Falkland Islanders

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Falkland Islanders
Total population

3,105
(July 2007 estimate[1])

Regions with significant populations
 Falkland Islands
 United Kingdom
 Australia
 New Zealand
Languages
English (see Falkland Islands English)
Religion
Related ethnic groups
British

Falkland Islanders (also called Kelpers[2], Falklanders; Spanish: Malvinenses, Malvineros/as) are the people of the British overseas territory of Falkland Islands.

Contents

[edit] Origins

The Falkland Islanders derive from the numerically small but internationally diverse early 19th century inhabitants of the Falkland Islands comprising and descending in part from settlers brought by Luis Vernet, and English and American sealers; South American gauchos who settled in the 1840s and 1850s, and since the late 1830s and early 1840s onwards settlers from Britain and other countries including various European nations, most recently with especially significant contributions from St. Helena and Chile.[3][4]

[edit] Identity

The Islanders are British, albeit with a distinct identity of their own:

British cultural, economic, social, political and educational values create a unique British-like, Falkland Islands. Yet Islanders feel distinctly different from their fellow citizens who reside in the United Kingdom. This might have something to do with geographical isolation or with living on a smaller island – perhaps akin to those British people not feeling European. (Lewis Clifton, Speaker of the Falklands Legislative Council)[5]

They also see themselves as no different from other immigrant nations including those of neighbouring South America:

We are as much a people as those in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Chile and many other South American countries whose inhabitants are of principally European or African descent. (Councillor Mike Summers)[6]

[edit] CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

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

[edit] Population

3,105 (July 2007 est.)

[edit] Population growth rate

2.44% (2007 est.)[1]

[edit] Nationality

noun: Falkland Islander(s)
adjective: Falkland Island

[edit] Ethnic groups

British

[edit] Religions

primarily Anglican, Roman Catholic, United Free Church, Evangelist Church, Jehovah's Witnesses, Lutheran, Seventh-Day Adventist[1]

[edit] Languages

English

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c CIA World Factbook (2007)
  2. ^ Chater, Tony. The Falklands. St. Albans: The Penna Press, 1996. p. 137. ISBN 0-9504113-1-0
  3. ^ FitzRoy, Robert. Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle between the years 1826 and 1836, describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagle's circumnavigation of the globe. Proceedings of the second expedition, 1831-36, under the command of Captain Robert Fitz-Roy, R.N. London: Henry Colburn, 1839. Chapter XII, p. 267.
  4. ^ Seventeenth periodic reports of States parties due in 2002: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. UN Document CERD/C/430/Add.3, 13/03/2003.
  5. ^ Clifton, Lewis. The Falkland Islands: Self-government with an emerging national identity? News and Journal 2004, The 21st Century Trust. London, 1999. pp. 16-19.
  6. ^ Summers, Mike. Self-determination in the Falkland Islands. In: The Future of the Falkland Islands and Its People. L. Ivanov et al. Sofia: Double T Publishers, 2003. pp. 68-74. ISBN 954-91503-1-3


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