page_title: Savaiʻi
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Savaiʻi / Geography
context_page_description: Savaiʻi is the largest and highest island in Samoa and the Samoan Islands chain. The island is the sixth largest in Polynesia, behind the three main islands of New Zealand and the Hawaiian Islands of Hawaii and Maui.
  The island of Savaiʻi is also referred to by Samoans as Salafai, a classical Samoan term used in oratory and prose. The island is home to 43,142 people who make up 24% of the country's population.
  The only township and ferry terminal is Salelologa, the main entry point to the island, situated at the east end of Savaiʻi. A tar sealed road serves as the one main highway, connecting most of the villages with local buses reaching most settlements.
  Savaiʻi is made up of six itūmālō. Each district is made up of villages with strong traditional ties of kinship, history, land and matai chief titles. There is also some limited ecotourism development which operates mostly within the villages. The Mau, Samoa's non-violent movement for political independence during colonialism in the early 1900s, had its beginnings on Savaiʻi with the Mau a Pule movement.
  The island is the largest shield volcano in the South Pacific with recent eruptions in the early 1900s.
context_section_description: Savaiʻi island lies north west of Upolu. These two largest islands of Samoa are separated by the Apolima Strait which is about 8 miles (13 km) wide with the small inhabited islands of Manono and Apolima between them.
  Savaiʻi island is of volcanic origin and the mountainous interiors are covered with dense rain forests. The surrounding landscape consists of fertile plateaux and coastal plains with numerous rivers and streams.
caption: Diagram showing how islands are formed by hotspots