what country is tonga

Tonga is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. It is an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, directly south of Samoa and about two-thirds of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand. Tonga has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited, and its total surface area is about 750 km2 (290 sq mi), scattered over 700,000 km2 (270,000 sq mi) in the southern Pacific Ocean. The country is the last Polynesian monarchy and became fully independent in 1970, although it was never formally colonized. Tonga has a population of 100,200 inhabitants (in 2022) . The capital city of Tonga is Nukualofa on the nations main island Tongatapu. The official language of Tonga is Tongan, along with English.