Nauru
Name
| Official name | Republic of Naoero — Repubrikin Naoero — since 3 August 2026; the Republic of Nauru from 31 January 1968 to that day, the name still on most of the world's maps and on this page's address |
|---|---|
| Former names | The Republic of Nauru (1968–2026); the Trust Territory of Nauru under Australia, New Zealand and Britain (1947–68) and the League mandate (1920–47); the German Nauru of the Marshall Islands Protectorate (1888–1914); Pleasant Island, Captain Fearn's name of 1798 |
| Demonym | Nauruan; dei-Naoero by the government's usage since 2026 |
| Meaning of the name | Naoero — from "a-nuau-a-a-ororo," "I go to the beach," by the islanders' reading, the Europeans' Nauru the mispronunciation of it; the change of 2026 "to more faithfully honor our nation's heritage, our language, and our identity," the president said; the country code NRO chosen by the government, the ISO list's NRU still in use |
| Motto | "God's Will First" — on the arms |
Quick facts
| Capital | None official — the only country without one; Yaren, the district of the parliament, the government and the airport on the south coast, the seat of government |
|---|---|
| Districts | 14 districts around the ring road — Denigomodu, the most populous, with the Location settlement of the phosphate workers; Aiwo of the port, the power station and the cantilevers; Meneng of the hotel and the president; Yaren; Boe; Buada of the lagoon; Anabar, Anetan, Anibare of the bay, Baitsi, Ewa, Ijuw, Nibok and Uaboe; the whole one town of 12,000 in a ring |
| Official languages | Nauruan — dorerin Naoero — the Micronesian language of the island unlike any other, spoken by 95% and rated "severely endangered" by UNESCO, brought into the school curriculum by the law of 2025; English, the language of the government, the courts, the business and the schools, understood by two-thirds; the I-Kiribati and Chinese of the communities |
| Currency | Australian dollar — AUD, A$; 100 cents; the only money since 1914; no central bank; about 1.5 to the U.S. dollar |
| Time zone | Nauru Time, UTC+12; no summer time; west of the dateline |
| Calling code | +674 |
| Internet domain | .nr |
| ISO 3166 codes | NR · NRU · 520 — the government's new code NRO of 2026 awaiting the lists |
| Vehicle registration code | NAU |
| Driving side | Left |
| Electricity | 240 V, 50 Hz; plug type I |
| Independence | 31 January 1968, from the trusteeship of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom administered by Australia — Hammer DeRoburt the first president, the day of the islanders' return from Chuuk in 1946 chosen for the date; the phosphate industry bought from the British Phosphate Commissioners 1 July 1970 |
| National days | 31 January, Independence Day; 17 May, Constitution Day; 1 July, RONPhos Handover Day, for the phosphate of 1970; 19 August, Ibumin Earoeni Day, the day of the twelve tribes; 26 October, Angam Day, the "homecoming" of 1932 when the population passed 1,500 again after the plagues and again in 1949 after the war; 25 September, National Youth Day; 8 March; Good Friday, Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday; 25 and 26 December |
| Constitution | 29 January 1968 — the Constitution of Nauru, adopted by the Constitutional Convention and in force at independence on 31 January 1968: the parliament of 18, later 19, the president elected by it as head of state and government, the cabinet from its members, the Supreme Court with appeals once to Australia's High Court, the entrenched articles that need a referendum; the reform referendum of 2010 that failed; the amendments of 2026 — the four-year term of 31 March, the vice presidency of 16 April, the name of 13 May and 3 August |
| Population | 11,680 at the census of 2021; about 12,000 (2026 est.) — the second-smallest of any sovereign state |
| Area | 21 km² (8.1 sq mi) — the third-smallest country, the smallest republic and the smallest island state; the exclusive economic zone about 308,000 km² |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | A blue field crossed by a narrow horizontal yellow stripe with a white twelve-pointed star below it at the hoist — the blue the Pacific, the stripe the equator, the star the island one degree south of it, its twelve points the twelve tribes of Nauru, the white the phosphate that made the island rich; chosen in a competition and raised at independence on 31 January 1968 — the flag is a map.Flag of Nauru |
