Maritime claims:
Exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm;
Territorial sea: 12 nm
Climate: tropical; monsoonal; rainy season (November to February)
Terrain: sandy beach rises to fertile ring around raised coral reefs with phosphate plateau in center
Natural resources: phosphates
Land use: 0% arable land; 0% permanent crops; 0% meadows and pastures; 0% forest and woodland; 100% other
Environment: only 53 km south of Equator
Note: one of three great phosphate rock islands in the Pacific (others are Banaba or Ocean Island in Kiribati and Makatea in French Polynesia)
- People
Population: 9,202 (July 1990), growth rate 1.5% (1990)