Tiny Pacific nation keeping its population size state secret

Link : http://uk.news.yahoo.com/041006/323/f3zu7.html


AUCKLAND (AFP) - One of the world's most sparsely populated states has shrunk further in numbers but its government is treating the population figure as a state secret, media on the island reported.

Niue, a single South Pacific island, officially has around 2,000 people but the latest issue of Niue Weekly News out Wednesday said it believed the figure was down to fewer than 1,200.

The News said the island's Statistics Office had completed a village head count last month and the figures had been given to the government but they would not be revealed.

Niue for many years has treated its population figure as a secret.

A poll of readers by the News said the likely population was now between 1,000 and 1,200.

Cyclone Heta in January this year killed a woman and inflicted around 37 million US dollars worth of damage to Niue. Many families are known to have fled the island since then.

Niue's population peaked around 1966 at around 5,200 but as a former New Zealand colony, and now "self governing in free association with New Zealand", most of its people can freely move to Australia or New Zealand.

Statistics New Zealand lists 20,100 Niuean people living in New Zealand -- with 70 percent of them born in New Zealand.

The Times Atlas lists the Vatican, in Italy, as the smallest state by population with just 840.

Niue might be short on some numbers but does well in others: at 258 square kilometres (103 square miles) it is the world's largest upraised coral island.

With a 20-seat Legislative Assembly, it has one of the world's highest concentrations of politicians -- on the latest speculated figures, one MP for every 60 people.

Niue is around 2,700 kilometres (1,700 miles) northeast of New Zealand, east of Tonga.

Its population is expected to be temporarily boosted at the end of October when New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and a delegation of community leaders fly in for a weekend visit.