|---|---|
| Coat of arms | A shield of three parts — the alchemical sign for phosphorus on a field of woven palm above, the frigatebird on its perch and a branch of the tomano flower below — under the twelve-pointed star, with the chief's feathers and shark teeth beside and the ribbons "Naoero" and "God's Will First"; adopted 1968, the name Naoero on it from the first |
| National anthem | "Nauru Bwiema" ("Nauru, Our Homeland") — words by Margaret Hendrie, music by Laurence Henry Hicks of the Australian navy band; adopted at independence in 1968; "Nauru bwiema, ngabena ma auwe" |
| National motto | "God's Will First" |
| National colors | Blue, yellow and white |
| National bird | The frigatebird — the itsi of the arms, tamed for the fishing and raced by the boys of the old days; the black noddy, netted for the table; the Nauru reed warbler, the one endemic bird; widely cited |
| National flower | The tomano — the flower of Calophyllum inophyllum, the tree of the arms and the canoes; widely cited |
| National tree | The tomano and the coconut palm of the shore; the pandanus of the mats and the food; widely cited |
| National dish | Coconut fish, the raw fish cured in lime and coconut milk; the demo pandanus and the coconut of the old days; the rice, tinned meat and fried food of the imports that the diet became; widely cited |
| National sport | Australian rules football — the game of the phosphate workers' Australian schools, the national sport, the eight clubs of the Linkbelt Oval and the Nauru Chiefs of the international matches; weightlifting, the Commonwealth Games golds of Marcus Stephen, seven of them, and the lifters of the world championships; the Nauru games of the Olympic teams since 1996; widely cited |
| Symbol status | The flag by the act of 1968; the arms and the anthem by the acts of 1968; the bird, flower, trees, dishes and sports widely cited |
Geography
| Location | Oceania, in Micronesia — the western Pacific 42 km south of the equator, the island alone; Banaba of Kiribati 300 km east the nearest land, the Solomons 1,200 km southwest, Honolulu 4,000 km northeast |
|---|---|
| Land borders | None — the maritime boundaries with Kiribati and the Marshall Islands; the 308,000 km² zone of the tuna |
| Coastline | 30 km (19 mi) — the fringing reef of 200 m exposed at low tide, the sandy beach of the strip, the sixteen channels cut for the canoes, the Anibare Bay of the swimming on the east, the harbor of Aiwo on the west |
| Highest point | The rim of the plateau, 61 m (200 ft); Command Ridge about 65 m |
| Lowest point | The Pacific Ocean, 0 m |
| Mean elevation | The coastal strip at 2 to 5 m, the plateau at 30 to 60 m |
| Rivers and lakes | No river; the Buada Lagoon, a brackish pond of about 0.3 km² in the plateau's central depression, with the milkfish of the old ponds and the gardens around it; the freshwater lens under the strip, salted by the mining and the sea; the rain caught on the roofs, the desalination plant of Aiwo the water of the island |
| Terrain | A raised coral atoll — the coastal strip 150 to 300 m wide around the island, the only place to live; the cliffs of the escarpment; the central plateau, Topside, four-fifths of the island, stripped of its phosphate to a field of limestone pinnacles of 15 m, the "moonscape" of the photographs, the rehabilitation of a few hundred hectares since the 1990s; Buada's bowl; no soil to speak of on the heights |
| Climate | Tropical, hot and humid all year at 28 to 32°C, the northeast trade winds; the rain of about 2,000 mm a year and wildly variable, the monsoon of November to February, the droughts of the El Niño years when the rain fails for months and the water comes by ship; the sun of the equator |
| Natural hazards | Drought — the dry years of 1998–99 and of 2024 with the desalination running; the sea's rise on the strip where everything is, the erosion of the beaches, the storm surges of the king tides; the heat; no cyclones, the island too near the equator; the mined plateau itself, the pinnacles and the dust, the country's own hazard; the diabetes and the obesity of the diet |
