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Austronesian ethnolinguistic group
Polynesians
Total population
c. 3,200,000
Regions with significant populations
New Zealand
1,157,478[1]
United States
988,519[2]
Australia
409,805
French Polynesia
c. 215,000[3]
Samoa
192,342
Tonga
103,036
Cook Islands
17,683
Canada
10,760[4]
Tuvalu
10,645[5]
Chile
9,399[6]
Languages
Polynesian languages (Hawaiian, Māori, Rapa Nui, Samoan, Tahitian, Tongan, Tuvaluan and others), English, French and
Spanish
Religion
Christianity (96.1%)[7] and Polynesian mythology[8]
Related ethnic groups
other Austronesian peoples, Euronesians
Polynesians are an ethnolinguistic group of closely related ethnic groups who are native to Polynesia (islands in the Polynesian Triangle), an expansive region of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean. They trace their early prehistoric origins to Island Southeast Asia and form part of the larger Austronesian ethnolinguistic group with an Urheimat in Taiwan. They speak the Polynesian languages, a branch of the Oceanic subfamily of the Austronesian language family. The Indigenous Māori people constitute the largest Polynesian population,[9] followed by Samoans, Native Hawaiians, Tahitians, Tongans and Cook Islands Māori.[citation needed]
As of 2012[update] there were an estimated 2 million ethnic Polynesians (full and part) worldwide, the vast majority of whom either inhabit independent Polynesian nation-states (Samoa, Niue, Cook Islands, Tonga, and Tuvalu) or form minorities in countries such as Australia, Chile (Easter Island), New Zealand, France (French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna), and the United States (Hawaii and American Samoa), in addition to the British Overseas Territory of the Pitcairn Islands. New Zealand had the highest population of Polynesians, estimated at 110,000 in the 18th century.[10]
Polynesians have acquired a reputation as great navigators—their canoes reached the most remote corners of the Pacific, allowing the settlement of islands as far apart as Hawaii, Rapanui (Easter Island) and Aotearoa (New Zealand).[11] The people of Polynesia accomplished this voyaging using ancient navigation skills of reading stars, currents, clouds and bird movements—skills passed to successive generations down to the present day.[12]
^Population Movement in the Pacific: A Perspective on Future Prospects. Wellington: New Zealand Department of Labour Archived 7 February 2013 at the Wayback Machine
^"Chuukese and Papua New Guinean Populations Fastest Growing Pacific Islander Groups in 2020".
^Landfalls of Paradise: Cruising Guide to the Pacific Islands, Earl R. Hinz & Jim Howard, University of Hawaii Press, 2006, page 80.
^"Census Profile, 2016 Census". 8 February 2017.
^"Population of communities in Tuvalu". world-statistics.org. 11 April 2012. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
^"Síntesis de Resultados Censo 2017" (PDF). Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas, Santiago de Chile. p. 16.
^Christianity in its Global Context, 1970–2020 Society, Religion, and Mission, Center for the Study of Global Christianity
^Wellington, Victoria University of (1 December 2017). "Arts, humanities and social sciences". victoria.ac.nz. Archived from the original on 13 April 2016. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
^"Māori population estimates: At 30 June 2022". www.stats.govt.nz. Retrieved 31 January 2023.
^King, Michael (2003). The Penguin History of New Zealand. London: Penguin. p. 91.
^Wilmshurst, Janet M.; Hunt, Terry L.; Lipo, Carl P.; Anderson, Atholl (1 February 2011). "High-precision radiocarbon dating shows recent and rapid initial human colonization of East Polynesia". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 108 (5): 1815–1820. doi:10.1073/pnas.1015876108. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 3033267. PMID 21187404.
^DOUCLEFF, MICHAELEEN (23 January 2013). "How The Sweet Potato Crossed The Pacific Way Before The Europeans Did". NPR. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
New Zealand had the highest population of Polynesians, estimated at 110,000 in the 18th century. Polynesians have acquired a reputation as great navigators—their...
analysis of modern Polynesians indicates that there has been intermarriage resulting in a mixed Austronesian-Papuan ancestry of the Polynesians (as with other...
