Tonga, or the Kingdom of Tonga, lies in the south of the Pacific Ocean and it includes one hundred and sixty-nine islands. Of all these islands, about thirty-nine of them are populated.

Tonga is basically an island nation and it is the only self-governing monarchy among the island nations that are situated in the Pacific Ocean that has been able to avoid formal colonization. People from different parts of the world regard Tonga as a friendly country because of its friendly treatment to Captain Cook when he first visited the nation.

There are about 101,991 people living in Tonga and of this number, about 70% of the people have settled on the main island of the country and this is the Tongatapu.

The culture of the people in Tonga has been influenced by Christianity and also by the Polynesian traditions. Most of the people living in this country are Christians. There are different ethnic groups in the country and some of the major ethnic groups are Polynesians, Mixed Europeans and people from other Pacific islands.

There were about three thousand to four thousand Chinese living in the country (in the year 2001) but the number has reduced significantly. The official language of Tonga is the Tongan language.