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Travel to Nauru — Unbiased reviews and
great deals from TripAdvisorNauru
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Republic of Nauru
President: Marcus Stephens (2007)
Current government officials
Total area: 8 sq mi (21 sq km)
Population (2008 est.): 13,770 (growth
rate: 1.7%); birth rate: 24.2/1000; infant mortality rate: 9.4/1000;
life expectancy: 63.8; density per sq km: 655
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Yaren, 4,900
Monetary unit: Australian dollar
Languages:
Nauruan (official), English
Ethnicity/race:
Nauruan 58%, other Pacific Islander 26%,
Chinese 8%, European 8%
Religions:
Christian (two-thirds Protestant, one-third
Roman Catholic)
National Holiday:
Independence Day, January 31
Literacy rate: n.a
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2005
est.): $60 million; per capita $5,000. Real growth rate: n.a.
Inflation: –3.6% (1993). Unemployment: 90% (2004
est.). Arable land: 0%. Agriculture: coconuts.
Labor force: mining phosphates, public administration,
education, and transportation. Industries: phosphate mining,
offshore banking, coconut products. Natural resources:
phosphates. Exports: $64,000 f.o.b. (2005): phosphates.
Imports: $20 million c.i.f. (2004 est.): food, fuel,
manufactures, building materials, machinery. Major trading
partners: South Africa, Germany, India, Japan, Poland,
Australia, Indonesia, UK (2004).
Special relationship within the Commonwealth of Nations
Communications: Telephones: main lines
in use: 1,900 (2002); mobile cellular: 1,500 (2002). Radio
broadcast stations: AM 1, FM 0, shortwave 0 (1998).
Radios: 7,000 (1997). Television broadcast stations: 1
(1997). Televisions: 500 (1997). Internet Service
Providers (ISPs): 53 (2007). Internet users: 300
(2002).
Transportation: Railways: total: 5 km;
note: used to haul phosphates from the center of the island to
processing facilities on the southwest coast (2001). Highways:
total: 30 km; paved: 24 km; unpaved: 6 km (1999 est.). Ports
and harbors: Nauru. Airports: 1 (2007).
International disputes: none.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
Nauru (pronounced NAH-oo-roo) is an island in
the Pacific just south of the equator, about 2,500 mi (4,023 km) southwest
of Honolulu. Phosphate mining has virtually destroyed the tiny nation's
ecology, turning its tropical vegetation into a barren, rocky
wasteland.
Government
Republic.
History
In 1798, a British navigator became the first
European to visit the island. Germany annexed it in 1888, and by the turn
of the century, phosphate, a lucrative fertilizer, began to be mined. The
island was placed under joint Australian, New Zealand, and British mandate
after World War I. The Japanese occupied the island during World War II
and forced 1,200 Nauruans—roughly two-thirds of the
population—to relocate. In 1947, it became a UN trusteeship
administered by Australia. By 1967, the phosphate mining industry finally
was under the control of the islanders, and on Jan. 31, 1968, Nauru became
one of the world's smallest independent republics. For a period of time,
Nauru's phosphate made the tiny country's per capita income the highest in
the world, after Saudi Arabia.
As its phosphate stores began to run out (by
2006, its reserves will be exhausted), the island was reduced to an
environmental wasteland. Nauru appealed to the International Court of
Justice to compensate for the damage from almost a century of phosphate
strip-mining by foreign companies. In 1993, Australia offered Nauru an
out-of-court settlement of 2.5 million Australian dollars annually for 20
years. New Zealand and the UK additionally agreed to pay a one-time
settlement of $12 million each. Declining phosphate prices, the high cost
of maintaining an international airline, and the government's financial
mismanagement combined to make the economy collapse in the late 1990s. By
the millennium Nauru was virtually bankrupt.
In 2000, the G7 nations put pressure on the
country to review its banking system, which is used by Russian criminals
for money laundering.
Since Sept. 2001, Nauru has accepted three
boatloads of Asian refugees destined for Australia. Australia compensated
the island with $20 million and other financial incentives for taking this
refugee problem off its hands. The detention camps, which held more than
400 asylum seekers in 2003, are said to be extremely bleak and lack
medical care.
Bernard Dowiyogo, elected in 2003 as president
for the seventh time (nonsequentially), died in March 2003, and Ludwig
Scotty, a senior cabinet minister, was elected in May 2003. In August,
Scotty was sacked in a no-confidence vote, and René Harris was
elected. But, given Nauru's tumultuous politics, by June 2004 Scotty had
again regained the presidency. Scotty lost another no-confidence vote in
Parliament in December 2007 and was replaced by Marcus Stephens, a former
member of Parliament and minister of finance and education.
See also Encyclopedia: Nauru.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Nauru
Information Please® Database, © 2008 Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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