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Melanesians make up more than two-fifths of the population and Europeans about one-third. Their differing cultures have given rise to two distinct ways of life, known as kanak and caldoche; people of mixed descent tend to adhere to one or the other. The kanak identity is based on clan membership, a network of family alliances and specific land rights. The caldoche way of life is essentially integrated into a cash economy. The Polynesian minority comprises Wallis and Futuna islanders, who make up about one-tenth of the total, and smaller numbers of Tahitians. Descendants of Indonesian and Vietnamese migrant workers also form small proportions of the population and reside primarily in urban areas.
There is no official language, but French and Kanak have special legal recognition. Some 30 Melanesian languages are spoken, most Melanesians being proficient in more than one.
The Roman Catholic Church claims half of the population as adherents, including almost all of the Europeans, Uveans, and Vietnamese and half of the Melanesian and Tahitian minorities. Of the Protestant churches, the Free Evangelical Church (Église Libre) and the Evangelical Church in New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands (Église Evangélique en Nouvelle-Calédonie et Îles Loyauté) have the largest number of adherents; their memberships are almost entirely Melanesian. There are also numerous other Christian groups and small numbers of Muslims.
For the first four decades of the 20th century, the Melanesian population was fairly stable, but by the mid-1980s it had doubled. Migration into and out of New Caledonia has been an important factor in the size of the non-Melanesian communities. The birth rate is higher among Melanesians and Uveans than among other groups, but infant mortality is also higher among Melanesians.
About three-fifths of the people live in the metropolitan area of Nouméa, which since 1965 has expanded to embrace the adjacent municipalities of Dumbéa, Mont-Dore, and Païta. Nouméa has numerous bars and restaurants, shops and supermarkets, a hospital, schools, a newspaper, and radio and television broadcasting facilities. About four-fifths of people of migrant origin, including Europeans, Polynesians, and Asians, live there as compared with one-fourth of the Melanesian population. About three-fourths of the Melanesians live outside Nouméa in small, widely dispersed villages with few modern facilities. They engage chiefly in subsistence agriculture based on the cultivation of yams, taros, sweet potatoes, and bananas. The population is almost entirely Melanesian in the Loyalty Islands, the Île des Pins, and the Bélep Islands and on the east coast and in the mountain ranges of the main island.
Economy
New Caledonia’s economy depends heavily on services, the mining of nickel, and subsidies from France. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing are also important. Import-substitution industries, such as the manufacture of soft drinks and beer, soap, cement, fencing wire, and fishing and pleasure boats, have had little impact on the economy because of the small local market.
Although the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is one of the highest in the South Pacific, the distribution of wealth between ethnic groups is unequal: Melanesian households earn on average only about one-fourth the income of European households. The distribution of land resources on the main island is also uneven. Although thousands of Melanesian families depend on agriculture, two-thirds of the land is in the hands of European families, only a few of whom are engaged in agriculture or cattle raising.
Europeans also dominate trades, businesses, and professions and hold most of the high-ranking administrative posts in the government. Official unemployment tends to be significantly higher among Melanesians than it is among Europeans, even without counting the considerable number of “hidden” unemployed who have returned to their villages.
Taxes in New Caledonia consist primarily of duties on imported goods, sales taxes, and taxes on business revenues. The vast majority of total tax receipts comes from the Nouméa metropolitan area.
Agriculture, fishing, and forestry
Local agricultural products meet only part of New Caledonia’s needs for meat, vegetables, and fruit. Yams are a staple crop. Commercial agriculture has not generally succeeded despite efforts to establish sugarcane, cotton, rice, coffee, and coconut-palm plantations. The production of coffee and copra (from coconuts) that began in the 19th century continued after World War II, chiefly because Melanesian subsistence farmers wished to diversify their crops and enter the cash economy; however, exports of those commodities are now negligible. A few reforestation projects, consisting mainly of plantings of Caribbean pine, have been established on Melanesian land on the Île des Pins and on mountains on the west coast of the main island. Cattle raising is important to the economy; pigs and horses are also raised but rarely for commercial purposes.
Resources and power
The weathering of serpentine rock provides New Caledonia with a large share of the world’s known reserves of nickel ore, as well as large deposits of chromium, cobalt, iron, and magnesium. The export of nickel ore, which has been mined since 1875, and of partly refined nickel from a large foundry on the outskirts of Nouméa, is subject to boom-and-bust cycles determined by the needs of the world steel industry and competition from other producers. Cobalt and iron ore deposits, as well as deposits of gypsum on the west coast and of phosphates on outlying islands, are no longer worked. Noncommercial deposits of coal are found on the west coast. The search for oil has not been successful. Hydroelectric power from Yaté and Néaoua provides nearly half of New Caledonia’s energy needs; the remainder is produced from thermal generators burning imported fuel oil. More than three-fourths of the energy produced is used in nickel refining.