50 Fun Facts About Kiribati

How is the name Kiribati pronounced?

In Gilbertese the letters -ti stand for an [s] sound, so Kiritimati is pronounced "Christmas".

The name Kiribati is the local-language rendering of which English word?

The archipelago was named for British captain Thomas Gilbert, who sighted some of the islands in 1788.

Kiribati comprises 32 atolls plus one remote raised coral island called what?

Formerly Ocean Island, it was mined for phosphate until the deposits ran out before independence.

What is Kiribati's highest point, found on its one raised island?

Everywhere else the country is low-lying atoll, which is why sea-level rise is an existential threat.

Kiribati's islands are spread over roughly how much ocean?

The land itself totals just 811 km2, and the country straddles both the equator and the 180th meridian.

Kiribati's easternmost islands sit in the most advanced time zone on Earth, which is what?

The International Date Line bulges far east around the country so that all of Kiribati shares the same day.

In which year did Kiribati move the International Date Line so it no longer split the country?

The change let Kiribati claim the first dawn of the third millennium, to the annoyance of Tonga, New Zealand and Fiji.

Caroline Island in the Line Islands was renamed in 1997 to mark what?

It is one of the most pristine tropical islands anywhere, first sighted by Europeans in 1606.

What is the capital of Kiribati?

The atoll's southern islets are joined by causeways and hold more than half the national population.

The largest atoll in Kiribati by land area takes its local name from which English word?

Captain Cook visited it on Christmas Eve 1777, and it holds over 70% of the country's land.

Which British explorer visited Kiribati's largest atoll on 24 December 1777?

A 1781 map by Tobias Conrad Lotter labelled it île des Tortues, Turtles Island.

Which Kiribati island was the main base for Britain's 1957 hydrogen-bomb tests?

The first device went off over Malden Island in May 1957 and the Grapple X test over Kiritimati itself that November; the US tested there in 1962.

The Gilbert Islands became a British protectorate in which year?

Local chiefs agreed the deal with Captain Edward Davis of HMS Royalist; the Ellice Islands joined at the same time.

Ocean Island joined the British protectorate in 1900 after which resource was found there?

The Pacific Phosphate Company worked the island until it was exhausted; the mine was no longer viable by independence.

Most surviving Banabans were resettled after 1945 on Rabi, an island in which country?

Britain had bought the island in 1942 for the purpose; the Banabans still have a nominated seat in Kiribati's parliament.

Which country occupied Butaritari and the atoll that is now Kiribati's capital from 1941 to 1943?

The occupiers massacred all but one of the Gilbertese on Banaba before it was freed in 1945.

The bloody November 1943 battle on Kiribati's capital atoll was mostly fought on which tiny island?

Nearly 6,400 Japanese, Koreans and Americans died on an island of just 118 hectares in the first US offensive in the Central Pacific.

The Ellice Islands became which independent country in 1978?

They had asked to separate in 1974; the meeting house that Kiribati calls a maneaba is a maneapa there.

On what date did Kiribati gain independence from the United Kingdom?

The date marked the 90th anniversary of the arrival of a key figure in the islands, and the constitution was promulgated the same day.

Who was the chief minister whose cabinet chose the name Kiribati for the new state?

They preferred it to the indigenous name Tungaru because it also covered the Line and Phoenix Islands and Banaba.

In a 1979 treaty of friendship, which country gave up its claims to the Phoenix and Line Islands?

It had earlier incorporated the Northern Line and Phoenix Islands, including Howland, Jarvis and Baker, into its territories.

Which Kiribati president, in office 2003–2016, made climate change central to its diplomacy?

He beat his own older brother Harry in the 2003 election and later bought land in Fiji as a possible refuge for his people.

In 2012 Kiribati bought the 2,200-hectare Natoavatu Estate on which Fijian island?

It was widely reported as a possible evacuation site for the whole population if the seas keep rising.

Who became Kiribati's fifth president in March 2016?

Seen as pro-Beijing, he switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in September 2019.

Kiribati has used which country's currency as its domestic money?

The Australian bank ANZ runs branches and ATMs on the islands; the government lives largely on fishing licence fees and aid.

