d by large barrier
reefs
Natural resources:
forests, minerals (especially gold), marine products, deep-seabed minerals
Land use: arable land:
NA%
permanent crops:
NA%
meadows and pastures:
NA%
forest and woodland:
NA%
other:
NA%
Irrigated land:
NA km2
Environment:
subject to typhoons from June to December; archipelago of six island groups
totaling over 200 islands in the Caroline chain
Note:
includes World War II battleground of Peleliu and world-famous rock islands

*Pacific Islands, Trust Territory of the (Palau), People

Population:
16,071 (July 1993 est.)
Population growth rate:
1.84% (1993 est.)
Birth rate:
22.9 births/1,000 population (1993 est.)
Death rate:
6.61 deaths/1,000 population (1993 est.)
Net migration rate:
2.12 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1993 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
25.07 deaths/1,000 live births (1993 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population:
71.01 years
male:
69.14 years
female:
73.02 years (1993 est.)
Total fertility rate:
2.96 children born/woman (1993 est.)
Nationality:
noun:
Palauan(s)
adjective:
Palauan
Ethnic divisions:
Palauans are a composite of Polynesian, Malayan, and Melanesian races
Religions:
Christian (Catholics, Seventh-Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, the
Assembly of God, the Liebenzell Mission, and Latter-Day Saints), Modekngei
religion (one-third of the population observes this religion which is
indigenous to Palau)
Languages: English (official in all of Palau's 16 states), Sonsorolese (official in the
state of Sonsoral), Angaur and Japanese (in the state of Anguar), Tobi (in
the state of Tobi), Palauan (in the other 13 states)
Literacy:
age 15 and over can read and write (1980)
total population:
92%
male:
93%
female:
91%
Labor force:
NA
by occupation:
NA

*Pacific Islands, Trust Territory of the (Palau), Government

Names:
conventional long form:
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands
conventional short form:
none
note:
may change to Republic of Palau after independence; the native form of Palau
is Belau and is sometimes used incorrectly in English and other languages
Digraph:
NQ
Type:
UN trusteeship administered by the US
note:
constitutional government signed a Compact of Free Association with the US
on 10 January 1986, which was never approved in a series of UN-observed
plebiscites; until the UN trus