The 1988 population census found a total of about 190,000 people in French Polynesia. However the criteria used for defining the racial groups can only approximate a breakdown of: 70% Polynesian, 12% European, 10% Polynesian/European, five per-cent Chinese, and three percent Polynesian/Chinese. All are French citizens.

The 1988 population figures for the five administrative subdivisions are Windward Islands 140,341, Leeward Islands 22,232, Austral Islands 6,500, Tuamotu/Gambier Islands 12,374, Marquesas Islands 7,358. About 70% of the total population lives on Tahiti.

The indigenous people of Tahiti-Polynesia are the maori or Eastern Polynesians (as opposed to the Western Polynesians in Samoa and Tonga).

Racial intermarriages are common and many Tahitians can claim French, Chinese, American and Polynesian ancestry. This accounts for the physical beauty of the inhabitants and the total abscence of racial prejudice, either from the Europeans or the Tahitians.