National Women MPs

Women have never comprised more than 10% of the membership of Pacific national parliaments in Forum Islands Countries since Independence, and the percentage of women in Pacific parliaments currently hovers at around 5%. Representation at sub-national decision-making is at similarly low levels. In FSM, Nauru, and Vanuatu there are no women members in the national legislature (in fact, FSM has never had a woman member of parliament). In comparison, the Inter-Parliamentary Union reports that the world average of all elected members is 18.4% women and 81.6% men. In Pacific Islands Forum countries, not including Australia and New Zealand, there are only 22 women MPs out of 485 MPs altogether who are currently sitting in their national legislatures.

Countries	Number of MPs	Number of Women
Fiji	103*	13
Kiribati	44	4
Niue	20	3
PNG	111	3
Palau	29*	3
Samoa	49	2
Cook Islands	24	3
Tuvalu	15	1
Tonga	28	1*
Marshall Islands	33	1
Solomon Islands	50	1
Vanuatu	52	0
Federated States of Mircronesia	14	0
Nauru	18	0
* This number refers to both Houses of Parliament (71 elected member House of Representatives & 32 appointed member Senate), prior to Dec-06.
# The 1 woman in Tonga was appointed as a Minister by the King.
& These numbers refers to both elected Chambers (16 member House of Delegates and 13 member Senate)