KEY FACTS

Joined Commonwealth: 1979
Population: 101,000 (2012)
GDP p.c. growth: 0.9% p.a. 1990–2012
UN HDI 2012: world ranking 121
Official language: English
Time: GMT plus 12–14hr
Currency: Australian dollar

Geography

Area: 811 sq km
Coastline: 1,140 km
Capital: Tarawa

Kiribati (pronounced ‘Kirabas’) spreads across the central Pacific, intersected by the equator and formerly the International Date Line, with most other Commonwealth Pacific island countries lying to its south. Its 33 islands are scattered across 5.2 million sq km of ocean. There are three groups of islands: 17 Gilbert Islands (including Banaba), eight Line Islands and eight Phoenix Islands. The north/south extent is 2,050 km. Kiritimati (formerly Christmas Island) is the world’s biggest coral atoll (388 sq km). Kiritimati in the east is about 3,780 km from Banaba (formerly Ocean Island) in the west.

Main towns:

The main centre and capital is Tarawa, comprising Bairiki (Tarawa South, pop. 47,900 in 2010), Bonriki (Tarawa South, 4,000) and Buariki (Tarawa North, 3,300). Government offices are in Tarawa South at Betio, Bairiki and Bikenibeu. Other populated areas include Taburao (on the island of Abaiang, 4,300), Temaraia (on Nonouti, 3,000), Butaritari island (2,700) and Utiroa (on Tabiteuea, 2,500).

Society

KEY FACTS 2012

Population per sq km: 124
Life expectancy: 69 years

Population:

101,000 (2012); the Phoenix Islands and central and southern Line Islands are mostly uninhabited; 44 per cent of people live in urban areas; growth 1.6 per cent p.a. 1990–2012; birth rate 23 per 1,000 people (41 in 1970); life expectancy 69 years (49 in 1970). The government’s resettlement programme, which began in 1989, aimed to transfer almost 5,000 people from the densely populated western atolls to the Line and Phoenix Islands. Five of the Phoenix Islands were designated for residential development in 1995, especially for people from the overcrowded island of South Tarawa. The people are mostly of Micronesian origin (98.8 per cent in 2000 census). There are also Polynesian and European-descended minorities.

Language:

I-Kiribati is the national language, English the official language though not generally used outside the capital.

Education:

There are nine years of compulsory education starting at the age of six. Primary school comprises six years and secondary six, with two cycles each of three years. The school year starts in January. Three organisations run by the Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development offer vocational training: the Institute of Technology (established in 1970) in technical and administrative skills; the Fisheries Training Centre (1989) in maritime, fishing and language skills, for those who seek employment on Japanese fishing vessels; and the Marine Training Centre in merchant maritime skills. A training college for primary teachers and an extra-mural centre of the University of the South Pacific are located at Tarawa. Kiribati is a partner in the regional University of the South Pacific, which has its main campus in Suva, Fiji, and a campus in Tarawa, Kiribati, with some 3,000 students, enrolled for a wide range of courses using the university’s distance-learning facilities.