Vanuatu
Asia & Oceania
Republic of Vanuatu
Port-Vila (on Efate)
local languages (more than 100) 72.6%,
pidgin (known as Bislama or Bichelama) 23.1%,
English 1.9%,
French 1.4%,
other 0.3%,
unspecified 0.7% (1999 Census)
Personnel risk: LOW
Evacuation risk: LOW
Multiple waves of colonizers, each speaking a distinct language, migrated to the New Hebrides in the millennia preceeding European exploration in the 18th century. This settlement pattern accounts for the complex linguistic diversity found on the archipelago to this day. The British and French, who settled the New Hebrides in the 19th century, agreed in 1906 to an Anglo-French Condominium, which administered the islands until independence in 1980, when the new name of Vanuatu was adopted.