New Caledonia (; popular name: "Le caillou") () is a ""sui generis" collectivity" (in practice an overseas territory) of France, made up of a main island ("Grande Terre") and several smaller islands. It is in the region of Melanesia in the southwest Pacific. At about half the size of Taiwan, it has a land area of 18,575.5 square kilometres (7,172 sq mi). At the 2004 census, 230,789 people lived there. It has an internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) of .nc. The capital and largest city of the territory is Nouméa. The currency is the CFP franc. The inflation rate is -0.6%. The unemployment rate is 17.1%