Niue

(self-governing in free association with New Zealand)

Niue's remoteness, as well as cultural and linguistic differences between its Polynesian inhabitants and those of the rest of the Cook Islands, have caused it to be separately administered. The population of the island continues to drop (from a peak of 5,200 in 1966 to an estimated 1,492 in 2007), with substantial emigration to New Zealand, 2,400 km to the southwest. Its languages are: Niuean, a Polynesian language closely related to Tongan and Samoan; English.