Solomon Islands

Region: Australia-Oceania

Official language: English

Population: 726,799 (2024 est.)

Nationality: Solomon Islander(s) (noun), Solomon Islander (adjective)

Land area: 27,986 sq km

Water area: 910 sq km

Capital: Honiara

National anthem: "God Save Our Solomon Islands," by Panapasa Balekana and Matila Balekana/Panapasa Balekana

National holiday: Independence Day, July 7 (1978)

Population growth: 1.65% (2024 est.)

Time zone: UTC +11

Flag: The flag of the Solomon Islands features a blue and green field split diagonally by a rising yellow line. The blue field, situated on top, represents water; the green field, situated on the bottom, represents fertility; and the yellow line symbolizes sunshine. Five white stars, each with five points and arranged in an “X” pattern, are displayed in the upper hoist (right) side, in the blue field, representing the five main groups of islands.

Motto: “To Lead is to Serve”

Independence: July 7, 1978 (from the UK)

Government type: parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy; a Commonwealth realm

Suffrage: 21 years of age; universal

Legal system: mixed legal system of English common law and customary law

Comprising nearly one thousand islands, the Solomon Islands lies in the South Pacific Ocean. For nearly a century, the country was a protectorate of Great Britain, until it obtained its independence in 1978.

The history of the Solomon Islands stretches back to prehistoric times, and prior to European contact the residents were known for occasionally practicing cannibalism. Solomon Islanders were distinguished during World War II for their efforts in rescuing and caring for downed Allied airmen. The largest island, Guadalcanal, was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the war, and its shores are littered with the wrecks of ships and planes. Today, the nation is working on its development, although it has been hampered by civil unrest.

Note: unless otherwise indicated, statistical data in this article is sourced from the CIA World Factbook, as cited in the bibliography.

People and Culture

Population: The vast majority of Solomon Islanders are Melanesian. There are also small Polynesian and Micronesian minorities.

Most Solomon Islanders live on the coast, and the country has a fairly low population density. In 2023 about 26 percent of the population lived in urban areas. Major towns and cities include Honiara, the capital (population 82,000 in 2018), Tandai, Auki, and Gizo.

Although English is the official language, only about 1 to 2 percent of people actually speak it. There are roughly 120 Indigenous languages spoken throughout the islands. The language of commerce and society is Melanesian pidgin.

Christianity is the predominant religion of the Solomon Islands. By 2019, according to the US Department of State, an estimated 71 percent of the population were Protestants, belonging primarily to the Anglican Church of Melanesia, South Sea Evangelicals, Seventh-Day Adventists, and United Methodist Church. About 20 percent were Roman Catholics. In addition, fewer than 5 percent of the population were adherents of other faiths.

Indigenous People: It is believed that Melanesians from New Guinea settled the Solomon Islands in prehistoric times. Today, most Solomon Islanders live in rural villages.

The first Europeans to see the Solomon Islands were the Spanish in 1568. The islands became a German protectorate in 1885 and a British protectorate in 1893.

The Japanese occupied the Solomon Islands during World War II. Solomon Islanders, along with Australians and Europeans, formed the Coastwatch, a resistance group that rescued downed Allied airmen and shipwrecked sailors, prisoners of war, missionaries, and civilians. Solomon Islanders rescued United States Navy lieutenant and future US president John F. Kennedy when his PT boat was destroyed in 1943.

After World War II, many of the Malaita islanders moved to Guadalcanal. The mixture was not always peaceful. The different ethnic groups (and even village groups) in the Solomon Islands faced ethnic tensions. In this case, the tensions eventually led to armed conflict between the two groups. At one time, the prime minister was kidnapped by the Malaita Eagle Force and forced to resign.

Peace was not restored until 2003, when Prime Minister Sir Allen Kemakeza asked Australia to help disarm the militia and maintain order in the country. The peace was disrupted in 2006 with post-election riots. In 2013 the Australian military withdrew from the islands except for a policing mission, which ended in 2017. Occasional outbreaks of civil unrest continued into the 2020s, including large protests on the island of Malaita in November 2021 against the administration of Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.

