Micronesia
Kiribati straddles the equator and the 180th meridian. Its Gilbert Islands are Micronesian by any reading, its Phoenix and Line Islands are normally reckoned Polynesian, and the catalogue files the country by its core rather than by its far edges. Nauru sits just south of the equator, the rest north of it, across six hourly offsets from Palau east to the Line Islands.
7 countries
Common questions
Questions about Micronesia
Which countries and territories are in Micronesia?
Guam, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, the Northern Mariana Islands and Palau. Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru and Palau are sovereign states; Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands are unincorporated territories of the United States. The M49 standard of the United Nations adds the United States Minor Outlying Islands, which have no settled population.
Is Micronesia a country or a region?
Both names are in use, which is why the pages differ. Micronesia the region covers the whole group north and west of Melanesia and Polynesia. The Federated States of Micronesia is one country inside it, made up of Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae, with its seat of government at Palikir on Pohnpei.
Why is Kiribati filed under Micronesia?
Its population and its capital sit in the Gilbert Islands, which are Micronesian in settlement and in language. The Phoenix and Line Islands, added to the colony in the twentieth century, lie far to the east and are normally reckoned Polynesian, and that stretch is why the country keeps three time zones, from UTC+12:00 to UTC+14:00.
What is a Compact of Free Association?
A treaty between the United States and each of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau. The three are sovereign and sit in the United Nations in their own right; under the compacts the United States is responsible for their defence, their citizens may live and work in the United States without a visa, and economic assistance is set out on fixed terms that have been renegotiated as each term expired.