Tuvalu is the Pacific island country with about 26 square kilometers of land and is the fourth-smallest country in the world.
Tuvalu is a Polynesian nation made up of nine low-lying reef islands: six atolls and three reef islands. Its land area is only about 26 square kilometers, but its islands are scattered across a much larger stretch of the Pacific Ocean. Funafuti is the capital and the most populated atoll, while the country’s highest natural point rises only a few meters above sea level.
The “fourth-smallest” ranking refers to physical land area among sovereign countries. Vatican City, Monaco, and Nauru are smaller; Tuvalu comes next. That ranking is easy to confuse with population rankings or with the size of a country’s exclusive economic zone. Tuvalu’s ocean jurisdiction is enormous compared with its land, making it geographically small but maritime in reach.
The islands were formerly known collectively as the Ellice Islands. They became independent from the United Kingdom in 1978 and retained the name Tuvalu, which reflects the traditional grouping of the islands.