Terrain: mixture of rugged high islands and low islands with reefs lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m highest point: Mount Orohena 2,241 m

Natural resources: timber, fish, cobalt

Land use:
arable land: 1%
permanent crops: 19%
meadows and pastures: 5%
forest and woodland: 31%
other: 44%

Irrigated land: NA sq km

Environment:
current issues: NA
natural hazards: occasional cyclonic storms in January
international agreements: NA

Geographic note: includes five archipelagoes; Makatea in French
Polynesia is one of the three great phosphate rock islands in the
Pacific Ocean - the others are Banaba (Ocean Island) in Kiribati and
Nauru

People ———

Population: 224,911 (July 1996 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 35% (male 40,450; female 39,038)
15-64 years: 61% (male 70,506; female 65,620)
65 years and over: 4% (male 4,636; female 4,661) (July 1996 est.)

Population growth rate: 2.19% (1996 est.)