Education: Education is ostensibly free for primary and lower secondary levels but is not compulsory in the Solomon Islands. Financial contributions to schools are typically expected, however, and associated fees for supplies and transportation puts education out of reach for many. According to the Education Policy and Data Center, the country had a net enrollment rate of 67 percent of eligible primary school–aged children in 2018.

Both public and church-affiliated private primary schools are available throughout the islands. There are three types of secondary schools: national secondary schools (NSS), which are government- or church-run boarding schools that accept students from anywhere in the country; provincial secondary schools (PSS), which are managed by provincial governments and only accept students from their particular provinces; and community high schools (CHS), which were originally primary schools that were later expanded to provide secondary education as well.

The University of the South Pacific operates a regional campus in Honiara. Also, scholarships are provided for students to attend university abroad. Many Solomon Islanders attend universities in Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

Health Care: Health care in the Solomon Islands is scarce, with 0.19 physicians, nurses, or midwives per 1,000 people in 2016. By 2020, an estimated 73.1 percent of residents had access to clean drinking water, and an estimated 40.6 percent had access to modern sanitation.

Chronic conditions have become more common among Solomon Islanders. Major causes of death in the late 2010s and early 2020s included heart disease, stroke, diabetes, respiratory infections, and chronic kidney disease. Between 2007 and 2017, deaths from diabetes alone increased by more than 48 percent.

Average life expectancy in the Solomon Islands is 77.2 years (2024 estimate). The Solomon Islands ranked 156 on the 2022 United Nations Human Development Index, based on 2021 data.

Food: Traditional Solomon Islands food includes meats such as chicken, fish, and pork; tree crops such as breadfruit, mangrove fruit, Polynesian chestnut, ngali nuts, and alite; root crops such as sweet potato, yam, pana (a type of yam), kumara, cassava, and taro; and bush greens. Rice has become a common food, and islanders are increasingly eating more Western foods.

Traditionally, dolphins have been considered food in the Solomon Islands. However, many dolphin hunters have shifted to capturing the animals for water parks instead.

Some typical dishes include soups, shrimp cooked in bush lime, and saltwater crayfish cooked in coconut milk and bush lime.

Arts & Entertainment: As in other South Pacific islands, many crafts in the Solomon Islands have traditional and ritual meanings, while others are merely decorative. Artisans in the Western Province are particularly noted for their carvings in wood and stone. They also use natural materials to weave baskets, carpets and bags.

Music in the Solomon Islands utilizes several kinds of bamboo pipes. Some musicians play the pipes as wind instruments (panpipes). Others turn the pipes into percussion instruments by striking them with rubber thongs.

Tennis and football (soccer) are popular sports throughout the islands, attracting young athletes to qualifying competitions for the Olympic Games. The Solomon Islands belongs to the Oceania Football Confederation, and the national team competes in the Olympics. Golf and basketball organizations hold events in the islands throughout the year. Honiara boasts a seaside golf course under palm trees.

The Western Province holds a week-long Festival of the Sea in December. Community teams participate in war-canoe racing, fishing, and other ocean competitions.

Holidays: Official holidays observed in the Solomon Islands include New Year's Day (January 1), the Queen’s Official Birthday (observed in June), Independence Day (July 7), and the National Day of Thanksgiving (December 26). In addition, traditional Christian holidays, including Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Monday, Whit Monday, and Christmas, are celebrated.

Environment and Geography

Topography: The Solomon Islands is an archipelago in Melanesia, in the southwestern Pacific. The nation includes most of the Solomon Islands group, but Bouganville, Buka, and a few smaller islands are part of Papua New Guinea, to the west. Also part of the country are the Oton Java Islands (Lord Howe Atoll), Rennell Island, and the Santa Cruz Islands.

The largest island, and undoubtedly the most famous due to its history, is Guadalcanal, with an area of 6,475 square kilometers (2,500 square miles). Honiara, the capital, is located on Guadalcanal.

Most of the islands are volcanic, with rugged mountains and a covering of tropical plant growth. In 2018, an estimated 78.9 percent of the land was forested.

Nearly every island has a ridge of mountains in the center, rising as high as 1,200 meters (4,000 feet). One side of the island is a sharp slope to the sea, while the other has a gentle slope to a coastal strip. Some of the islands, especially the outlying ones, are atolls (ring-shaped coral reefs).

