Demographics of The Oan Isles

The Oan Isles has approximately 90 million people. The most recent, reliable and conservative estimate is that there are actually 89,860,970 people who live in the Oan Isles. 52% are female and 48% are male. 99.9% are human while 0.1% belong to other species especially vulpines from the Aurora, Gondwana and Pacific region. 99.1% are citizens. 10% are above the age of 70. 50% are between the ages of 21 to 35.

Mortality and Fertility

Each woman, on average, has 0.5 children. This means that out of 1000 women, only 500 can be expected to have one child. This is because of urbanisation and the expenses associated with having children in a fast paced conservative policies. Although abortion is restricted and illegal in most cases, the state has a large family planning program, encouraging abstinence and the use of contraceptive.

Family and Marriage

There is a fairly low divorce rate of 2% of marriages ending prematurely after 5 years. 5% end at some point. Women marry on average at the age of 24 while men marry on average at the age of 28 years old. The average age gap between married women and men is 4 years in which the male is often the senior.99% of marriages/civil unions are heterosexual. Homosexual unions are technically not marriages, since no religious body has agreed to administer them, only state civil unions have been administered for homosexual couples. Homosexual unions are often afflicted by premature separation/termination. A large 10% of marriages are polygamous, attributed to Oan polynesian culture. 6% of households are fatherless, while 1% of households are motherless -- attributed to divorce, death and separation. The protection of the traditional marriage and family model is attributed to conservative social education and the presence of strong religious, particularly Christian, institutions, in every day life.

Urbanisation

A rendition of the cityscape of the most populated city in the Oan Isles, The Port of the Rock

Urbanisation in the Oan Isles is the process whereby people move to and work in urban areas. Approximately 65% of the population lives in the top ten largest cities in the country. This reflects approximately 77,8 million people. Approximately 17% of the people live in one city: The Port of The Rock, while 30% live on one island, The Rock Island. The top ten cities only use up 44,600km² of the 500,000km² of The Oan Isles total land area. The rest of the 44,2 million inhabitants use up approximately 30,000km² of The Oan Isles' available area. This reflects a total urbanisation of only 15% of the Oan Isles' land surface. The average density in the top ten cities is 1,700 people per square kilometre. Even then, a whopping 20% of the land is reclaimed from the sea, meaning that only only 12% of the Oan original terrain is actually used up for urban areas. The Oan Isles has relatively few actual cities or towns, with approximately 70, 60 of which have an average population of 750,000 people. Almost all Oans live in cities, except a small percentage of agriculturalists, nearly 2% of the population. Even then most agriculuralists grow food in skyscraper green houses. Urbanisation has the benefit of reducing damage to the environment, while making jobs and services easily accessible. Oans enjoy a great deal of comfort and safety in urban areas.

Languages

The Oan Isles has three official languages: Codexian, Wachovian and Oan. Codexian is managed by the Codexian Language Board and Wachovian is managed by the Wachovian Language Board in the Free Pacific States. Local variations of these languages exist especially Wachovian. Wachovian in The Oan Isles is heavily influenced by Oan.

Oan is a language which originated from the Oan Isles. It is characterised by many vowels, the use of prefixes and suffixes to create tense, meaning and so on. Oan is written in a variation of cuneiform, alongside the Codexian script. Both texts are used in public life and taught in schools. All three languages are used on street signs, official communications, education and commerce, however, Codexian is becoming dominant as The Oan Isles is exposed to people from around the Urth. Most PCs have both scripts available, but only generally only Codexian is on the keypad.

Oan is spoken as a first language by 80% of people over the age of 40, while 70% of those below the age of 40 speak Codexian as a first language with Oan as a second language. This trend shows how Codexian is replacing Oan as the primary medium of communication. Wachovian is by far the most spoken 3rd language. 80% of Oans can speak at least three languages while 16% can only speak two. 50% of Oans can read and write at least two languages, while 40% can read and write in both Codexian script and Oan cuneiform. 10% can read and write in both scripts and at least two languages. All adult Oans above the age of 16 can read and write.

Ethnic groups

99.9% of people in The Oan Isles are Homo sapiens. There are approximately 1,000 dwarfs who live in the forests of the Peace Islands, far away from modern human society. There is a minute number of vulpines from countries such as Emberwood Coast, The Staynes-Caltharus Empire and Veikayu, but all of them are expatriate workers, students or tourists. No nonhuman has ever been made an Oan citizen.

Oan humans have a variety of ethnic groups which is equivalent to breeds among vulpines or lupines. The Oan ethnic group is by far the largest and continues to assimilate other groups through adoption and "Oanisation".90% of people are considered Oan, and this number is growing exponentially. Oan Wachovians and Oan Codexians number 7%, while Oan Bai Lungese and Oan Central Gondwanans number 3% of the population. Through the Oan tribal system (discussed in the section on Culture), people are adopted, their names are changed, they are subject to Oan customary law and become part of the "Oan nation". This process of Oanisation has become more vigorous as Oans are increasingly exposed to nonhumans.

Religion

The largest religion by a wide margin, is Christianity. 90% of people belong to this religion, but of them are distinguished by denomination. 5% of Christians are Roman Catholics. 15% of Christians belong to the Mainline Protestant Churches such as Calivinism and Lutheranism. 80% of all Christians are Evangelical Protestants especially of the Charismatic and Pentecostal branches. The latter denomination ballooned in the 20th century due to the fact it reinstated the fairly conservative teachings and bible-centred nature of teaching to which many Oans who were disenchanted with the 1960s liberalism, apostasy and dillution of religious values, especially those which led to The Auroran Imperial War, had longed for.

Evangelical Protestantism also created a platform for syncretism. Syncretism is the process whereby two or more religions are combined. Many profess Christianity as a religion, and Oan traditional religion as a cultural and lifestyle aspect. While these two differ in practices, they agree in some areas of doctrine (or at least according to the interpretation of syncretists). There has been on going debate about the extent to which Oan traditional religion influences Christian practice and belief. This also skews how many people practice Oan traditional religion, as syncretism was not asked in the previous census or in many polls.

Oan traditional religion eschews many stylistic epithets of Yasterian "Eastern" and "Western" organised religion. It does not have a sigle scripture. It stems from the cultural practices of the Oan people over 50,000 years. Most revelation and teaching is organised around prophets. These are almost entirely women, who are very sensitive to the spiritual world, and are able (according to their stature) to communicate with or tap into a complex spiritual world. This Spiritual World ranges from giant serpents who are believed to control water and rain on Urth to ancestors who provide guidance, protection and abundance. Animal sacrifice and incense are important parts of the religion. There is a very limited focus on deities (who are claimed to exist, but are irrelevant to humans), except the Creator and the ancestors.