ABSTRACT
Small populations, dispersed settlement and high mortality rates in Pacific island states have until quite recently combined to ensure little population growth. The Second World War raised expectations of better wages and living standards and, in the post-war years, colonial governments improved the basic infrastructure. However, in several places, including PNG (where a number of remote population groups were not contacted until the 1970s) and the FSM, basic facilities like primary schools and health posts were not provided in many districts until the 1960s and 1970s. The arrival of modern health facilities, alongside education and new sources of employment, hastened the pace of social change and the start of a demographic transition that, in turn, contributed to urbanisation.
