Kiribati

Kiribati has 33 islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Many islands are thin rings of land around a lagoon. Coconut palms grow on every island.

Kiribati has 33 islands, but only 20 have people living on them. They stretch about 2,900 kilometers from the Gilbert Islands in the west to the Line Islands in the east, with the Phoenix Islands in between.

The name Kiribati is how people say 'Gilberts' in their own language, and it sounds like 'Ki-ri-bas'. English is the official language, and most people speak Gilbertese. The 2020 census counted 119,438 people. The photo shows South Tarawa from the air: a narrow strip of land between the lagoon and the ocean.

Kiribati's 33 islands, 20 of them inhabited, total about 811 km² of land spread over some 2,900 km: the 16 Gilbert Islands, where most people live, the uninhabited Phoenix group, and the Line Islands, three of them inhabited. Gilbertese has 13 sounds, and 'ti' is pronounced like 's', so Kiribati sounds like 'Ki-ri-bas'.

The National Statistics Office's 2020–21 census counted 119,438 people; the office scheduled the next census to start in November 2025, and its results were not yet published in October 2026. The president is elected by the people from three or four candidates chosen by the House of Assembly (Maneaba ni Maungatabu). The Australian dollar is the currency. The photo shows South Tarawa between its lagoon and the ocean.

South Tarawa is where the government works.

Many people live there, close together. Kiritimati is a big atoll far to the east.

The government is on South Tarawa, in the northern Gilberts, on three islets: Bairiki, Ambo and Betio. In the 2020 census, 63,072 people, more than half of everyone in Kiribati, lived on South Tarawa, which is very crowded. Betio is the port and business center.

Far to the east, Kiritimati (Christmas Island) is one of the largest atolls in the world. Britannica describes a large coconut plantation, fish farms and satellite tracking stations there. Government ships and a domestic air service link most of the islands.

Government is divided among South Tarawa islets: Bairiki (executive), Ambo (legislative) and Betio (judicial), with Betio also the port and commercial center. The 2020 census counted 63,072 people on South Tarawa, about 53 percent of the population, after years of migration from the outer islands; its census atlas describes overcrowding.

Kiritimati in the Line Islands, with 388 km², makes up almost half the country's land; it was used for US and British nuclear weapons tests in the 1960s, and Britannica describes a coconut plantation, fish farms and satellite telemetry stations there. Banaba, mined for phosphate from 1900 to 1979, is now sparsely inhabited. Tarawa and Kiritimati have major airports and hospitals.

Most of Kiribati's islands are very low and flat.

It is hot all year. Scientists are measuring how the sea is rising.

A few islands are solid reef islands, but most are atolls: rings of land around a lagoon. Banaba is the highest island, reaching 87 meters. The other islands rise no more than about 8 meters, which makes them vulnerable to changes in sea level.

It is hot all year, usually 27 to 32 °C. NASA scientists expect the sea around Kiribati to rise at least 15 centimeters in the next 30 years, and the government is making plans for the future, including buying land in Fiji in 2014.

Most islands are atolls; a few are compact with fringing reefs. Banaba reaches 87 m (Britannica; Wikidata gives 81 m), but the other atolls rise no higher than about 8 m. By 1999 two uninhabited islets had been covered by the sea. Rainfall in the Gilberts ranges from about 3,000 mm in the north to 1,000 mm in the south, with periodic droughts; most rain falls from November to March.

NASA's sea level change team, working at Kiribati's request, projects at least 15 cm of rise within 30 years; areas with fewer than five high-tide flood days a year could average 65 by the 2050s. The government has studied options, and in 2014 bought about 20 km² on Vanua Levu, Fiji, for food production and as a possible future home.

The sea around the Phoenix Islands is protected.

Hundreds of kinds of fish and corals live there. Many seabirds visit too.

The Phoenix Islands, where nobody lives, are part of a huge protected area of ocean, listed by UNESCO in 2010. About 800 kinds of animals are known there, including about 200 kinds of coral, 500 kinds of fish, 18 kinds of sea mammals and 44 kinds of birds.

On the inhabited islands, coconut palms cover the land. People catch fish and gather food from the reef, and foreign fishing boats pay to fish for tuna in Kiribati's waters.

UNESCO inscribed the Phoenix Islands Protected Area in 2010: 408,250 km² of marine and land habitats, then the largest designated marine protected area in the world, conserving one of the largest intact oceanic coral archipelago ecosystems, 14 known seamounts (presumed extinct volcanoes) and about 800 known animal species, including some 200 corals, 500 fish, 18 marine mammals and 44 birds.

On the inhabited islands coconut palms dominate, and reef and ocean products are central to village diets. Licence fees from foreign fishing fleets are an important source of income.

People in Kiribati speak Gilbertese.

Villages have a big meeting house with open sides. People race sailing canoes.

The people of Kiribati are Micronesian, and most speak Gilbertese. Villages have churches and large meeting houses with open sides and thatched roofs. Coconuts and food from the reef and ocean are the main village foods, along with breadfruit and pandanus, and a big taro-like plant is grown in pits.

Family and traditional land are very important, and showing off is frowned upon. Building and racing sailing canoes is a common pastime. Songs and dances in customary styles are treated as art, with competitions across the islands. Volleyball and football (soccer) are popular too.

The I-Kiribati are Micronesian; Gilbertese is the main language and English the official one, widely spoken on Tarawa. More than half are Roman Catholic and most of the rest Kiribati Protestant. Rural villages are dominated by churches and large open-sided thatched meetinghouses (maneaba).

Coconut nuts and sap (toddy, used in cooking and as a sweet drink) are staples with reef and ocean foods; Cyrtosperma chamissonis, a coarse taro-like plant, is cultivated in pits. Britannica describes society as conservative, with strong ties to family and land and conspicuous displays of wealth discouraged. Canoe building and racing are common pastimes, and customary composition and dance are competitive art forms.