ternational 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%
Irrigated land:
NA km2
Environment:
occasionally subject to typhoons; two archipelagic island chains of 30
atolls and 1,152 islands
Note:
Bikini and Eniwetok are former US nuclear test sites; Kwajalein, the famous
World War II battleground, is now used as a US missile test range

*Marshall Islands, People

Population:
51,982 (July 1993 est.)
Population growth rate:
3.87% (1993 est.)
Birth rate:
46.65 births/1,000 population (1993 est.)
Death rate:
7.91 deaths/1,000 population (1993 est.)
Net migration rate:
0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1993 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
50.5 deaths/1,000 live births (1993 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population:
62.79 years
male:
61.27 years
female:
64.38 years (1993 est.)
Total fertility rate:
6.99 children born/woman (1993 est.)
Nationality:
noun:
Marshallese (singular and plural)
adjective:
Marshallese
Ethnic divisions: Micronesian
Religions:
Christian (mostly Protestant)
Languages:
English (universally spoken and is the official language), two major
Marshallese dialects from the Malayo-Polynesian family, Japanese
Literacy:
age 15 and over can read and write (1980)
total population:
93%
male:
100%
female:
88%
Labor force:
4,800 (1986)
by occupation:
NA

*Marshall Islands, Government

Names:
conventional long form:
Republic of the Marshall Islands
conventional short form:
Marshall Islands
former:
Marshall Islands District (Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands)
Digraph:
RM
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)
Constitution:
1 May 1979
Legal system:
based on adapted Trust Territory laws, acts of the legislature, municipal,
common, and customary laws
National holiday:
Proclamation of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, 1 May (1979