Kiribati

Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an archipelagic country spanning the Micronesia and Polynesia sub-regions of Oceania in the central Pacific Ocean. The state comprises 32 atolls and other islands and one remote raised coral island, Banaba. Its total land area is 811 km2 (313 sq mi) dispersed over 3,441,810 km2 (1,328,890 sq mi) of ocean. The spread of the country's islands, from Banaba in the west to Kiritimati in the east, straddles the equator and the 180th meridian. The International Date Line goes around Kiribati and swings far to the east, almost reaching 150°W. This brings Kiribati's easternmost islands, the southern Line Islands south of Hawaii, into the same day as the Gilbert Islands and places them in the most advanced time zone on Earth: UTC+14. The permanent population of Kiribati is just over 138,000 as of the 2026 census, and more than half live on Tarawa. There is also a significant number of I‑Kiribati forming a diaspora, the largest of which still growing via emigration is probably in New Zealand; historically, diasporic communities were created through over-population resettlement in the Solomon Islands on Ghizo and Wagina, and through intermarriage in the United Kingdom and United States. Another country with growing diasporic communities born of recent labour immigration is Australia. The I‑Kiribati are a Micronesian people that speaks the Gilbertese language. The Gilberts were politically autonomous of each other, more or less, and anywhere else, until annexed as a protectorate in 1892 by the British; they had no political connection then with the Phoenix or Line islands. This annexation was ended in 1979, when Kiribati gained its independence from the United Kingdom, becoming a sovereign state in 1979. The sovereign state included the Gilberts, the Phoenix and Line islands and Banaba. The capital, Tarawa, now the most populated...