The results of the Census of Population and Housing 2021 for Tonga - were released by the Prime Minister, Hon. Hu’akavameiliku, in Nuku’alofa on 28 October.

This is the ninth census carried out in Tonga since 1965 and the seventh conducted by the Government Statistics Department.

The launch was also part of their World Statistics Day celebrations, under the 2020 theme ‘connecting the world with data we can trust’, which started on 20 October.

Hon. Hu’akavameiliku said, that results from census are an invaluable source of information to assist Government in better planning way forward to help its people through better national policy formation and effective targeting of resources.

“It also provides community level information that is not available anywhere else.”

It was a large statistical exercise done in a short time to obtain a comprehensive, accurate and consistent snapshot of the Tongan population.

He expected that the new data, will allow Tonga to maintain its position among the top Pacific Island countries, in terms of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) data availability.

The Tonga Census has been held every 10 years since 1956, until 2006. The Tonga Statistics Department (TSD) reformed the process to be carried out every 5 years, to assure the currency and consistency of the data for better informed decision making in a dynamic and fast-paced changing world.

Hon. Hu’akavameiliku said, that the 2021 Tonga Population and Housing Census is the third census undertaken following the five-year interval census.

“The advantage of using 5-year period is the increased statistical reliability and timeliness of indicators and the ability to address new and emerging issues that impact our society, such as COVID-19,” he said.

This is the first complete result of the census 2021, apart from the preliminary count that was released late last year.

Census of Population 2021

The female population still remains higher than males in Tonga, especially in Tongatapu, according to the 2021 Population Census preliminary data released by the Statistics department recently.

Males have featured prominently in the population census since 1986 and at last count in 2016, there were 121 more females than males. In 2021 however, females have surpassed males again by 2, 681.

On Tongatapu, the census shows a higher number of females 2,402 more than males compared with the other island groups.

Tonga’s total population in 2021 slightly declined by 0.1% to 100,179 compared to 100,745% in 2016.  

Most Divisions observed similar dropped pattern in the population with the highest drop of 1.6% per year in Ha’apai since the last census.

While there was an increase of 0.6% per year in Vava’u between 2016 and 2021.

Tonga’s population age structure is dominated by a relatively young population, with a median of twenty-two years.

About 48% of the total population were of children age 0-17 while those of 65 years of age and above were only 6%.

The urban population was 21,185 in 2021, which is slightly more than one-fifth of Tonga’s total population.

The average population density was 154 people/km2. However, this varies widely across island division and districts. Population density in Tongatapu was 285 people/km2, compared to only 16 people/km2 in the Niuas.

The 2021 population for Vava’u is 14, 182, Ha’apai 5,665, ‘Eua 4,864, the Niuas 1,148 and Tongatapu 74,320.

A summary of the preliminary report can be downloaded - https://tongastats.gov.to/download/272/census-report-and-factsheet/7647/... [2]