[citation needed] The population of approximately 70,000 is mostly Lutheran and Catholic and speaks the two languages Waskia and Takia.

The two main exports from the island are cacao and coconuts, which can grow in the same soil due to vast height differences.

The first recorded sighting by Europeans of Karkar Island was by the Spanish navigator Iñigo Órtiz de Retes on 10 August 1545 when on board of the carrack San Juan tried to return from Tidore to New Spain.

[2] It was later visited by Willem Schouten and Jacob le Maire and called "High island".

The Australian 37th/52nd Battalion landed on 2 June 1944, to find that the Japanese had evacuated the island and Australian 5th Division troops landed on the island at Biu Bay and Kavilo Bay on 6 June 1944.