Portal:Kiribati/Intro

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Kiribati is a nation of 33 islands spread over 3,500,000 km² of the Pacific ocean. The bulk of the former British colony's more than 100,000 residents, or I-Kiribati, live on its capital atoll, Tarawa. The remaining Micronesians are scattered throughout Kiribati's other islands, chiefly in Tarawa's Gilbert group but also in the Line and Phoenix groups, with the latter archipelago only having one inhabited island, Kanton. Three islands are inhabited in the Line Islands; the largest in both size and population is Kiritimati. Discovered by Captain James Cook in 1777, it is the biggest coral atoll in the world. As Kiribati's economy is largely subsistence-based, it has one of the lowest gross domestic products in the world, yet its literacy rate is more than 90%. For cash transactions, I-Kiribati use the Australian dollar; the average income is about $2,000 a year. Typical jobs include working on coconut plantations, on foreign ships and in local businesses.