Languages: English (official), Fijian, Hindustani
Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 92.5% male: 90% female: 95% (1999 est.)
Government Fiji
Country name: conventional long form: Republic of the Fiji Islands conventional short form: Fiji
Government type: republic note: military coup leader Maj. Gen. Sitiveni
RABUKA formally declared Fiji a republic on 6 October 1987
Capital: Suva
Administrative divisions: 4 divisions and 1 dependency*; Central,
Eastern, Northern, Rotuma*, Western
Independence: 10 October 1970 (from UK)
National holiday: Independence Day, second Monday of October (1970)
Constitution: promulgated on 25 July 1990 and amended on 25 July 1997 to allow nonethnic Fijians greater say in government and to make multiparty government mandatory; entered into force 28 July 1998; note - the May 1999 election was the first test of the amended constitution and introduced open voting - not racially prescribed - for the first time at the national level