Overview: The Pacific Islander Peoples affinity bloc encompasses the Indigenous populations of Australia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, New Caledonia, and other Pacific nations. These populations represent a small fraction of the world's total yet exhibit extraordinary linguistic diversity—approximately 0.26% of the world's population speaks over 22% of all documented languages. Papua New Guinea alone contains more than 800 languages, making it the most linguistically diverse nation on earth. This diversity reflects thousands of years of settlement in geographically isolated communities separated by mountains, rivers, and ocean channels. Many languages are spoken by communities of just a few hundred to a few thousand people. Cultures are traditionally characterized by diverse subsistence practices including horticulture, fishing, and hunting-gathering, along with rich artistic traditions, oral histories, and complex social structures.

  -- ROP Editor

People clusters: Aboriginal Australians; Fiji; Micronesian; New Caledonia; New Guinea; Other Pacific Islanders; Polynesian; Solomons; Vanuatu

Countries where they are found: American Samoa; Australia; Canada; Chile; Cook Islands; Fiji; French Polynesia; Guam; Indonesia; Kiribati; Marshall Islands; Micronesia; Nauru; New Caledonia; New Zealand; Niue; Norfolk Island; Northern Mariana Islands; Palau; Papua New Guinea; Pitcairn Islands; Samoa; Solomon Islands; Tokelau; Tonga; Tuvalu; United States; Vanuatu; Wallis and Futuna