: low coral limestone and sand islands

Natural resources: phosphate deposits, marine products, deep seabed
minerals

Land use:
arable land: 0%
permanent crops: 60%
meadows and pastures: 0%
forest and woodland: 0%
other: 40%

Irrigated land: NA sq km

Environment:
current issues: inadequate supplies of potable water
natural hazards: occasional typhoons
international agreements: party to - Biodiversity, Climate Change, Law
of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution

Note: two archipelagic island chains of 30 atolls and 1,152 islands;
Bikini and Eniwetak are former US nuclear test sites; Kwajalein, the
famous World War II battleground, is now used as a US missile test
range

@Marshall Islands:People

Population: 56,157 (July 1995 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 51% (female 13,950; male 14,547)
15-64 years: 47% (female 12,801; male 13,470)
65 years and over: 2% (female 740; male 649) (July 1995 est.)

Population growth rate: 3.86% (1995 est.)

Birth rate: 46.03 births/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Death rate: 7.48 deaths/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Net migration rate: 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1995 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 48 deaths/1,000 live births (1995 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 63.49 years
male: 61.94 years
female: 65.11 years (1995 est.)

Total fertility rate: 6.89 children born/woman (1995 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Marshallese (singular and plural)
adjective: Marshallese

Ethnic divisions: Micronesian

Religions: Christian (mostly Protestant)

Languages: English (universally spoken and is the official language),
two major Marshallese dialects from the Malayo-Polynesian family,
Japanese

Literacy: age 15 and over can read and write (1980)
total population: 93%
male: 100%
female: 88%

Labor force: 4,800 (1986)
by occupation: NA

@Marshall Islands:Government

Names:
conventional long form: Republic of the Marshall Islands
conventional short form: Marshall Islands
former: Marshall Islands District (Trust Territory of the Pacific
Islands)

Digraph: RM

Type: constitutional government in free association with the US; the
Compact of Free Association entered into force 21 October 1986

Capital: Majuro

Administrative divisions: none

Independence: 21 October 1986 (from the US-administered UN
trusteeship)

National holiday: Proclamation of the Republic of the Marshall