Cook Islands

Capital: Avarua Population: 19,569 Official Languages: English Cook Islands Maori Time zone: -10 Dialing Code: +682

Government: Constitutional monarchy Area: 240 km2 Ethnic groups: 87.7% Maori Currency : Cook Islands dollar ISO 3166 code: AS

Basic Info

The Cook Islands is a parliamentary democracy in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand. It comprises 15 small islands whose total land area is 240 square kilometres (92.7 sq mi). The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), however, covers 1,800,000 square kilometres (690,000 sq mi) of ocean.

The Cook Islands' defence and foreign affairs are the responsibility of New Zealand, in consultation with the Cook Islands. In recent times, the Cook Islands have adopted an increasingly independent foreign policy. Although Cook Islanders are citizens of New Zealand, they have the status of Cook Islands nationals, which is not given to other New Zealand citizens.

The Cook Islands' main population centres are on the island of Rarotonga (14,153 in 2006), where there is an international airport. There is a much larger population of Cook Islanders in New Zealand, particularly the North Island. In the 2006 census, 58,008 self-identified as being of ethnic Cook Islands Māori descent.

Geography

The Cook Islands are in the South Pacific Ocean, northeast of New Zealand, between French Polynesia and American Samoa. There are 15 major islands spread over 2.2 million km² of ocean, divided into two distinct groups: the Southern Cook Islands and the Northern Cook Islands of coral atolls.

Climate

The islands were formed by volcanic activity; the northern group is older and consists of six atolls, which are sunken volcanoes topped by coral growth. The climate is moderate to tropical.

Administrative divisions

There are Island Councils on all of the inhabited outer islands (Outer Islands Local Government Act 1987 with amendments up to 2004, and Palmerston Island Local Government Act 1993) except Nassau, which is governed by Pukapuka (Suwarrow, with only one caretaker living on the island, also governed by Pukapuka, is not counted with the inhabited islands in this context). Each council is headed by a Mayor.

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