Kiribati Location:
1°28'N, 173°2'E
Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. It comprises 33 atolls dispersed over 1,351,000 square miles (3,500,000 km2) straddling the equator and borders the International Date Line to the west. The name Kiribati is pronounced /'kiribas/ and is the Kiribati language rendering of "Gilberts", derived from the English name for the main group of islands, the former Gilbert Islands. Because the written native language lacks the letter 's', the sound is rendered as 'ti.' Likewise, the Pacific island known as Christmas Island (not to be confused with the Australian-administered island of that name in the Indian Ocean) is known in the Kiribati language as Kiritimati Island.
Kiribati Geography:
Kiribati consists of about 32 atolls and one island (Banaba), with at least three in each hemisphere. The groups of islands are:
Banaba: an isolated island between Nauru and the Gilbert Islands.
Gilbert Islands: 16 atolls located some 930 miles (1,500 km) north of Fiji
Phoenix Islands: 8 atolls and coral islands located some 1,100 miles (1,800 km) southeast of the Gilberts
Line Islands: 8 atolls and one reef, located about 2,050 miles (3,300 km) east of the Gilberts.
Banaba (or Ocean Island) is a raised-coral island that was once a rich source of phosphates, but it was mostly mined out before independence. The rest of the land in Kiribati consists of the sand and reef rock islets of atolls or coral islands that rise but a few meters (at most 6.5 feet) above sea level. The soil is thin and calcareous, making agriculture very difficult. Kiritimati (Christmas Island) in the Line Islands is the world's largest atoll. Based on a 1995 realignment of the International Date Line, Kiribati is now the easternmost country in the world, and was the first country to enter into the year 2000 at Caroline Island, which, not coincidentally, has been renamed Millennium Island.[2]
According to the South Pacific Regional Environment Program, two small uninhabited Kiribati islets, Tebua Tarawa and Abanuea, disappeared underwater in 1999. The islet of Tepuka Savilivili (Tuvalu; not a Gilbertese name) no longer has any coconut trees due to salination. [2] The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that sea levels will rise by about half a meter (20 in) by 2100 due to global warming and a further rise would be inevitable. It is thus likely that within a century the nation's arable land will become subject to increased soil salination and will be largely submerged
Kiribati People:
Population
- July 2005 estimate 105,432 (197th)
- 2000 census 84,494
- Density 137 /km2 (73rd)
355 /sq mi
Kiribati Government:
Government Republic
- President Anote Tong
Kiribati Economy:
Kiribati has few natural resources. Commercially viable phosphate deposits were exhausted at the time of independence. Copra and fish now represent the bulk of production and exports. Tourism provides more than one-fifth of GDP.
Foreign financial aid, largely from the United Kingdom and Japan, is a critical supplement, equal in recent years to 25% to 50% of GDP. Agriculture accounts for 12.4% of GDP and 71% of labour; industry 0.9% of GDP and 1.9% of labour; trade 18.5% of GDP and 4.1% of labour; commercial trade 5.7% of GDP and 1.4% of labour; and service industries 5.7% of GDP and 1.4% of labour. The main export and import countries are Australia, USA, France, Japan, Hong Kong and Germany.
Kiribati Information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiribati | 
