New Caledonia

New Caledonia ( ; )), then simply as the "Territory of New Caledonia" (), the official French name is now only (Organic Law of 19 March 1999, article 222 IV). The French courts often continue to use the appellation .}} is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a ''sui generis'' collectivity of the French Republic, a legal status unique in overseas France and enshrined in a dedicated chapter of the French Constitution.

The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Chesterfield Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of Pines, and a few remote islets. The Chesterfield Islands are in the Coral Sea. French people, especially locals, call Grande Terre (''pron.'' , ), a nickname also used more generally for the entire New Caledonia. Pro-independence Kanak parties use the name (''pron.'' is often omitted by pro-independence parties and militants, as in ('the independence of Kanaky') or ('the future of Kanaky') for example, where French grammar would normally require a definite article.}}) to refer to New Caledonia, a term coined in the 1980s from the ethnic name of the indigenous Melanesian Kanak people who make up 41% of New Caledonia's population. New Caledonia is one of the European Union's Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs), but it is not part of the European Union.

New Caledonia has a land area of divided into three provinces. The North and South Provinces are on the New Caledonian mainland, while the Loyalty Islands Province is a series of four inhabited islands off the east coast of mainland (from north to south: Ouvéa, Lifou, Tiga, and Maré). New Caledonia's population of 271,407 (October 2019 census) is of diverse origins and varies by geography; in the North and Loyalty Islands Provinces, the indigenous Kanak people predominate, while the wealthy South Province contains significant populations of European (Caldoches and Metropolitan French), Kanak, and Polynesian (mostly Wallisian) origin, as well as smaller groups of Southeast Asian, Pied-Noir, and North African heritage. The capital of New Caledonia is Nouméa. Provided by Wikipedia