The Phoenix Islands Protected Area, a World Heritage Site from 2010, was then the world's largest and what?

It covers about 408,000 km2, more than 11% of the country's exclusive economic zone.

Which bird flies over a rising sun on Kiribati's flag?

It symbolises command over the sea, freedom and the birdlike head movements of Kiribati dance.

How many rays does the sun on Kiribati's flag have?

They stand for the 16 Gilbert Islands plus Banaba; the three wavy white stripes are the ocean and the three archipelagoes.

What is the traditional Kiribati meeting house, the centre of tribal and national governance, called?

It has a high coconut-wood roof on coral posts, thatched with pandanus, and the whole community helps build it.

What language do the I-Kiribati speak?

It is an Oceanic language; English is also official but little used outside the capital.

The local word kamea for a dog is said to derive from settlers calling what to their dogs?

Other borrowings include buun (spoon) and batoro (bottle), while a plane is wanikiba, the flying canoe.

Kiribati's population is predominantly of which religion?

Catholicism arrived on Nonouti around 1880 via two islanders converted in Tahiti; about 59% of people are Catholic today.

Kiribati has the world's third-highest prevalence of which habit, at 54–57% of the population?

Together with type 2 diabetes it has driven a spike in amputations and left the country last in Oceania for life expectancy.

Kiribati dance is distinguished by outstretched arms and sudden movements of the head resembling what?

The frigatebird on the flag is emblematic of the style; formal standing and hip dances use a wooden box as percussion.

Kiribati weightlifter David Katoatau drew world attention at Rio 2016 by doing what after his lifts?

He said the routines were meant to raise awareness of global warming's threat to his country.

Kiribati won its first-ever Commonwealth Games medal in 2014 in which sport?

David Katoatau took gold in the 105 kg group; the country first competed at the Games in 1998 and at the Olympics in 2004.

Stevenson immortalised Tembinok', high chief of which island, in In the South Seas?

He was the last of the expansionist chiefs of the Gilberts.

The 1902 trans-Pacific telegraph cable that completed Britain's "All Red Line" landed where in Kiribati?

The cable ran from Bamfield in British Columbia and from Fiji to what is now Tabuaeran in the Line Islands.

In 1999 Kiribati agreed to lease land on its largest atoll to which country's space agency?

A tracking station operates there and an old airfield was earmarked for the HOPE-X unmanned shuttle.

Into how many districts is Kiribati divided?

They are Northern, Central and Southern Kiribati, South Tarawa, and Line & Phoenix.

Kiribati became a full member of the United Nations in which year?

It is also in the Commonwealth, the Pacific Community and the Alliance of Small Island States.

Kiribati's main archipelago was named around 1820 after which British captain?

Adam von Krusenstern and Louis Duperrey used the name îles Gilbert on maps published in 1824.

Kiribati's traditional staple diet was based on seafood and what?

Pandanus and coconut sap were made into drinks and cakes such as te karewe and te tuae; fish is often eaten sashimi-style.

Which fish is Kiribati's main aquarium export?

Kiribati's government relies more heavily on foreign fishing-licence fees and aid than on exports.

Which airline has flown domestic routes in Kiribati alongside Air Kiribati?

Both operate out of Bonriki International Airport on Tarawa and do not serve Banaba or the Phoenix Islands.

What is the name of Kiribati's unicameral parliament?

By constitutional mandate it includes a nominated representative of the Banabans living on Rabi in Fiji.

A mass migration from which island group around AD 1300 added Polynesian ancestry to the Gilbertese?

Earlier voyagers from Tonga and Fiji had also introduced Polynesian and Melanesian influences.

Kiribati's seaweed-farming industry uses two Eucheuma species introduced in 1977 from which country?

More than eighty percent of I-Kiribati take part in farming or fishing.

Roughly what is Kiribati's permanent population as of the 2026 census?

More than half of them are crowded onto Tarawa, and a growing diaspora lives in Australia and elsewhere.

The Gilbertese word wanikiba, meaning aeroplane, literally translates as what?

Shoes are kauniwae, 'the cow for the feet', and a motorbike is rebwerebwe after its engine noise.