Land use:
arable land: 0%
permanent crops: 0%
other: 100% (2005)
Irrigated land:
NA
Natural hazards:
periodic droughts
Environment - current issues:
limited natural fresh water 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
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
People Nauru
Population:
13,287 (July 2006 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 36.9% (male 2,507/female 2,391)
15-64 years: 61.2% (male 4,004/female 4,123)
65 years and over: 2% (male 139/female 123) (2006 est.)
Median age:
total: 20.6 years
male: 20 years
female: 21.2 years (2006 est.)