Tonga
Tonga (officially Kingdom of Tonga) is a country in Polynesia, with its capital at Nukuʻalofa, and is home to roughly 104.2K people.
Its official languages are English, Tongan; the currency in circulation is Tongan paʻanga (T$); people from here are called Tongan.
- »Tonga is the only Pacific island nation never formally colonised.
- »It sits beside the Tonga Trench, among the deepest points in the ocean.
Tonga is an archipelago, and that is the whole story of its silhouette: nine landmasses are big enough to see at map scale, the largest holding only 43% of the territory, and 10 separate pieces in all.
Tonga shares no land border with anything, so every approach is by sea or air. The closest other territories on file are Fiji (806 km), Samoa (888 km) and Tuvalu (1,658 km), measured centre to centre.
Nuku'alofa is the seat of the only remaining Polynesian monarchy, and the royal palace stands on the waterfront.
605 km² (234 sq mi), 179th largest of 198 countries and territories on file, almost exactly the size of Saint Lucia.
Population 104,175, 185th of 198 on file. That averages 172 per km² (446 per sq mi).
The red cross on white in the canton reflects the country's Christianity; the constitution declares the flag may never be altered.