mackenzie K. Southern Hemisphere Blog

  The Kiribati islands are one of the many islands that make up the Pacific. Here are a few facts about the geography and people of the island.

The Republic of Kiribati is an island nation stretching over 2,000 miles along the equator in the Central Pacific. Its 33 atolls comprise only 205 square miles, while its ocean area is 1,370,300 square miles or roughly the size of India. There are three main archipelagos: the Kiribati/Gilbert Islands, the Phoenix Islands, and the Line Islands. The Kiribati Islands are 930 miles north of Fiji. The islands gained independence from the British in 1979. Kiribati [kiribas] is the Kiribati pronunciation of Gilbert, the former British name for the main island group.

With minimal land resources and periodic droughts, the Kiribati people are primarily dependent on the ocean both for sustenance and income. Fish and copra, a coconut product, are the top two exports. The majority of people live in villages with populations between 50 and 3,000 people. Their homes are open air huts, or buyas, constructed with materials from the pandanus and coconut trees. Almost half of the population, however, lives in the capital, Tarawa, where the population density exceeds that of Hong Kong. 

The total population in 2005 was 92,533. Almost 100% of the people are Micronesian. Twenty percent of the people have at least completed high school, while 80% have at least completed primary school. About half of people engage in subsistence work while 25% are now involved in the cash sector. Life expectancy is 61 years.

Kiribati is one of the poorest countries in the Pacific by traditional standards. In contrast, they have one of the highest rates of protein consumption in the world, almost exclusively from eating fish. The Kiribati people pride themselves on self-reliance. Despite extreme isolation and limited land resources, the Kiribati culture has adapted to provide a lifestyle of subsistence wealth that has capitalized on the rich resources of the sea.

Now you know a little bit about the geography and people of the Kiribati islands!