| Natural resources | Phosphate — the guano of a million years of seabirds fossilized on the coral, the richest deposits in the world, mined out on the surface by 2000 and the secondary layers dug since 2006; the fish of the exclusive zone; the polymetallic nodules of the Clarion-Clipperton seabed the country sponsors; the sun of the solar farm |
| Land use | Agricultural land about 20%, the coconuts and pandanus of the strip and the gardens of Buada; forest none of account; the plateau about 80% of the island, mined; no arable land counted |
| Protected areas | None formally — the Buada Lagoon and the Anibare Bay reef of the plans; the Nauru reed warbler's last thickets; the rehabilitation area of the plateau |
| UNESCO World Heritage | None — no site listed and none on the tentative list; the Japanese guns of Command Ridge and the phosphate cantilevers of 1930 the monuments |
| Administrative divisions | 14 districts — Aiwo, Anabar, Anetan, Anibare, Baitsi, Boe, Buada, Denigomodu, Ewa, Ijuw, Meneng, Nibok, Uaboe and Yaren — grouped in 8 constituencies for the parliament, Ubenide the largest with four seats; no local governments since the councils were dissolved in 1999; the twelve tribes beneath, the Eamwit, Eamwidamit, Eamgum, Eano, Emeo, Eoraru, Irutsi, Iruwa, Iwi, Ranibok, Deiboe and Eamwidara, two of them extinct |
People
| Population | 11,680 (census of 2021); about 12,000 (2026 est.) |
|---|---|
| Population density | About 570 per km² (1,480 per sq mi) — on the strip where the people live, several thousand |
| Population growth | About 0.5% a year — the emigration to Australia and Fiji, the returns; the peak of 13,000 in the 2000s |
| Median age | About 27 years |
| Life expectancy | About 64 years — among the lowest of the Pacific, the diabetes and the heart disease of the diet |
| Fertility rate | About 3.5 births per woman — among the highest of the Pacific |
| Urban population | 100% — the one town of the ring |
| Adult literacy | About 97% |
| Ethnic groups | Nauruan about 95%, the people of the twelve tribes, Micronesian with the Polynesian and Melanesian lines of the settlers of 3,000 years and the beachcombers of the 1800s; I-Kiribati and Tuvaluan about 2%, the phosphate workers' descendants; Chinese about 2%, the shopkeepers of the Location; the Australians, Fijians and Filipinos of the camps, the hospital and the offices (2021) |
| Languages | Nauruan by 95% as the home language, the island's own tongue of the Micronesian family that no other island shares, written since the German missionary Delaporte's dictionary of 1907, "severely endangered" in UNESCO's atlas; English by two-thirds; the Kiribati, Tuvaluan, Mandarin and Cantonese of the communities |
| Religion | Christian about 96% — the Nauru Congregational Church 35.7%, the church of the American Board's Kiribati converts of 1887, Roman Catholic 33%, the Assemblies of God 13%, the Nauru Independent Church 9.5%, the Baptists, the Adventists; the Baha'is about 10% by the community's count; none 1.8% (census of 2011); the churches of the districts the social life of the island |
| Human Development Index | About 0.70 (2022 data, the first year UNDP ranked the country) — high; about 115th of 193 |
| Health | The heaviest people on earth — about 61% of the adults obese by the World Health Organization's count of the 2010s, the highest rate in the world, the diabetes of about a third of the adults, the imported rice, tinned meat and sugar of the phosphate years the cause; the life expectancy the price; the hospital of Denigomodu and the referrals to Australia; the tuberculosis and the leprosy of the old days gone |
| Sport | Australian rules football, the island's passion, the league of eight clubs on the Linkbelt Oval of the old phosphate rails, the Chiefs who play the Pacific Cup; weightlifting, Marcus Stephen's seven Commonwealth Games golds and five silvers of 1990–2002 and Yukio Peter's medals, the sport the country chose to be good at; the Olympics since Atlanta 1996 with no medal; the powerlifting; the swimming of the reef |
| Diaspora | A few thousand Nauruans in Australia, Fiji and New Zealand — the students, the patients and the families of the phosphate money's heyday; the Nauruans of the Melbourne of the Nauru House; the passports sold since 2025 to foreigners who will never come |
Government
