The Miss South Pacific Pageant was established in 1987 by the Government of Samoa as a regional event to recognize and promote the attributes, intelligence, and talents of Pacific Island women. The pageant recognizes Pacific Island women, their contributions to regional affairs, and their ability to advance in diverse fields.

The first Miss South Pacific Pageant, hosted by the Government of Western Samoa, was held in 1987. Miss American Samoa, Juliet Spencer, was crowned the Miss South Pacific. Until 2000, the Miss South Pacific Pageant allowed South Pacific Islanders to represent their homeland communities even though they lived abroad. For example, Miss Samoa New Zealand represented the Samoan Community in New Zealand, and Miss Papua New Guinea Australia represented the PNG community in Australia.

Tahiti was the first nation in the pageant’s history to win back-to-back victories, with Retire Chevaux winning in 1989 and Henari Arauvaʻa in 1990. Cook Islands has won the most titles, with 8 titles altogether within 22 years: the first win was by Kimiora Vogel in 1991, and the most recent was Teuira Napa in 2013. Samoa and American Samoa have each also had victorious representatives from their overseas communities, including Miss Samoa Hawaii, Theresa Purcell in 1988 and Miss Samoa NZ, Julia Toevai in 1992. Samoa started competing in the pageant as Western Samoa, and changed its name to Samoa in 1997. 

The pageant started off with about 20 contestants representing their homelands and their homeland communities overseas (such as Samoa Hawaii, Cook Islands NZ, Niue Australia, etc.) until the year 2000; from 2001 the pageant required South Pacific Islanders wishing to represent their homeland communities abroad to compete in and win their homeland pageants first in order to enter the Miss South Pacific Pageant; as a result the number of Miss South Pacific contestants dropped.

The pageant has been held in different Pacific island nations, as chosen by the pageant’s board, and Samoa had hosted the most pageants, with more than 10 times. Many islands and territories that had previously competed have been absent from the pageant in some years, such as Aotearoa (New Zealand), Hawaiian Islands, Kiribati, New Caledonia, Niue, Northern Marianas, Rapa Nui, Tokelau and Vanuatu. Fiji won their first Miss South Pacific title in 2009 with Merewalesi Nailatikau and became the first Melanesian woman to captured the title. 

In 2014, the pageant was renamed Miss Pacific Islands in order to represent the whole Pacific Region instead of just the South Pacific.

The pageant for 2020 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was postponed until 2023.  The reigning Miss Pacific Islands 2019 Fonoifafo McFarland-Seumanu of Samoa will become the longest reigning Miss Pacific Islands to ever hold the title.