Demographics of the Cook Islands
demographics of country
Demographic features of the population of the Cook Islands include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. A census is carried out every five years. The last one was in 2021 and the next will be in 2026.
Population
Structure of the population
Vital statistics
Ethnic groups
The indigenous Polynesian people of the Cook Islands are known as Cook Islands Māori. These include speakers of the Cook Islands Māori language, closely related to Tahitian and New Zealand Māori, who form the majority of the population and inhabit the southern islands, including Rarotonga, and also the people of Pukapuka, whose language is more closely related to Samoan. Cook Islanders of non-indigenous descent include other Pacific Island peoples, Papa'a (Europeans), and those of Asian descent.
Languages
English (official) 86.4%
Cook Islands Maori (Rarotongan) (official) 76.2%
Other 8.3%
Religion
The Cook Islands are majority-Protestant, with almost half the population being members of the Reformed Cook Islands Christian Church. Other Protestant denominations include Seventh-day Adventists, Assemblies of God and the Apostolic Church (the latter two being Pentecostal denominations). The largest non-Protestant denomination are Roman Catholics, followed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Non-Christian faiths, including Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam, have small followings, primarily of non-indigenous residents.
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This entry incorporates text from “Demographics of the Cook Islands” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.