| Form of government | Unitary parliamentary republic without parties under the Constitution of 1968 — the president elected by the parliament from its members as head of state and government, removable by it on a no-confidence vote at any time, the cause of the 17 presidents in 57 years and the six changes of 2003 alone; the cabinet of five to eight ministers from the members; the parliament of 19 elected for four years since 2026; the Supreme Court; the vice president since 2026 |
|---|---|
| President | David Adeang (independent), since 30 October 2023 — the seventeenth president; born 20 November 1969, the son of Kennan Adeang, the president of 1986 and 1996, the member for Ubenide since the 1990s, the finance minister of the Waqa government of 2013–19 and its justice minister, the years of the deportation of the Australian magistrate and chief justice in January 2014, the Facebook ban of 2015, the prosecution of the "Nauru 19" protesters and the allegations of the Getax phosphate bribes investigated by the Australian police, which he denies; elected by the parliament on 30 October 2023 after it removed Russ Kun by a no-confidence vote of 26 October; re-elected unopposed on 14 October 2025 by the 18 voting members of the 25th Parliament after winning Ubenide with 837 votes in the election of 11 October; the president of the China switch, the Australian treaty, the passports and the name, "a significant step forward in strengthening our nation's governance," his words of the amendments of 2026; "he doesn't take the easy option," the Pacific correspondents' verdict; his term to 2029 |
| Vice President | Lionel Aingimea (independent), since 16 April 2026 — the first holder of the office made by the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2026, tabled 14 January and passed by all 18 members after the 90-day layover, in place of the Minister Assisting the President who had deputized since 1968; born 2 September 1965 of the Deiboe tribe, a lawyer, the president of 27 August 2019 to 28 September 2022, the minister for justice, foreign affairs, the police, the port and the shipping line since 2023; "the work that we do, we do for our country," his oath's day |
| The 2025 election | Held 11 October 2025 for the 19 seats from the 8 constituencies by the Dowdall count, the ranked ballot in which a second preference is worth a half and a third a third, the system of Nauru alone — the candidates independents all, 19 elected, Timothy Ika of Anetan the highest with 568.5 points, Marcus Stephen, Asterio Appi, Shadlog Bernicke, Lionel Aingimea, Charmaine Scotty, Isabella Dageago, Delvin Thoma, Rennier Gadabu and the rest, two women; the voting compulsory; the constitutional referendum of the same day to extend the parliament's term from three years to four defeated, 44.7% in favor against the two-thirds required — and the same extension passed by the parliament's own unanimous vote on 31 March 2026, "the will of the people" the referendum's purpose and the parliament's reading of the entrenchment the question the constitutional lawyers ask; the 25th Parliament's first sitting of 14 October 2025 that chose Adeang without a rival, Marcus Stephen the Speaker and Isabella Dageago the deputy |
| Parliament | The Parliament of Nauru — 19 members elected for four years by the ranked vote of the 8 constituencies, Ubenide with four seats, Meneng with three, the six others with two; no parties, the factions of the families and the districts; the Speaker who does not vote, Marcus Stephen since 14 October 2025, the weightlifter of the Commonwealth Games and the president of 2007–11; the chamber at Yaren beside the airstrip; the no-confidence motion the instrument of every change of government |
| The next election | The general election in October 2029 under the four-year term of 2026; the parliament's vote for the president after it |
