By Jason Brown
RAROTONGA, Cook Islands (January 29 2001 - Cook Islands News)---Latest statistics figures show more than 5,000 Cook Islands residents have left in the last five years.
The current resident population is estimated at 14,300 people, nearly the lowest since the end of World War II -- more than half a century ago.
Today’s population figure, which does not include visitors, is down from the 18,900 residents recorded in 1996.
High birth levels and a low number of deaths have stopped the population from dropping even further.
But migration rates are speeding up again.
In 1999, an election year, 641 more residents left than came back, a slower loss than the previous two years. However, after the government changed to Coalition III, migration increased again last year with 1,087 more departures than arrivals -- and that’s not counting December’s yet to be published figures.
Last January saw the first migration loss of Cook...