Nauru

Did you know?

• 🏝A tiny island country in Micronesia, northeast of Australia. It is officially the smallest island nation and third-smallest state in the world.
• 🏳️What does its flag mean? The blue field represents the Pacific Ocean and the clear skies above. The yellow horizontal stripe symbolizes the Equator running right next to the island. A 12-pointed white star, placed just below the stripe, marks Nauru's geographic location slightly south of the Equator; the 12 points represent the 12 original indigenous tribes of Nauru.
• 🏛️A nation without a capital: Nauru is the only independent country in the world that does not have an official legal capital city (though the Yaren district acts as the de facto administrative center).
• ⛏️From riches to poverty: Nauru was once the richest country per capita in the world in the 1970s due to massive phosphate mining from bird guano deposits. However, when reserves depleted, the nation suffered a severe economic collapse.
• 🏃Walk around a country: You can walk along Nauru's entire paved coastal ring road around the whole nation in just a few hours — the total land area is only 21 square kilometers (8.1 sq miles).