Micronesia · OceaniaNauru
Discover Nauru - the world's third-smallest country, a single coral island in the Pacific with an extraordinary boom-and-bust story of phosphate wealth and hard-won resilience.
Where Is Nauru?
Nauru is a country in Micronesia, Oceania. Yaren is its de facto capital.
- Capital Yaren (de facto)
- Population 12K
- Area 21 km²
Nauru is one of the strangest stories in the modern world. This single oval coral island, just 21 square kilometers in size, is the third-smallest country on Earth after Vatican City and Monaco. In the 1960s and 1970s, Nauru had the highest per-capita income of any sovereign nation on the planet, thanks to vast deposits of phosphate - millennia of accumulated seabird guano that had mineralized into a highly valuable fertilizer. For a brief, surreal period, this tiny Pacific island was fabulously wealthy.
Then the phosphate ran out. By the 1990s, Nauru's interior was a moonscape of mined-out coral pinnacles, the trust funds had been mismanaged, and the country spiraled into serious economic trouble. Today Nauru is rebuilding, relying on fishing licenses, Australian aid, and the controversial hosting of offshore immigration detention facilities. With roughly 12,000 people, no capital city in the traditional sense, and a single road circling the island, Nauru is a place that defies easy categorization. It is a cautionary tale about resource extraction, but also a story of a remarkably close-knit community that keeps going against extraordinary odds.
At a glance
Largest cities in Nauru
Yaren
Denigomodu
Meneng
Famous people from Nauru
Hammer DeRoburt
PoliticsFirst President of Nauru after independence, who led the country during the phosphate boom years and shaped its early institutions
Marcus Stephen
SportFormer President of Nauru who was also a Commonwealth Games weightlifting champion, one of the few heads of state to be an Olympic athlete
Traditional cuisine of Nauru
- Coconut Fish
- Fresh reef fish cooked in rich coconut cream with lime and chili, the most common home-cooked meal on the island
- Pandanus Fruit
- Fibrous tropical fruit processed into a paste or juice, one of the few native food sources on the coral island
- Chinese and Australian Food
- Imported foods dominate due to limited arable land - Chinese restaurants and Australian products are everyday staples
Nature and landmarks in Nauru
- Buada LagoonLake
- Nauru's only inland water body, a small brackish lagoon surrounded by tropical vegetation in the center of the island
- TopsideLandmark
- The eerie mined-out phosphate plateau covering most of Nauru's interior, a surreal landscape of jagged coral pinnacles
- Anibare BayCoast
- The best beach on the island with a wide sandy shore on the eastern coast, popular for swimming and picnics
Sports in Nauru
- Weightlifting
- Nauru has won multiple Commonwealth Games medals in weightlifting, remarkable for a country of only 12,000 people
- Australian Rules Football
- Aussie rules is the most popular team sport on the island, a legacy of Australian cultural influence
Did you know?
Nauru is the third-smallest country in the world by area at just 21 square kilometers, after Vatican City and Monaco
In the 1970s, Nauru had the highest per-capita income of any sovereign nation on Earth thanks to phosphate mining
Nauru has no official capital city - Yaren district serves as the de facto capital but has never been formally declared one
The entire island can be driven around in about 20 minutes on a single ring road
Nauru has one of the highest obesity rates in the world, partly due to reliance on imported processed food after phosphate mining destroyed arable land
The country's phosphate deposits were formed over millions of years from accumulated seabird droppings
Can you find Nauru on a map?
Drop a pin where you think it is and see how close you got. A few rounds and you will place Nauru and its neighbours without a second thought.
