, 0.3% Chinese, 0.4% other

Religion: almost all at least nominally Christian; Anglican, Seventh-Day
Adventist, and Roman Catholic Churches dominant

Language: 120 indigenous languages; Melanesian pidgin in much of the
country is lingua franca; English spoken by 1-2% of population

Literacy: 60%

Labor force: 23,448 economically active; 32.4% agriculture, forestry, and
fishing; 25% services, 7.0% construction, manufacturing, and mining;
4.7% commerce, transport, and finance (1984)

Organized labor: NA, but most of the cash-economy workers have trade
union representation

- Government
Long-form name: none

Type: independent parliamentary state within Commonwealth

Capital: Honiara

Administrative divisions: 7 provinces and 1 town*; Central, Guadalcanal,
Honiara*, Isabel, Makira, Malaita, Temotu, Western

Independence: 7 July 1978 (from UK; formerly British Solomon Islands)

Constitution: 7 July 1978

Legal system: common law

National holiday: Independence Day, 7 July (1978)

Executive branch: British monarch, governor general, prime minister,
Cabinet

Legislative branch: unicameral National Parliament

Judicial branch: High Court

Leaders:
Chief of State--Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952), represented
by Governor General George LEPPING (since 27 June 1989, previously acted as
governor general since 7 July 1988);

Head of Government--Prime Minister Solomon MAMALONI (since 28 March 1989);
Deputy Prime Minister Danny PHILIP (since 31 March 1989)

Political parties and leaders:
People's Alliance Party (PAP), Solomon Mamaloni;
United Party (UP), Sir Peter Kenilorea;
Solomon Islands Liberal Party (SILP), Bartholemew Ulufa'alu;
Nationalist Front for Progress (NFP), Andrew Nori;
Labor Party (LP), Joses Tuhanuku

Suffrage: universal at age 21

Elections:
National Parliament--last held 22 February 1989 (next to be held
February 1993);
results--percent of vote by party NA;
seats--(38 total) PAP 13, UP 6, NFP 4, SILP 4, LP 2, independents 9

Member of: ACP, ADB, Commonwealth, ESCAP, G-77, GATT (de facto), IBRD,
IDA, IFAD, IFC, ILO, IMF, SPF, UN, UPU, WHO

Diplomatic representation: Ambassador (vacant) resides in Honiara
(Solomon Islands);
US--the ambassador in Papua New Guinea is accredited to the
Solomon Islands; Embassy at Mud Alley, Honiara (mailing address is
American Embassy, P. O. Box 561, Honiara); telephone (677) 23488

Flag: divided diagonally by a thin yellow stripe from the l