It's estimated only 20 per cent are employed, with most living off trading and subsistence farming, and just 20 per cent have access to electricity.
Around 50,000 people live in the capital, Honiara, a shabby but lively town that hugs a coastline littered with fishing vessels, shipping containers and small businesses and dwellings.
There are few buildings above two storeys and most are basic constructions but, in many respects, Lawson Tama Stadium is the epicentre of the city.
Rival tribes dropped their weapons during the civil unrest sparked by the elections of 2006 and met at the ground to watch football. Once the game was finished, they dispersed and commenced fighting again.
Sometimes it gets out of hand and in 2009 a riot broke out at a game between Honiara and Malaita over a disputed goal. Children as young as 10 burned down a building at the ground but the game continued regardless _ former Kingz striker Batram Suri scored the winner for Malaita.
The All Whites have been told to dash for the team bus if any trouble breaks out but that is highly unlikely.
It is a lot more peaceful now but the fractious nature of the population still seeps through.
Many Solomon Islanders, including Meke, a Honiara taxi driver, don't want the Bonitos to win because, as he says, "the coach has picked the wrong players''. It also hasn't helped that Alick Maemae, one of the team's `stars' and most popular players, was dismissed for disciplinary reasons.
"We want New Zealand to win because they did so well at the last World Cup and Oceania should have a good team at the next World Cup,'' Meke says.
The All Whites are well liked in Honiara. Instead of locals wanting any team other than New Zealand to win the tournament, the Kiwis are at least everyone's second side.
More than 500 turned out to Honiara airport to greet the team on Wednesday and locals have gathered at New Zealand's training sessions to watch.
They love flair, not always this country's forte, and cheer excitedly when Kosta Barbarouses or Marco Rojas do something flashy - although the crocodile cruelly kept as a pet by the ground's owner in a small cage adjacent to the pitch didn't seem too impressed.
The Solomon Islands are widely acknowledged as producing some of the most talented players in the region _ Oceania call the country their jewel in the crown - and their beach soccer and futsal teams are heading to the next World Cups.
But they don't always know how to express that in the 11-man game and a lack of coaching, development and education at all levels has held them back. A number of players also get homesick and drop out of the system.
They made the final of the 2004 Nations Cup, when they were beaten 11-1 on aggregate to Australia in a two-legged final, and finished ahead of New Zealand in the preliminary competition for Germany 2006 before suffering another aggregate defeat to Australia (this time 9-1) in the final round.
They are expected to finish in the top four of this tournament, qualifying them for the next phase, and opened their campaign with a 1-0 win over Papua New Guinea.
Match days are exciting, colourful and sometimes intimidating affairs and for New Zealand assistant coach Neil Emblen who grew up in and played professionally in England, something he enjoys.
"For me, it's refreshing,'' he says. "We drove 15 minutes from the airport to the hotel and saw about five or six football pitches. They aren't the best pitches, and some of them are awful, but they are still football pitches. They love their football here. It's exciting.''
Emblen recalls the first leg of the 2008 O-League final at Lawson Tama Stadium he played in that was an intimidating atmosphere, largely because Kossa beat Waitakere United 3-1.
Scores of people were perched on the toilet block to watch and, when the third goal went in, it couldn't take the weight of their celebrations and caved in. No one, apparently, was seriously hurt.
Many All Whites have described it as one of the most difficult environments to play football, but there's also something quite special about it. It's more than a football ground.
