and one
raised coral island;
Banaba. They have a total land area of
800 square kilometres (310 sq mi) and are dispersed over 3.5
million square kilometres (1,351,000
square
miles). Their spread straddles the
equator and the
International Date Line, although the Date Line is indented to bring the
Line Islands in the same day as the Kiribati Islands. The permanent
population is just over 100,000 (2011), half of whom live on
Tarawa Atoll.
Kiribati became independent from the United Kingdom in 1979. The capital and now most populated area, South Tarawa, consists of a number of islets, connected by a series of causeways. These comprise about half the area of Tarawa Atoll.
Kiribati is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the IMF and the World Bank, and became a full member of the United Nations in 1999.