Fiji, officially the Republic of the Fiji Islands, is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean, east of Vanuatu, west of Tonga and south of Tuvalu. The country occupies an archipelago of about 322 islands, of which 106 are permanently inhabited; in addition, there are some 522 islets.

The two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, account for some 87% of the total population. The name Fiji is the old Tongan word for the islands, which is in turn derived from the Fijian name Viti.

The Republic of Fiji is located 1,850 miles (3,000 kilometers) northeast of Sydney, 1,200 miles (2,000 km) north of Auckland and 3,000 miles (5,000 km) southwest of Honolulu. Fiji spans just over 270,000 square miles (700,000 square km) of the southwest Pacific Ocean, and its closest neighbors are Tonga to the southeast and Vanuatu to the southwest. An independent nation since 1970, is has a land area of 18,333 sq. km., composed of scattered islands. Its total land area of roughly 7,061 square miles (18,300 square km) is 10 percent larger than Hawaii’s.

Of the 332 islands that make up the Fijian nation, one-third or 106 are inhabited. There are two main islands: Viti Levu (10,390 sq. km) and Vanua Levu (5,538 sq. km). Viti Levu is the largest island with 4,011 square miles (10,388 square km). It comprises 58.6 percent of Fiji’s land area and is home to about 70 percent of the population. Suva, the capital city, and Nadi, site of Fiji’s international airport and some of its best known resorts, are on Viti Levu. Nadi and the rest of Viti Levu’s western coastline offer many more spectacular sites for future hotels and resorts. Just north of Viti Levu is the second largest island of Vanua Levu which accounts for 30.2 percent of Fiji’s land area (2,140 square miles or 5,538 square km) and 15 percent of the population.