The population of the Islands at the end of 2005 was estimated to be in excess of 500,000. The annual population growth rate was in 1997 3.5% and although the rate has reduced to about 2.5% now, it is still among the highest growth rates in the world. At the time of the 1999 census, about 86% of the population lived in rural villages, mostly along the coasts, counting over 65 thousand households with an average of 71 persons per village and six people per household.
There are claims that up to 110 different tribal languages and dialects are spoken in the Islands. As a result, most Islanders tend to communicate informally in Pijin Inglis, which is broken English. Pijin as a lingua franca is constantly evolving and can initially sound deceptively complex to newcomers, when spoken rapidly and with heavy intonation, but with a little effort becomes relatively easy for English speaking people to learn and speak.