The highest point in the country is Mount Makarakomburu, on Guadalcanal, at 2,447 meters (8,028 feet). Lake Tenggara, on Rennell Island, is the largest lake in the South Pacific. The country has no major rivers.

Natural Resources: The Solomon Islands’ natural resources include fish, forests, and phosphates. The islands have considerable deposits of minerals such as gold, nickel, zinc, lead, and bauxite, but these are relatively unexploited.

Dead or dying coral reefs are an environmental concern facing the country. Another threat is economic development from mining and logging operations. Many of the people of the Solomon Islands are poor and use their natural resources to help improve their lives. Forests provide building materials, firewood, hunting, fishing, and materials for handicrafts. Traditional medicines are also found in the forests, and many people use these to supplement Western medicine. As the population grows, the forests suffer. However, the rainforest can also be a resource for developing herbal medicines and pharmaceuticals.

Plants & Animals: The coral reefs surrounding the Solomon Islands abound with marine life, from the coral itself to requiem sharks. Dolphins, prawns, crayfish, tuna, slugs, crabs, eels, clown fish and giant clams inhabit the reefs.

The Solomon Islands have the second-highest diversity of land animals of any place in the Pacific, after Papua New Guinea. In fact, although the Solomon Islands rainforest covers only about 7 percent of the planet’s surface, it contains more than three-quarters of the world’s plant and animal species.

The country boasts about 130 species of butterflies, 35 of which are endemic (native only to the Solomon Islands). In addition, 8 of the 72 reptile species are endemic, including the giant prehensile-tailed skink and the keeled monitor lizard. Four of the 173 species of birds are endemic to the Solomon Islands, including the endangered Ghizo (or Gizo) white-eye (Zosterops luteirostris). In addition, 19 of the 53 mammal species are endemic.

The Solomon Islands is home to parrots, coconut crabs, malaria-carrying mosquitoes, crocodiles, twenty-five species of frogs, and thirty-four species of bats.

About 2,780 species of plants grow in Solomon Islands. Breadfruit trees, coconut palms, oil palms, Polynesian chestnut, and more than two hundred species of orchids (at least thirty of them endemic) flourish in the tropical climate. Mangrove forests and sea grass provide important marine breeding grounds.

Problems include the water hyacinth, which has grown so abundantly that, at times, it has choked rivers. The asagao, or morning glory, has smothered large portions of the coastal rainforest on Makira and is threatening other islands.

Invasive species are another issue. Cats are not native to Solomon Islands. When imported cats, both domestic and feral, began threatening the bird population on Simbo Island, bird owners began killing cats. Cane toads, introduced in the mid-1800s, have destroyed large numbers of indigenous frogs.

Climate: The Solomon Islands has an equatorial climate, with little variation by season. Usually, the islands experience trade winds, but typhoons are not uncommon. Fortunately, the storms are rarely destructive. Earthquakes are frequent, and volcanoes occasionally erupt.

Humidity is high, and temperatures average between 21 and 32 degrees Celsius (70 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit). The average temperature in Honiara is 27 degrees Celsius (81 degrees Fahrenheit) year-round. Rainfall is heavy, with different areas of the country receiving between 150 and 500 centimeters (60 and 200 inches) each year. Honiara’s average rainfall is 216 centimeters (86 inches).

Experts have also noted that, like other countries around the world, the Solomon Islands continued to experience impacts of climate change that included rises in sea levels as well as the increased likelihood of more extreme weather events such as cyclones.

Economy

Most Solomon Islanders make their living by farming or fishing. In 2023 the country’s GDP was estimated at US$2.027 billion, or $US2,500 per capita.

Industry: Major industries on the islands include forestry (for fuel and industrial wood), preparation of frozen fish, and mining.

The country's major exports include timber, gold, processed fish, palm oil, and coconut oil.

Agriculture: Only a small percentage of land in the Solomon Islands is arable. Most farming takes place in the lowland forests. Traditionally, fruit trees were planted, with yams and greens beneath. These plantings provided food during long droughts or after damaging storms. Soil fertility has declined, however, probably from overplanting. Now, when a disaster strikes, such as the long drought of 2004–5, many people face starvation unless relief aid arrives.

On the other hand, when there is no disaster, the islanders have access to a greater diversity of foods than in the past. Major agricultural crops include coconuts, cacao, palm kernels, rice, and fruit. Solomon Islanders also keep cattle and pigs.