Look up Polynesian in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Polynesian is the adjectival form of Polynesia. It may refer to: Polynesians, an ethnic group Polynesian...
kilometres of the open Pacific Ocean. Polynesians made contact with nearly every island within the vast Polynesian Triangle, using outrigger canoes or double-hulled...
Polynesians who had traveled to South America and back, and spread across Polynesia to Hawaii and New Zealand from there. While the early Polynesians...
archipelagos in the Polynesian Triangle) together with those of the scattered cultures known as the Polynesian outliers. Polynesians speak languages that...
South Pacific by migrant Malayo-Polynesian people (see also Lapita culture). There is also some evidence that Polynesians ventured as far east as Salas...
the Free French Forces and many Polynesians served in World War II. Unknown at the time to the French and Polynesians, the Konoe Cabinet in Imperial Japan...
no dogs in the Chatham Islands at the time of European arrival. The Polynesians raised dogs for companionship and food. Along with domesticated pigs...
significant marker of the human migrations across the Pacific, as the Polynesians accidentally or deliberately introduced it to the islands they settled...
prominent Polynesian languages, by number of speakers, are Tahitian, Samoan, Tongan, Māori and Hawaiian. The ancestors of modern Polynesians were Lapita...
Polynesian paralysis is a term describing the relaxed lifestyle in the Hawaiian islands and the spirit of aloha reflecting the love of the Hawaiian people...
French Polynesians who moved to the US was small but with certain growth between the 1950 and 70s. So, while in 1954 just three French Polynesians arrived...
Polynesians are closer genetically to Micronesians, Taiwanese Aborigines, and East Asians, than to Melanesians. The study concluded that Polynesians moved...
have been colonized by seafaring Polynesians, mostly from the area of Tonga, Samoa and Tuvalu. The closest Polynesian outliers, Anuta and Tikopia in Solomon...
a Link between Polynesians and Indigenous Taiwanese," synopsis. Public Library of Science, July 5, 2005 "The origin of the Polynesians". The Economist...
Pacific Islanders in Auckland, New Zealand. Founded by a group of young Polynesians on 16 June 1971, the Panthers worked to aid in community betterment through...
"Manifest Duty: The Polynesians Society over 100 Years". Memoir No. 49. Auckland, The Polynesian Society. Encyclopedia of New Zealand "Polynesian Society". University...
The Polynesian Concept is an American production catamaran sailboat that was designed by Rudy Choy of C/S/K Catamarans, in conjunction with actor Buddy...
Oceanic Negroes" (the Melanesians and western Polynesians). Despite this, he acknowledges that "Malayo-Polynesians" and "Pelagian Negroes" had "remarkable characters...
habitable land to be settled by humans. Between about 1280 and 1350, Polynesians began to settle in the islands and then subsequently developed a distinctive...
Maritime Polynesian Pidgin was a Polynesian-based pidgin that was the main contact language for European exploratory and whaling expeditions to the Pacific...
Nuclear Polynesian refers to those languages comprising the Samoic and the Eastern Polynesian branches of the Polynesian group of Austronesian languages...
The Polynesian was a 4-8 page weekly newspaper published in Honolulu, that had two periods of publication: from June 6, 1840, to December 11, 1841, and...
The Central Pacific languages, also known as Fijian–Polynesian languages, are a branch of the Oceanic languages spoken in Fiji and Polynesia. Ross et al...
The Polynesian triller (Lalage maculosa) is a passerine bird belonging to the triller genus Lalage in the cuckoo-shrike family Campephagidae. It has numerous...
The Polynesian starling (Aplonis tabuensis) is a species of starling of the family Sturnidae. It is found in the Samoan Islands, Fiji, Niue, Tonga, the...
Samoans or Samoan people (Samoan: tagata Sāmoa) are the indigenous Polynesian people of the Samoan Islands, an archipelago in Polynesia, who speak the...
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