People
Nationality: Noun and adjective--I-Kiribati (for both singular and plural, pronounced "ee-keer-ah-bhass").
Population (2006): 92,533. Age structure (2004)--38% under 14; 4% over 65.
Population growth rate: 2.25%.
Ethnic groups: Micronesian 99%.
Religion: Roman Catholic 55%, Kiribati Protestant 36%, other 9%.
Languages: English (official), Gilbertese/I-Kiribati (de facto).
Health (2004): Life expectancy--male 60 yrs., female 66 yrs. Infant mortality rate (2004)--49/1,000.
Work force: Majority engaged in subsistence activities.

GEOGRAPHY AND KIRIBATI PEOPLE
Kiribati (pronounced "keer-ah-bhass") consists of 32 low-lying atolls and one raised island scattered over an expanse of ocean equivalent in size to the continental United States. The islands straddle the Equator and lie roughly halfway between Hawaii and Australia. The three main groupings are the Gilbert Islands, Phoenix Islands, and Line Islands. In 1995 Kiribati unilaterally moved the International Date Line to include its easternmost islands, making it the same day throughout the country.

Kiribati includes Kiritimati (Christmas Island), the largest coral atoll in the world, and Banaba (Ocean Island), one of the three great phosphate islands in the Pacific. Except on Banaba, very little land is more than three meters above sea level.

The original inhabitants of Kiribati are Gilbertese, a Micronesian people. Approximately 90% of the population of Kiribati lives on the atolls of the Gilbert Islands. Although the Line Islands are about 2,000 miles east of the Gilbert Islands, most inhabitants of the Line Islands are also Gilbertese. Owing to severe overcrowding in the capital on South Tarawa, in the 1990s a program of directed migration moved nearly 5,000 inhabitants to outlying atolls, mainly in the Line Islands. The Phoenix Islands have never had any significant permanent population. A British effort to settle Gilbertese there in the 1930s lasted until the 1960s when it was determined the inhabitants could not be self-sustaining.