Nauru

Country	Republic of Nauru
Capital	no official capital; government offices in Yaren District
Independence	31 January 1968 (from the Australia-, NZ-, and UK-administered UN trusteeship)
National holiday	Independence Day, 31 January (1968)
Population	9,434 (July 2013 est.)
Sex ratio	0.83 male(s)/female 0-14 years: 0.81 male(s)/female 15-24 years: 1.07 male(s)/female 25-54 years: 0.98 male(s)/female 55-64 years: 0.68 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female total population: 0.91 male(s)/female (2013 est.)
Nationality	Nauruan
Religions	Protestant 45.8% (Nauru Congregational 35.4%, Nauru Independent Church 10.4%), Roman Catholic 33.2%, other 14.1%, none 4.5%, unspecified 2.4% (2002 census)
Languages	Nauruan (official, a distinct Pacific Island language), English (widely understood, spoken, and used for most government and commercial purposes)
Location	Oceania, island in the South Pacific Ocean, south of the Marshall Islands
Geographic coordinates	0 32 S, 166 55 E
Map references	Oceania
Area	total: 21 sq km land: 21 sq km water: 0 sq km
Area - comparative	about 0.1 times the size of Washington, DC
Land boundaries	0 km
Coastline	30 km
Maritime claims	territorial sea: 12 nm contiguous zone: 24 nm exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
Climate	tropical with a monsoonal pattern; rainy season (November to February)
Terrain	sandy beach rises to fertile ring around raised coral reefs with phosphate plateau in center
Elevation extremes	lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m highest point: unnamed elevation along plateau rim 61 m
Natural resources	phosphates, fish
Land use	arable land: 0% permanent crops: 0% other: 100% (2005)
Irrigated land	NA
Natural hazards	periodic droughts
Environment - current issues	limited natural freshwater resources, roof storage tanks collect rainwater but mostly dependent on a single, aging desalination plant; intensive phosphate mining during the past 90 years - mainly by a UK, Australia, and NZ consortium - has left the central 90% of Nauru a wasteland and threatens limited remaining land resources
Environment - international agreements	party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Whaling signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
Geography - note	Nauru is one of the three great phosphate rock islands in the Pacific Ocean - the others are Banaba (Ocean Island) in Kiribati and Makatea in French Polynesia; only 53 km south of Equator