22% Increase
p. 30 · Read in the full issue
Preliminary Census Figures Recently Issued in W. Samoa Show Upward Trend Over 10- Year Period.
From Our Own Correspondent APIA, March 4.
SINCE the 1936 census there has been an overall increase in the population of Western Samoa of about 22 per cent. Total population to-day, Samoan and non-indigenous, is 68,041, compared with 55,624 in 1936.
Only decrease was in European popu lation—from 367 in 1936 to 357 in 1945.
This is the lowest number of white resi dents the Territory has had since the German census of 1902 —when there were 347.
Greatest increase was in the Eurone sian population, which jumped by 1647 or 63 per cent, in the period. This figure would be even further increased if the young people who have sought work in New Zealand in recent years were taken into consideration. It is estimated that between 500 and 1,000 part-Samoans have left the Territory in this way.
Native Samoans, in the, period under review, have increased by over 10,000, or 20 per cent.
The following table compares the figures for 1936 and 1945:
1945 1936 Europeans 357 367 Chinese 20 Part-Polynesians ... 5,042 3,482 Samoans . ... 62,600 52,266 Population of the Tokelau Islands (Union Group) is 1,388.