| The name | The Republic of Naoero — the constitutional amendment proposed by the president on 14 January 2026 "to more faithfully honor our nation's heritage, our language, and our identity," passed by the parliament unanimously after the 90-day layover and certified by the Speaker on 13 May 2026 with a referendum promised, the referendum dropped by the president's announcement of late July after "extensive discussions," "Naoero is not a new name seeking acceptance by the people," the government said, "the name Naoero has never been lost, but rather waiting to be fully embraced"; in effect 3 August 2026 — the short name Naoero, the people dei-Naoero, the code NRO, the United Nations and the world notified, the postal service and the utilities renamed; the critics' question of a change made without the vote the parliament had promised, the government's answer that the Constitution allows it; the name on the arms since 1968 |
| Australia | The relationship of everything — the mandate of 1920, the phosphate of the British Phosphate Commissioners that Australia bought and shipped for its wheat fields at a fraction of the price until 1970, the ICJ case of 1989 over the rehabilitation settled for A$107 million in 1993; the Regional Processing Centre of Australia's offshore detention of the asylum seekers of the boats, 2001–08 and since September 2012, the riot of July 2013, the medical evacuations and the deaths, the "enduring regional processing capability" Canberra pays about A$350 million a year to keep with a hundred or fewer detainees and the "Nauru Files" of the abuse of 2016, Australia's largest single payment to the island; the Nauru–Australia Treaty signed 9 December 2024 and in force in 2025 — A$100 million of budget support over five years and A$40 million for the police in exchange for Canberra's veto over any security, critical-infrastructure and banking agreement with a third country, the "China veto" of the Pacific analysts, the Commonwealth Bank's arrival; the Third Country Reception Arrangement of the memorandum of August 2025 and the agreement of 3 September 2025 under which Nauru will take the non-citizens Australia cannot deport elsewhere — the "NZYQ cohort" of about 350 freed by the High Court in 2023 — for A$2.5 billion over 30 years, an endowment of A$400 million and A$70 million a year, "a rubbish dump," the refugee advocates; the contract with a Chinese state company signed in August 2025 that Canberra learned of late, the treaty's notice clause the question; the A$46 million of aid |
| China and the world | The People's Republic recognized on 15 January 2024, two days after Taiwan's election, the ties with Taipei of 2005–24 cut for the second time after 2002–05, "the one-China principle," the president said, the Taiwan aid gone; the deep seabed — the Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. subsidiary of The Metals Company sponsored in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone and the "two-year rule" the country triggered at the International Seabed Authority on 25 June 2021 that forced the mining code's clock, the company's turn to Washington's permits in 2025, "the first" and "the reckless" in the two readings; the citizenship-by-investment program launched February 2025, the Economic and Climate Resilience passport at US$105,000 for the Higher Ground Initiative, the first six sold by the autumn, visa-free travel to 89 countries the sales pitch until Britain imposed visas on Nauruans on 9 December 2025 over it, the Pacific's worry of the passports of the last such scheme sold to al-Qaeda men in 2003; the recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia of 2009, bought with Russian money the critics said, withdrawn 30 July 2026; the embassy in Jerusalem opened 7 September 2026, one of a handful; Uzbekistan and Oman recognized in 2025; the votes with the United States and Israel at the UN |
| Legal system | Common law of the Australian and English inheritance with the customary law of the tribes and the land; the Supreme Court under a chief justice from abroad, Australian since the deported Eames of 2014 and the imported since; the Court of Appeal of 2018 that replaced the High Court of Australia; the death penalty abolished 2016; the sodomy law repealed 2016; the Nauru 19 case of 2015–19 that a judge called a "shameful affront" to the rule of law; the Refugee Status Review of the camps; the Facebook block of 2015–18 |
| Local government | None since 1999 — the Nauru Island Council of 1951 and the Local Government Council dissolved; the 14 districts administered from the center, the district committees and the chiefs of the tribes; the "Nauru Local Government Council" of the phosphate years the president DeRoburt's first office |
