Indigenous Fijians are a mixture of Polynesian and Melanesian, resulting from the original migrations to the South Pacific many centuries ago. The Indo-Fijian population has grown rapidly from the 61,000 indentured laborers brought from India between 1879 and 1916 to work in the sugarcane fields. Thousands more Indians migrated voluntarily in the 1920s and 1930s and formed the core of Fiji’s business class.

The native Fijians live throughout the country, while the Indo-Fijians reside primarily near the urban centers and in the cane-producing areas of the two main islands. Nearly all of the indigenous Fijians are Christian, with some two-thirds being Methodist. Some 77 percent of the Indo-Fijians are Hindu, with a further 16 percent being Muslim and 6 percent Christian. There are also a few Sikhs.

A national census is supposed to be conducted every ten years. The last was held in 1996, but the census intended for 2006 has been postponed till 2007. Finance Minister Ratu Jone Kubuabola announced on 27 October 2005 that the Cabinet had decided that it would not be in the country’s interest to have a census and a general election in the same year.

“Peoples’ focus on the elections could have an impact on their cooperation with census officials,” he said. The Statistics Office supported Kubuabola’s announcement, saying that public interest in the general election would likely distract people’s attention from the census, making it problematic to conduct.