Tourism: After a sharp decline in tourism in the early 2000s, due in part to the country’s violent ethnic conflict and the lack of tourist infrastructure, the number of visitors to the Solomon Islands rebounded. There were 28,907 international arrivals in 2019, according to government records. In 2019, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), tourism accounted for 10.5 percent of total GDP and 10.8 percent of total employment. However, the sector struggled in the early 2020s due to the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic during the first months of 2020 and a steep decline in global travel. In 2022, the WTTC reported that tourism accounted for 3.2 percent of total GDP and 7.2 percent of total employment

The Solomon Islands have many attractions for tourists. Divers enjoy viewing the wreckage of ships and planes in the waters surrounding Guadalcanal, especially in the Ironbottom Sound channel. Attractions in Honiara include Chinatown, the Point Cruz Yacht Club, and the Solomon Islands National Museum. Marovo Lagoon, in the Western Province, is the world’s largest island-fringed lagoon.

John F. Kennedy’s PT boat base on Munda Island has been turned into a tourist site. Plum Pudding Island, the tiny atoll that Kennedy swam to when his PT boat was rammed in 1943, has been renamed Kennedy Island.

Ecotourism, including island-hopping, bird watching, and village visits, is also beginning to develop in the Solomon Islands. Lake Tenggano, on the eastern end of Rennell Island, is listed as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Government

The Solomon Islands is a parliamentary democracy. The British monarch is the chief of state, represented by a governor-general whom the monarch appoints based on advice from the National Parliament. The head of government is the prime minister, who is usually the leader of the majority party in the legislature. Members of the cabinet are appointed by the governor-general on the advice of the prime minister.

The legislative branch consists of the unicameral National Parliament. There are fifty members in the legislature, elected to four-year terms by popular vote.

The judicial branch consists of the Court of Appeal, led by the court president, and the High Court. Court president, judges, and justices are appointed by the governor-general. Lower courts include Magistrates’ Courts, local courts, and the Customary Land Appeal Court.

Jeremiah Manele became prime minister in May 2024, succeeding Manasseh Sogavare, a vocal critic of the West.

Interesting Facts

• The Island of Gizo is so tiny that the interisland airplane must land on another island next to it.
• Tetepare Island is a conservation area and ecotourism destination that was deserted by Indigenous tribes in 1860 for reasons including headhunting and curses.
• Christian missionaries banned traditional Polynesian body tattooing in the Solomon Islands in 1938, but the practice enjoyed a revival on Bellona Island in the late 2010s.
• Thousands of unexploded World War II–era bombs remain in the Solomon Islands. In September 2020 two nonprofit employees working to map the locations of those bombs were killed in an explosion.
• In 2023, the Solomon Islands hosted the athletic Pacific Games for the first time.

Bibliography

"Economic Impact Reports." World Travel & Tourism Council, 2020, wttc.org/Research/Economic-Impact. Accessed 30 Sept. 2020.

Human Development Report 2021/2022. United Nations Development Programme, 13 Mar. 2024, hdr.undp.org/system/files/documents/global-report-document/hdr2021-22pdf‗1.pdf. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.

"Solomon Islands." The World Bank, 2024, data.worldbank.org/country/solomon-islands. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.

"Solomon Islands." The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, 16 Jan. 2025, www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/solomon-islands/. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.

"Solomon Islands Country Profile." BBC News, 21 May. 2024, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-15896396. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.

Solomon Islands: National Education Profile. Education Policy and Data Center, FHI 360, 2018, www.epdc.org/sites/default/files/documents/EPDC‗NEP‗2018‗SolomonIslands.pdf. Accessed 15 July 2019.

Solomon Islands: 2023 Annual Research—Key Highlights. World Travel and Tourism Council, 2023, assets-global.website-files.com/6329bc97af73223b575983ac/645a6ab61e7084c5a3059548‗SolomonIslands2023‗.pdf. Accessed 17 Nov. 2023.

“2019 Report on International Religious Freedom: Solomon Islands.” US Department of State, 2020, www.state.gov/reports/2019-report-on-international-religious-freedom/solomon-islands. Accessed 30 Sept. 2020.‌