Population
Pohnpeian historic society was highly structured into five tribes, various clans and sub-clans; each tribe headed by two principal chiefs. The tribes were organized on a feudal basis. In theory, "all land belonged to the chiefs, who received regular tribute and whose rule was absolute." Punishments administered by chiefs included death and banishment. Tribal wars included looting, destruction of houses and canoes and killing of prisoners. "By Spanish times had become considerably bloodier," a report of one battle alone in 1890 lists 300 Spanish casualties. In the German period officials attempted to identify agitators from both tribal sides and then ship them off to Rabaul in German New Guinea for one year of penal servitude.
Pre-Spanish population estimates are deemed unreliable, however, a drastic population decline occurred after 1854 due to a smallpox epidemic after European contact. The German census of 1911-12 shows 3,190 Pohnpeians, 585 Central Carolinians and 279 Melanesians. Many of the out-islanders were resettled (mainly on Sokehs Island) in consequence of destructive typhoons in their home islands. A special census conducted in late 1947 shows a total population of 5,628, of which 4,451 were Pohnpeians, and 1,177 were natives of other Pacific islands. By 1963 the population had grown to nearly 10,000. The population of the state in 2010 is approximately 34,000. While the majority of the population consider themselves ethnic Pohnpeians, Pohnpei is more ethnically diverse than any other island in the FSM. This is largely due to more than a century of foreign colonial occupation, bringing in Spanish, German, Japanese, Chamorro, Filipino, American, Australian, other western Europeans, and it being home to the capital of the national government, which employs hundreds of people from the other three FSM States (Yap, Chuuk, Kosrae) having distinct ethnic and cultural origins. The indigenous makeup also includes the multiple regional ethnicities of the outer islands within Pohnpei State, resulting in a mix of Australasian Pacific Islanders and hence making Pohnpei Island the FSM's melting pot.
Read more about this topic: Municipalities Of Pohnpei
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