Fiji and Samoa, A Snapshot

The region of Oceania within the Central and South Pacific Ocean is a group of islands that cover over 3 million square miles. To give you an idea, it is about an 8 hour flight from LA heading west towards Australia. Within this region lies two countries, Fiji and Samoa, who because of where they are could easily be perceived as similar, but who are in fact different in many ways. I chose these countries because I have been to Fiji, but not to Samoa and was interested in learning more about them.

Within the Oceania region there are four different sub-regions that divide these islands based on their physical development. Of these four sub-regions, Fiji is part of the Melanasia region, a region that is categorized by volcanic islands with high mountain ranges. Samoa is part of the Polynesia sub-region and is categorized by coral reef islands.

Both countries are within the same climate zone within the Oceania region and are considered tropical due to the hot wet weather they have year round. Because of the large amounts of rainfall within a tropical climate, both countries have large areas of rainforest. Both countries have a large variation of bird species, as well as small animals such as rats and bats and several types of insects.

Although both Fiji and Samoa have a lot of similarities, there are quite a few differences between the two countries. For example, Fiji is made up of over 850 different islands of which only about 100 are inhabited and covers 18,274 sq km while Samoa is made up of nine islands and only covers 199 sq km. The population of Fiji is 898,760 while Samoa’s population is only 182,401.