Country Name: Nauru (Republic of Nauru)

Capital: There is no official capital, the government offices are located in the Yaren District

Government Type: parliamentary republic

Background: Nauru was inhabited by Micronesian and Polynesian settlers by around 1000 B.C., and the island was divided into 12 clans. Nauru developed in relative isolation because ocean currents made landfall on the island difficult. As a result, the Nauruan language does not clearly resemble any other in the Pacific region. In 1798, British sea captain John FEARN became the first European to spot the island. By 1830, European whalers used Nauru as a supply stop, trading firearms for food. In 1878, a civil war erupted on the island, reducing the population by more than a third. Germany forcibly annexed Nauru in 1888 by holding the 12 chiefs under house arrest until they consented to the annexation. Germany banned alcohol, confiscated weapons, instituted strict dress codes, and brought in Christian missionaries to convert the population. Phosphate was discovered in 1900 and heavily mined, although Nauru and Nauruans earned about one tenth of one percent of the profits from the phosphate deposits.

Australian forces captured Nauru from Germany during World War I, and in 1919, it was placed under a joint Australian-British-New Zealand mandate with Australian administration. Japan occupied Nauru during World War II and used its residents as forced labor elsewhere in the Pacific while destroying much of the infrastructure on the island. After the war, Nauru became a UN trust territory under Australian administration. Recognizing the phosphate stocks would eventually be depleted, in 1962, Australian Prime Minister Robert MENZIES offered to resettle all Nauruans on Curtis Island in Queensland, but Nauruans rejected that plan and opted for independence, which was achieved in 1968. In 1970, Nauru purchased the phosphate mining assets, and income from the mines made Nauruans among the richest people in the world. However, Nauru subsequently began a series of unwise investments in buildings, musical theater, and an airline. Nauru sued Australia in 1989 for the damage caused by mining when Australia administered the island. Widespread phosphate mining officially ceased in 2006.

Nauru went nearly bankrupt by 2000 and tried to rebrand itself as an offshore banking haven, although it ended that practice in 2005. In 2001, Australia set up the Nauru Regional Processing Center (NRPC), an offshore refugee detention facility, paying Nauru per person at the center. The NRPC was closed in 2008 but reopened in 2012. The number of refugees has steadily declined since 2014, and the remaining people were moved to a hotel in Brisbane, Australia, in 2020, effectively shuttering the NRPC. However, in 2023, Australia agreed to continue funding NRPC for two years and restarted settling asylees in the center in mid-2023.  The center remains the Government of Nauru’s largest source of income.  In a bid for Russian humanitarian aid, in 2008, Nauru recognized the breakaway Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Region: Oceania

Population: 9,852 (2023 est.)

Ethnic Groups: Nauruan 94.6%, I-Kiribati 2.2%, Fijian 1.3%, other 1.9% (2021 est.)

Languages: Nauruan 93% (official, a distinct Pacific Island language), English 2% (widely understood, spoken, and used for most government and commercial purposes), other 5% (includes Gilbertese 2% and Chinese 2%) (2011 est.)

Religions: Protestant 60.4% (Nauruan Congregational 34.7%, Assemblies of God 11.6%, Pacific Light House 6.3%, Nauru Independent 3.6%, Baptist 1.5, Seventh Day Adventist 1.3%, other Protestant 1.4%), Roman Catholic 33.9%, other 4.2%, none 1.3%, no answer 0.3% (2021 est.)

Economic Overview: upper-middle-income Pacific island country; phosphate resource exhaustion made island interior uninhabitable; licenses fishing rights; houses Australia’s Regional Processing Centre; former tax haven; largely dependent on foreign subsidies

Currency: Australian Dollar (AUD)

Real GDP (Purchasing Power Parity): $139.656 million (2022 est.) note: data in 2017 dollars

Real GDP Growth Rate: 1.57% (2022 est.) note: annual GDP % growth based on constant local currency

Real GDP per Capita: $11,000 (2022 est.) note: data in 2017 dollars

Exports: 

• $187 million (2021 est.)

• Comparison Ranking: 204

Export Commodities: skipjack, calcium phosphates, tuna, cars, delivery trucks, low-voltage protection equipment (2021)

Export Partners: Thailand 49%, Saudi Arabia 14%, Philippines 11%, South Korea 8%, India 7% (2021)

Imports: 

• $94.2 million (2021 est.)

• Comparison Ranking: 216

Import Commodities: refined petroleum, tugboats, cigarettes, cars, construction vehicles (2021)

Import Partners: Australia 36%, Taiwan 16%, China 12%, Japan 12%, Nigeria 7% (2021)

Natural Resources: phosphates, fish

Agricultural Products: coconuts, tropical fruit, vegetables, pork, eggs, pig offals, pig fat, poultry, papayas, cabbages

Industries: phosphate mining, offshore banking, coconut products

Industrial Production Growth Rate: 

• 4.3% (2014 est.) note: annual % change in industrial value added based on constant local currency

• Comparison Ranking: 91

Labor Force: NA

Unemployment Rate: 23% (2011 est.)

Natural Hazards: periodic droughts

Geography:

• Total: 21 sq km

• Land: 21 sq km

• Water: 0 sq km

(Country Summary, The World Factbook, CIA.gov)

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