

Artificial Islands

In addition, there are a number of artificial islands. These are located in the Langalanga Lagoon and the Lau Lagoon on Malaita Island and on the northeast coast of Klein Malaita and Maramasike. They are built by human hands from coral blocks from coral reefs. Nowadays it is not known whether these islands were built to protect against malaria or marauding Bushmen, or for completely different reasons.

The Solomon Islands have a coast to the Pacific with a length of around 5,315 km.

Tidal range in the Solomon Islands

In the Solomon Islands, the mean tidal range is around 1 to 2 m.

Compare

The world’s highest tidal range can be found in the Bay of Fundy in Canada, where it is up to 16 meters, and at spring tide even over 20 meters. The Bay of Fundy is located on the Atlantic between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, which is called Nova Scotia in German and whose capital is Halifax.

On the German North Sea coast it varies between one and three meters. In the western Baltic Sea, on the other hand, the tidal range is only 0.3 meters, while it is barely noticeable in the eastern Baltic Sea.

Longitude and latitude

The Solomon Islands extend over the following geographical latitude (abbreviation Δφ) and geographical longitude (abbreviation Δλ):

Δφ = from around 5 ° to around 12 ° south latitude Δλ = around 154 ° to around 162 ° east longitude

You can find detailed information on this subject under: Geographical longitude and latitude.

Legal time

For the Solomon Islands, the following value applies to Central European Time (CET), i.e. the time without summer time. A minus sign means that it is earlier there, a plus sign that it is later than CET:

Δt (CET) = + 10 h

More detailed explanations of the time can be found under: Time zones, time.

The highest point of the sun in Honiara

Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, is located at a southern latitude of 09 ° 28 ‘and thus in the middle of the tropics.

If the sun or its image point is exactly above the city or the island, i.e. at 09 ° 28 ‘S, the sun is exactly perpendicular to the sky. In Honiara this happens exactly twice a year, roughly one month before March 21st and one month after September 21st.

Attention

If the image point of the sun (declination) is north of the latitude of Honiara, the sun is not in the south at noon, as in our latitudes, but in the north. The sun then moves from east to north to west, where, like us, it sets.

Mountains

Mount Popomanaseu

The highest mountain in the country is Mount Popomanaseu with a height of 2,335 m. It is located on the island of Guadalcanal.

Other high mountains:

  • Mount Makarakomburu on the island of Guadalcanal, with a height of 2,310 m.
  • Mount Veve, an inactive volcano, on the Kolombangara Islands, with an altitude of 1,768 m.
  • Mount Vangunu on the island of the same name, with a height of 1,123 m.
  • Tinakula volcano, which is still active, with a height of 851 m.

Rivers

Wairaha River

The longest river in the country is the Wairaha River. Another river is the Chovohio River, from which gold is extracted

Lakes

Lake Tegano

The largest lake is Lake Tegano, with an area of about 155 km². It is the largest lake in the Pacific.

Other large lakes:

  • Lake Pughele
  • Lake Wairafa

The Pacific

With a total coastline of 5,315 km, the Solomon Islands border the Pacific Ocean – more precisely, the Solomon Islands are located in the South Pacific, the so-called South Sea. This region of the Pacific Ocean includes the Polynesian Islands as well as parts of Melanesia and Micronesia.

Solomon Islands Population