| Defense | None — no army; the Nauru Police Force of about 100 with the Australian training and the A$40 million of the treaty; Australia the protector by the treaty and the arrangement of the region; the Japanese occupation of 1942–45 the only invasion, the 1,200 islanders deported to Chuuk of whom 463 died |
| United Nations | Member since 14 September 1999, the 187th; the smallest republic in the Assembly; the votes for Israel and the United States; the withdrawal from the Pacific Islands Forum announced in 2021 with the Micronesians and reversed; Baron Waqa, the president of 2013–19, the Forum's secretary-general since 2024 |
| Other memberships | The Commonwealth, a special member from 1968 and full since 1999; the Pacific Islands Forum; the Pacific Community; the Nauru Agreement of the eight tuna states of 1982, the PNA, named for the island where it was signed; the Asian Development Bank; the IMF and the World Bank (2016); the Alliance of Small Island States; the International Seabed Authority |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$170 million (2025, IMF) — the third-smallest economy in the world |
|---|---|
| GDP per capita | About US$13,500 (2025) |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$12,000 (2025) |
| GDP growth | About 2% a year, the camps' wind-down and the treaty's money the swings; inflation about 5%, the Australian dollar; the fiscal year of July; the richest people on earth by the head in the 1970s and the bankrupt state of the 2000s the country's arc |
| Economy by sector | Services about 60%, the government and the camps; industry about 30%, the phosphate and the construction; agriculture and fishing about 5% |
| Currency | Australian dollar (AUD) |
| The phosphate | The rock that made the island — found in 1900 by Albert Ellis of the Pacific Islands Company in a door-stop from the island, mined from 1906 by the Pacific Phosphate Company, the British Phosphate Commissioners of Australia, New Zealand and Britain from 1919 and the Nauru Phosphate Corporation from 1970, some 80 million tons shipped to the farms of Australia and New Zealand; the surface deposits gone by 2000, the secondary phosphate of the pinnacles mined by RONPhos since 2006 at a few hundred thousand tons a year for a few more years; the cantilevers of Aiwo of 1930 that load the ships offshore; the royalties trust of the 1970s of A$1 billion lost in the Melbourne tower, the London musical of 1993 and the Australian receivership of 2004 |
| The camps and the treaty | The Regional Processing Centre and the deportee arrangement — Australia's payments the largest item of the budget, the visa fees of the detainees of the 2010s at A$3,000 a month each, the "enduring capability" of about A$350 million a year since 2023, the A$400 million endowment and A$70 million a year of the arrangement of 2025, the A$100 million of the treaty's budget support; the jobs of the guards, the cleaners and the officials; the dependence the treaty makes permanent |
| Fishing | The licenses of the purse seiners in the 308,000 km² zone under the Nauru Agreement's Vessel Day Scheme, about A$50 million a year, a quarter of the revenue; the reef fish and the tuna of the canoes; no fleet |
| The passports and the seabed | The citizenship-by-investment program of February 2025 — US$105,000 for a single applicant, the target of about A$60 million a year for the Higher Ground Initiative of the move up the plateau, the sales slow, the British visas of December 2025 the cost; the deep-sea nodules of the Clarion-Clipperton sponsored through NORI, the royalties of a mining that has not begun; the Intergenerational Trust Fund of 2015, about A$300 million from Australia, Taiwan, the ADB and the state, the nest egg for the day the camps close |
| Energy and water | The diesel power station of Aiwo and the solar farm of 6 MW built with the ADB's money on the rehabilitated plateau in 2023–25 for half the power; the desalination plant the water of the island in the droughts; the fuel by ship from Australia; the "Higher Ground" plan to move the power, the hospital and the homes up the hill |
