Cook Islands

The Cook Islands are in the South Pacific Ocean.

There are 15 islands, far apart. The biggest town is Avarua, on Rarotonga. People speak Cook Islands Māori and English.

The Cook Islands are in the South Pacific Ocean, between French Polynesia and American Samoa. There are 15 islands and atolls, but they are spread so far apart that they cover about 2 million square kilometers of sea, an area nearly as large as Greenland.

The Cook Islands run their own affairs in free association with New Zealand. Cook Islanders hold New Zealand citizenship, and New Zealand helps with defense and disasters when asked. Cook Islands Māori and English are the official languages, the New Zealand dollar is used, and the government is based in Avarua, on Rarotonga.

Britannica describes the Cook Islands as a self-governing island state in free association with New Zealand: 15 small atolls and islands, about 236.7 km² of land in all, spread over about 2,000,000 km² of sea. New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade says the Cook Islands is part of the Realm of New Zealand, sharing its head of state; it conducts its own affairs and international relations, while New Zealand has a constitutional responsibility to respond to requests for help with foreign affairs, disasters and defense. Cook Islanders hold New Zealand citizenship.

A cabinet led by a prime minister answers to a one-house Parliament, and the House of Ariki, a council of hereditary high chiefs, advises on traditional matters. The 2021 census (census night November 30 to December 1) counted 15,040 people present, 14,987 of them residents.

Rarotonga is the biggest island. It has tall green mountains.

The northern islands are atolls: rings of sand around a lagoon. Pukapuka is far to the north.

Rarotonga, the main island, is only about 6 kilometers wide but has steep mountains in the middle. Avarua, on its north coast, is where the government is based. The photo shows Para o Tane, the palace of a high chief, among palm trees, with a green peak behind.

The southern group includes Aitutaki, Atiu, Mangaia and Mauke, mixes of high islands and atolls. In the northern group, such as Manihiki, Penrhyn and Pukapuka, almost every island is an atoll: a low ring of sand on a reef around a lagoon.

Rarotonga, about 6 km wide, held 10,898 people in 2021, more than 70% of the total, with a density of 162 people per km². The southern group islands held 3,040 and the northern group 1,102. Pukapuka, in the north, was the most densely populated island (about 351 per km²), while Mangaia, the second-largest island, had about 9 per km².

Britannica lists Aitutaki, Atiu, Mangaia, Manuae, Mauke, Mitiaro, Palmerston and Takutea in the southern group, with combinations of atoll and high island, and Manihiki, Nassau, Penrhyn, Pukapuka, Rakahanga and Suwarrow in the north, all atolls except Nassau. The hero photo shows Para o Tane, the palace of the Makea Ariki, in Avarua.

Each island is the top of an old volcano.

On Rarotonga you can still see volcano peaks. Other islands are flat rings of coral sand. It is warm all year.

Every Cook Island sits on top of one or more old volcanoes. On the biggest islands, the volcanic peaks still stand tall: Te Manga, on Rarotonga, is the highest point at 652 meters. The atolls are low rings of coral sand on reefs around lagoons.

The islands are too small for rivers. On the atolls, rain soaks into the coral and floats as a thin layer of fresh water above the salt water, and people use wells and rain tanks. Trade winds keep temperatures mild, around 24 °C on Rarotonga. Tropical cyclones strike once or twice in ten years, between December and March.

Britannica explains that each island is the top of one or more extinct volcanoes; only on the largest do volcanic plugs and craters dominate, with Te Manga on Rarotonga rising to 652 m. Rarotonga is ringed by makatea, uplifted coral reef, with fertile volcanic soil between coast and mountains. There are no rivers; the high islands of Mangaia, Atiu and Mitiaro have small freshwater lakes, and on atolls rainwater forms a lens above heavier salt water, tapped by wells and tanks.

Mean annual temperatures range from about 24 °C on Rarotonga to about 28 °C on Penrhyn, and Rarotonga gets about 2,000 mm of rain a year. Tropical cyclones strike between December and March about once or twice a decade, and droughts hit the northern islands harder.

A tiny bird called the kakerori lives only on Rarotonga.

People helped it when it was almost gone. The sea around the islands is a huge park for fish, coral and whales.

The kakerori, or Rarotonga flycatcher, is a tiny bird found only on Rarotonga. By the early 1990s there were only about 30 breeding pairs, but conservationists and landowners worked together and brought its numbers back up.

In 2017 the Cook Islands made its whole ocean, nearly 2 million square kilometers, into a marine park called Marae Moana. Its reefs have 136 known kinds of coral and about 650 kinds of fish, and 22 kinds of whales and dolphins have been seen offshore.

Britannica notes that the first Polynesian settlers brought pigs, dogs, chickens and a small rat, still the main land animals, and that some native birds became extinct in the 19th century after Europeans introduced cats. The kakerori (Rarotonga flycatcher), unique to Rarotonga, fell to about 30 breeding pairs by the early 1990s; by the early 21st century a small group of conservationists and landowners had restored it to a viable population.

Marae Moana, which came into being on July 11, 2017, covers a total ocean area of nearly 2 million km²; its official site calls it the world's largest multi-use marine park. It records 136 identified coral species and some 650 reef fish species, and 22 cetacean species observed in the open ocean.

Most people are Cook Islands Māori.

They speak Cook Islands Māori and English. Families grow foods like taro, and people fish. Many Cook Islanders live in New Zealand.

In the 2021 census, 77% of the people counted were Cook Islands Māori, Polynesian people whose ancestors sailed here long ago. Cook Islands Māori and English are the official languages.

Most people are Christian; the Cook Islands Christian Church is the largest. Taro, yams, bananas, breadfruit and sweet potatoes grow on the fertile southern islands, and the Cook Islands counts tourism among the keys to its economy. Many Cook Islanders live in New Zealand, especially since the airport on Rarotonga opened in 1974.

The 2021 census recorded 77% of the people counted (11,603) as Cook Islands Māori, down from 81% in 2011. Christianity predominates: the Cook Islands Christian Church had 43.1% of residents (down from 48.8% in 2016), followed by the Roman Catholic Church (16.7%) and Seventh-day Adventists (8.3%).

The population peaked at 21,322 in 1971 and fell sharply after Rarotonga's international airport opened in 1974, as many people moved to New Zealand; the 2021 count was 2,394 lower than in 2016. New Zealand's foreign ministry says the Cook Islands graduated to high-income status in 2019 and names tourism among the things the Cook Islands sees as key to its economic revival.