81.3 km2; includes the atolls
of Bikini, Eniwetak, and Kwajalein

_#_Comparative area: slightly larger than Washington, DC

_#_Land boundaries: none

_#_Coastline: 370.4 km

_#_Maritime claims:

Contiguous zone: 24 nm;

Exclusive economic zone: 200 nm;

Territorial sea: 12 nm

_#_Disputes: claims US territory of Wake Island

_#_Climate: wet season May to November; hot and humid; islands border
typhoon belt

_#_Terrain: low coral limestone and sand islands

_#_Natural resources: phosphate deposits, marine products, deep seabed
minerals

_#_Land use: arable land 0%; permanent crops 60%; meadows and pastures
0%; forest and woodland 0%; other 40%

_#_Environment: occasionally subject to typhoons; two archipelagic
island chains of 30 atolls and 1,152 islands

_#_Note: located 3,825 km southwest of Honolulu in the North Pacific
Ocean, about two-thirds of the way between Hawaii and Papua New Guinea;
Bikini and Eniwetak are former US nuclear test sites; Kwajalein, the
famous World War II battleground, is now used as a US missile test range

_*_People
_#_Population: 48,091 (July 1991), growth rate 3.9% (1991)

_#_Birth rate: 47 births/1,000 population (1991)

_#_Death rate: 8 deaths/1,000 population (1991)

_#_Net migration rate: 0 migrants/1,000 population (1991)

_#_Infant mortality rate: 53 deaths/1,000 live births (1991)

_#_Life expectancy at birth: 61 years male, 64 years female (1991)

_#_Total fertility rate: 7.1 children born/woman (1991)

_#_Nationality: noun--Marshallese; adjective--Marshallese

_#_Ethnic divisions: almost entirely Micronesian

_#_Religion: predominantly Christian, mostly Protestant

_#_Language: English universally spoken and is the official language;
two major Marshallese dialects from Malayo-Polynesian family; Japanese

_#_Literacy: 93% (male 100%, female 88%) age 15 and over can
read and write (1980)

_#_Labor force: 4,800 (1986)

_#_Organized labor: none

_*_Government
_#_Long-form name: Republic of the Marshall Islands

_#_Type: constitutional government in free association with the US;
the Compact of Free Association entered into force 21 October 1986

_#_Capital: Majuro

_#_Administrative divisions: none

_#_Independence: 21 October 1986 (from the US-administered UN
trusteeship; formerly the Marshall Islands District of the Trust
Territory of the Pacific Islands)

_#_Constitution: 1 May