| Public finances | The budget of about A$250 million, the Australian money most of it; no public debt of note since the receivership cleared the phosphate trust's and the Bank of Nauru's wreckage; the offshore banking of the 1990s, 400 shell banks and the FATF blacklist of 2000–05, ended; the corporate registry; the cash of the Chinese company's contract of 2025 the question |
| Income classification | Upper-middle income (World Bank) by the aid-swollen count; a small island developing state |
Transport & infrastructure
| Airport | Nauru International Airport at Yaren, the runway of 2,150 m on the strip beside the parliament, the road closed for each landing; the flights to Brisbane, Nadi, Tarawa, Majuro and Honiara |
|---|---|
| Airline | Nauru Airlines, the state carrier of 1970 as Air Nauru, "Our Airline" of 2006–14, the Boeing 737s of the Brisbane and the island runs, its minister at the North Pacific aviation talks of March 2026; the only way in |
| Port | Aiwo Boat Harbour, the new port of 2021–23 built with US$100 million of the Asian Development Bank, Australia and the Green Climate Fund for the ships that once lay offshore at the cantilevers and the moorings; the phosphate cantilevers of 1930; the Nauru Shipping Line |
| Railways | None — the phosphate railway of 1907 from the plateau to the cantilevers, 3.9 km, the country's only line, replaced by the trucks and conveyors |
| Roads | About 30 km (19 mi) — the ring road of 19 km around the island, the road to Buada and the Topside tracks; the driving on the left; the cars and motorbikes of everyone; the runway across the road |
| Communications | Digicel's mobile network of 2009 and the Nauru Telecom; the submarine cable of 2024 by the East Micronesia Cable; the Facebook block of 2015–18 |
History in dates
| c. 1000 BC | The first settlers — the twelve tribes |
|---|---|
| 1798 | Captain John Fearn — Pleasant Island, 8 November |
| 1878 | The tribal war, to 1888 — a third of the people dead |
| 1888 | Germany annexes the island, 16 April |
| 1900 | The phosphate found — Albert Ellis |
| 1906 | Mining begins |
| 1914 | Australia takes the island, 6 November |
| 1920 | The League mandate, 17 December |
| 1932 | Angam Day, 26 October — the 1,500th Nauruan |
| 1942 | The Japanese occupation, 26 August |
| 1943 | The 1,200 deported to Chuuk — 463 die |
| 1946 | The survivors return, 31 January |
| 1947 | The UN trusteeship |
| 1951 | The Local Government Council — DeRoburt |
| 1968 | Independence, 31 January |
| 1970 | The phosphate bought, 1 July |
| 1980 | The richest country per head |
| 1993 | Australia's rehabilitation settlement, 10 August — A$107 million |
| 1999 | The United Nations, 14 September |
| 2000 | The FATF blacklist — the shell banks |
| 2001 | The Pacific Solution — the first camps, September |
| 2004 | The Bank of Nauru collapses; the receivership |
| 2005 | Taiwan again, 14 May |
| 2009 | Abkhazia and South Ossetia recognized, 15 December |
| 2012 | The camps reopened, September |
| 2013 | The riot, 19 July; Waqa president, 11 June |
| 2014 | The judges deported, January |
| 2021 | The seabed trigger, 25 June |
| 2023 | Adeang president, 30 October |
| 2024 | China recognized, 15 January; the treaty, 9 December |
| 2025 | The passports, February; the deportee deal, 3 September; the election, 11 October; Adeang re-elected, 14 October; Britain's visas, 9 December |
| 2026 | The amendment tabled, 14 January; Scotty dies, 25 February; the four-year term, 31 March; the vice president, 16 April; the name passed, 13 May; the recognitions withdrawn, 30 July; Naoero, 3 August; the Jerusalem embassy, 7 September |
Records & firsts
| The smallest republic and island state | 21 km² |
|---|---|
| The third-smallest country | After the Vatican and Monaco |
| The second-smallest population | About 12,000 |
| The only country without a capital | Yaren the seat |
| The heaviest people on earth | About 61% obese |
| The richest country per head, once | The 1970s |
| A fortune lost | A$1 billion of phosphate royalties |
| A flag that is a map | The equator and the star |
| The first to trigger the seabed rules | 25 June 2021 |
| A parliament of 19 | Without parties |
| Seventeen presidents in 57 years | Six changes in 2003 |
| A passport sold for the climate | Since February 2025 |
| A name reclaimed | Naoero, 3 August 2026 |
| Four-fifths of a country mined away | The Topside |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Nauru?
