Vanuatu 🇻🇺

Vanuatu is a country in Oceania with a population of 326,740. Its capital is Port Vila. The official currency is VUV, and the main languages are Bislama, English, French.

Quick facts

Capital: Port Vila
Continent: Oceania
Population: 326,740
Area: 12,189 km²
Density: 26.8 people per km²
Currency: VUV
Languages: Bislama, English, French
ISO code: VU

Where Vanuatu sits

Vanuatu 🇻🇺 is one of 14 countries in Oceania, with its capital at Port Vila. It covers 12,189 square kilometres — 158th in the world — and is home to about 326,740 people, 175th globally.

The countries it shares a continent with include Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Fiji and Solomon Islands. If you are learning geography region by region — which works far better than alphabetically, because memory for places is spatial — those are the ones to learn alongside it.

How Vanuatu compares

Raw figures are hard to hold on their own, so it helps to anchor them. In population, Vanuatu sits closest to Barbados and Iceland. In land area, its nearest counterparts are Qatar and Gambia.

At 26.8 people per square kilometre it is about 2.2 times below the world average of 59.4. It ranks higher by area than by population, so it is more spacious than its population alone suggests.

Bislama is listed as official in Vanuatu alone. The VUV is used by Vanuatu and no one else.

To see Vanuatu next to every other country, sort the country rankings by population, area or density; its currency and languages are listed alongside every other country's in world currencies and world languages.

How to remember Vanuatu

Port Vila is on the island of Efate. The Y on the flag is a little map of Vanuatu itself, because the islands form a Y shape in the ocean.

The flag of Vanuatu: red, green, black and yellow

🇻🇺 The flag is red and green horizontal stripes with a black triangle at the flagpole, framed by a black-edged yellow Y, with a curled boar's tusk around two crossed namele fern leaves in the triangle. Red stands for unity and the blood of men and boars, green for the richness of the islands and black for the ni-Vanuatu people. The yellow Y shows how the islands lie in the Pacific and the light of the Gospel. The boar's tusk stands for prosperity and the ferns for peace.

Region and neighbours

Vanuatu is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean, a Y-shaped chain of about 83 volcanic islands in Melanesia. As an island country it has no land neighbours.

Three facts about Vanuatu

Before independence in 1980, the islands were the New Hebrides, run jointly by Britain and France as an Anglo-French condominium.
Vanuatu has three official languages: Bislama, English and French.
There are several active volcanoes in Vanuatu, including Mount Yasur and Lopevi.

Sources: Wikipedia: Vanuatu, Wikipedia: Flag of Vanuatu, Wikipedia: Port Vila, CIA World Factbook.

Quiz yourself on Vanuatu

Oceania capitals quiz — match Vanuatu to Port Vila
Oceania flags quiz — spot the Vanuatu flag among its neighbours
Island nations quiz — Vanuatu is an island country

Quizzes that include Vanuatu

Three angles are worth covering for any country — where it is, what its flag looks like, and what its capital is. For Vanuatu those are:

Oceania map quiz — place it on a blank map
Oceania flags quiz — identify its flag among its neighbours
Oceania capitals quiz — match it to Port Vila
Vanuatu capital quiz — five quick questions starting with Vanuatu
Daily Map Challenge — five countries to find on a blank world map, the same five for everyone each day

Doing all three for one continent before moving on is far more efficient than learning flags globally, then capitals globally, then the map.

Nearby countries

Australia 🇦🇺 — capital Canberra
Fiji 🇫🇯 — capital Suva
Kiribati 🇰🇮 — capital Tarawa
Marshall Islands 🇲🇭 — capital Majuro
Micronesia 🇫🇲 — capital Palikir
Nauru 🇳🇷 — capital Yaren
New Zealand 🇳🇿 — capital Wellington
Palau 🇵🇼 — capital Ngerulmud
Papua New Guinea 🇵🇬 — capital Port Moresby
Samoa 🇼🇸 — capital Apia
Solomon Islands 🇸🇧 — capital Honiara
Tonga 🇹🇴 — capital Nukuʻalofa

Frequently asked questions

What are the colours of the Vanuatu flag?

The flag of Vanuatu is red and green horizontal stripes with a black triangle at the flagpole, framed by a black-edged yellow Y, with a curled boar's tusk around two crossed namele fern leaves in the triangle. Red stands for unity and the blood of men and boars, green for the richness of the islands and black for the ni-Vanuatu people. The yellow Y shows how the islands lie in the Pacific and the light of the Gospel. The boar's tusk stands for prosperity and the ferns for peace.

Which countries border Vanuatu?

None. Vanuatu is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean, a Y-shaped chain of about 83 volcanic islands in Melanesia, so it has no land borders with other countries.

How can I remember the capital of Vanuatu?