Kiribati Country Overview
Where is Kiribati located? The island state of Kiribati is located in the Pacific and its territory also includes some islands of Micronesia and Polynesia. The time zone is called “International Date Line East” and has a time difference of 12 hours to the coordinated world time. One speaks of a standard difference of UTC+12, which means that clocks in the Kiribati region are always 12 hours ahead of the world clock. It stays that way all year round, as there is no changeover to daylight saving time in summer.
Population Distribution
As of 2023, the latest population of Kiribati is 111,796, based on our calculation of the current data from UN (United Nations).
| Total population | 111,796 |
| Population growth rate | 1.09% |
| Birth rate | 21.20 births per 1,000 people |
| Life expectancy | |
| Overall | 65.11 years |
| Men | 62.70 years |
| Women | 67.64 years |
| Age structure | |
| 0-14 years | 29.27% |
| 15-64 years | 66.40% |
| 65 years and above | 4.34% |
| Median age | 23.90 years |
| Gender ratio (Male to Female) | 0.96 |
| Population density | 137.85 residents per km² |
| Urbanization | 47.30% |
| Ethnicities | |
| 96% Micronesians, 4% Polynesians, Europeans and others | |
| Religions | |
| Catholics (Roman Catholic) 52%, Protestants (Congregational) 30%, some Seventh-day Adventists, Baha’i, Latter-day Saints, and Church of God (1996) | |
| Human Development Index (HDI) | 0.623 |
| HDI ranking | 132nd out of 194 |
People in Kiribati
The people of Kiribati call themselves I-Kiribati. About 103,000 people inhabit the islets. Most of them are originally from Micronesia. Here you can see some photos of people in Kiribati.
An average of 127 people per square meter live in Kiribati. However, the distribution is very different. 80 out of 100 people live on the Gilbert Islands and 40 out of 100 on the main island of the country called Tarawa. The capital South Tarawa is also located here. In Kiribati, the average age is 62 years. 90 out of 100 people can read and write because there are elementary schools on the larger islands.
Languages in Kiribati
The official languages are Kiribati and English. For Kiribati you will sometimes find the name Gilbertian, as the islands were once called Gilbert Islands. Most people consider this language to be their mother tongue.
Religions in Kiribati
A little over half of the people in Kiribati are Catholics, 34 out of 100 Protestants. There are also smaller groups of Mormons, followers of the Baha’i religion and other religions.