The Republic of Naoero — Repubrikin Naoero in the island's language — since 3 August 2026, when the government put into effect the constitutional amendment that the parliament had passed unanimously on 13 May 2026 and dropped the referendum it had promised, "Naoero is not a new name seeking acceptance by the people," President Adeang said, "it is already the identity of the people, is on the national coat of arms, and spoken in the community." The Republic of Nauru of the independence of 31 January 1968 was the same name as the Europeans wrote it after Captain John Fearn, who called the place Pleasant Island in 1798, found it hard to say; the people are now the dei-Naoero, the short name is Naoero, and the government has asked the world to change its records. The name means "I go to the beach" by the islanders' own reading.
What is the capital of Nauru?
Nauru has no official capital — the only country in the world without one — and the district of Yaren on the southern shore, where the parliament, the government offices, the airport and the Australian high commission stand, serves as the seat of government and is what the atlases print. The island is a single town in a ring: 14 districts around a road of 19 km, with Denigomodu the most populous, Aiwo the district of the port, the power station and the phosphate cantilevers, and Meneng the president's home ground; about 12,000 people live in all of them, along the coastal strip a few hundred meters wide between the lagoon reef and the mined plateau.
How big is Nauru, and how many people live there?
About 21 km² (8.1 sq mi) — an oval island 6 km long and 4 km wide, a tenth of the size of Washington, D.C., the third-smallest country in the world after the Vatican and Monaco and the smallest republic and the smallest island state — a raised coral atoll alone in the western Pacific 42 km south of the equator, 300 km from its nearest neighbor, the Kiribati island of Banaba, and 4,000 km from Sydney; its exclusive economic zone is 308,000 km² of tuna waters. The census of 2021 counted 11,680 people and the estimate for 2026 is about 12,000 — the second-smallest population of any sovereign state after the Vatican's, with Tuvalu close behind — nearly all of them Nauruans of the twelve tribes, with I-Kiribati, Tuvaluans, Chinese and the Australians of the camps and the offices.
What are the highest and lowest points of Nauru?
The rim of the central plateau, 61 m (200 ft) by the Factbook's count and about 65 m at Command Ridge, where the Japanese guns of 1943 still stand, above a coastal strip that is the country's only flat land; and the Pacific. The plateau, "Topside," is the phosphate: a century of mining from 1906 stripped four-fifths of the island to a moonscape of coral pinnacles up to 15 m tall that no one can farm or build on, and the government's "Higher Ground Initiative" of the 2020s means to rehabilitate it and move the people up from the shore the sea is taking. The Buada Lagoon, a brackish pond of 0.3 km² in the plateau's only depression, is the lone lake, and there are no rivers.
What currency does Nauru use?
The Australian dollar (ISO code AUD, A$), of 100 cents, the money of the island since Australia administered it — Nauru has never issued a currency of its own and has no central bank, its banking done since 2015 by an agency of Australia's Bendigo Bank and, under the treaty of 2024 with Canberra, by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, after the Bank of Nauru collapsed in 2004 with the country's fortune. Clocks keep Nauru Time, UTC+12, all year, on the western side of the dateline; the island drives on the left, the Australian way, around its ring road.
Who governs Nauru?
President David Adeang, head of state and government since 30 October 2023, when the parliament removed his predecessor in a no-confidence vote and chose him, and re-elected unopposed on 14 October 2025 by the 18 voting members of the new parliament after the general election of 11 October — the finance and justice minister of the Waqa government of 2013–19, the man of the deportation of the judges and the treaty with Australia, "controversial" to the Pacific press and "modernizing" by his own account; Lionel Aingimea, a former president, has been the country's first vice president since 16 April 2026, and Marcus Stephen, the Commonwealth Games weightlifter and former president, is the Speaker. The parliament of 19 has no parties; its term, three years since independence, was made four by an amendment the parliament passed itself on 31 March 2026 after the voters had rejected it in the referendum of October 2025. The country's year has been one of amendments: the vice presidency, the four-year term, and the name. The next election is due in 2029.
Explore all general-knowledge topics and the A-to-Z lists.
We Value Your Opinion Comments