Around 95% of Tuvaluans are Polynesian. Their ancestors came from Tonga and Samoa 2,000 years ago. Nui atoll has Micronesian influences. There is an I-Kiribati community on Funafuti; many Tuvaluans who worked in Kiribati took local wives. All nine islands are inhabited. However, over 40% of the population now lives on Funafuti, pushing its population density to almost 4,000 per sq. mile. Life is still communal, traditional and hard. Droughts are common and fresh water is precious. About 80% of people depend on subsistence farming, digging special pits out of the coral to grow most of the islands' limited range of crops. Fishing is also important, and Tuvaluans have a reputation as excellent sailors. Some 2,000 Tuvaluans work overseas, many in Nauru's phosphate mines, others as merchant seamen.
