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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 (2007 est.): 13,528 (growth
rate: 1.8%); birth rate: 24.5/1000; infant mortality rate: 9.6/1000;
life expectancy: 63.4; density per sq mi: 1,668
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)
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, © 2007 Pearson Education,
Inc. All rights reserved.
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