Demographics of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha

This article is about the demographics of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a British overseas territory in the south Atlantic Ocean.

Nationality

The citizens of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha hold British Overseas Territories citizenship. On 21 May 2002 they were granted access to full British citizenship by the British Overseas Territories Act 2002,[1] and there is a special Saint Helena passport issued to them.

Saint Helena

Saint Helena is the most populous part of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. The language spoken in Saint Helena is English.

The island has a small population of a few thousand inhabitants, mainly descended from Africans, Mixed race African and Europeans, British settlers, East India Company employees and indentured labourers from the South Asian sub-Continent, East Indies, Madagascar and China.[2]

The people of Saint Helena are Saint Helenians (though locally they are known as "Saints"); the demonym being Saint Helenian.

A census in February 2016 recorded a population of 4,534 on the island.[3] This compares with a figure of 4,257 recorded in 2008[4] and a figure of 5,157 recorded in 1998. The fall between 1998 and 2008 can be explained mostly by emigration, especially since 2002 when the islanders were granted full British citizenship. The main diasporas are to the United Kingdom, South Africa and more recently to the Falkland Islands, as well as on Ascension Island. The population density, based on the 2016 figure, is 37.3 persons per km², or 95.3 per sq mile.

Districts of Saint Helena

The island of Saint Helena is administratively divided into eight districts,[5] each with a community centre. The districts also serve as statistical subdivisions. The island is a single electoral area, sending twelve representatives to the Legislative Council.

Districts of Saint Helena

District balance	Area[6] km^2	Area sq mi	Pop. 1998	Pop. 2008[4]	Pop. 2016[3]	Pop./km^2 2016
Alarm Forest	5.4	2.1	289	276	383	70.4
Blue Hill	36.8	14.2	177	153	158	4.3
Half Tree Hollow	1.6	0.6	1,140	901	984	633.2
Jamestown	3.9	1.5	884	716	629	161.9
Levelwood	14.8	5.7	376	316	369	25.0
Longwood	33.4	12.9	960	715	790	23.6
Sandy Bay	16.1	6.2	254	205	193	12.0
Saint Paul's	11.4	4.4	908	795	843	74.0
Royal Mail Ship St. Helena	–	–	149	171	183	–
Jamestown Harbour	–	–	20	9	13	–
Total	123.3	47.6	5,157	4,257	4,349	35.3

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.[7]

Population

NB: the following [CIA] figures represent the whole territory, including Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha.

By 2010 estimates, per one thousand population: the birth rate is 10.95 births, and the death rate is 6.91 deaths. In the same year, it was estimated that the rate of population growth was 0.404%.

The median age for 2010 is 38.2 years. The following tables describe age structure and human sex ratio, as estimated for 2010.

Births and deaths [8]

Year	Population (×1000)	Live births	Deaths	Natural increase	Crude birth rate	Crude death rate	Rate of natural increase	TFR
2009		35	41	−6	8.5	9.9	−1.4
2010		34	53	−19	8.0	12.5	−4.5
2011		34	49	−15	8.0	11.5	−3.5
2012		32	62	−30	7.8	15.0	−7.2
2013		35	55	−20
2014		48	61	−13	10.9	13.8	−2.9

Age structure

Age range (years)	% of population	Of which male	Of which female
0–14	18.3	712	685
15–64	70.4	2,744	2,629
65+	11.4	412	455

Sex ratio

Age range (years)	Ratio male/female
at birth	1.049
0-14	1.04
15-64	1.04
65+	0.94
Total	1.02

The total fertility rate for 2010 is estimated at 1.56 children born per woman.

Ethnicity

According to the CIA World Factbook, 50% of the population of Saint Helena Island are African Saint Helenians, while Chinese Saint Helenians and White Saint Helenians make up 25% each. However, the possibility of clear-cut categorical divisions between ethnicities on present day St Helena, as reflected by these statistics, is disputed.[9] Most Saint Helenians today are multiracial, similar to the Cape Coloureds.

Ascension has no civilian population, while Tristan da Cunha has a white population descended primarily from the British Isles or from the Falkland Islands.

Religion

The majority of St. Helenians are Anglican. Other religions in St. Helena include (in alphabetic order): the Baháʼí Faith,[10] the Baptist church, Buddhism, Roman Catholicism, and Seventh-day Adventism.

According to the statistics in the 2014 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, Saint Helena has the highest proportion of Jehovah's Witnesses of any country or territory in the world: one person in thirty-five, using an estimated population of 4,000 for St Helena and a count of 118 members.[11]

In Tristan da Cunha, Christianity is the main religion, with the largest denominations being Anglican and Roman Catholic.

Religious	Resident population (St Helena)	Percentage [12]
Yes	3676	84.5
No	266	6.1
Prefer not to say	407	9.4
Denomination	Resident population (St Helena)	Percentage
Anglican	2995	81.5
Jehovah's Witness	178	4.8
Baptist	93	2.5
Roman Catholic	53	1.4
New Apostolic	61	1.7
Seventh Day Adventist	77	2.1
Salvation Army	75	2.0
Baháʼí	11	0.3
Other	97	2.6
Not Stated	36	1

Education

Where being literate is defined as being of age 20 or over and able to read and write, 97% percent of the total population is literate, according to estimates from 1987. 97% of males and 98% of females of St. Helena are literate under this definition by the same estimates.

Health

By 2010 estimates, life expectancy at birth for the total population is 78.6 years (for males it is 75.68; for females it is 81.67). The infant mortality rate is 16.98 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha

Ascension Island has no native inhabitants officially. A transient population of approximately 1,000 live on the Island, made up mainly of members of the American and British militaries, supporting civilian contractors who serve on the joint Anglo-American airbase, and members of their families (a few of whom were born on the island).

Tristan da Cunha has a population of about three hundred inhabitants of mainly mixed ethnicity.

See also

• British Overseas Territory Citizens in mainland United Kingdom

References

1. Browne, Anthony (12 May 2002). "Banished islanders are British again". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
2. "Official Tourism Site linked from official Government of St Helena website". Archived from the original on 17 May 2008. Retrieved 8 May 2008.
3. "Census 2016 – summary report" (PDF). St Helena Government. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
4. "2008 Population Census of St Helena" (PDF). St Helena Government. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
5. St Helena Independent, 3 October 2008, p. 2
6. "Census 2016- Summary Data". St Helena Government. Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
7. The World Factbook CIA World Factbook
8. http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/dyb/dyb2.htm
9. See George, 2002, pp. 93–94 and Shine, 1970, pp. 15–16
10. http://www.sthelenabahai.org Website of the Bahá’í Community of St. Helena
11. 2014 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses. Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. p. 184.
12. http://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Census-2016-Summary-Report.pdf