Nauru is the world’s smallest island country by area.
The Pacific island nation covers about 21 square kilometres, placing it behind only Vatican City and Monaco among sovereign states by area. Unlike those two European microstates, Nauru is a single raised coral island in Micronesia, northeast of Australia and roughly 300 kilometres east of Banaba in Kiribati.
Nauru’s geography was shaped by phosphate deposits formed from accumulated seabird guano. Phosphate mining brought great wealth during the twentieth century, but intensive extraction left much of the island’s interior as a stark, heavily degraded landscape known as Topside. The narrow coastal belt contains most homes, services, and infrastructure.
Nauru became independent on 31 January 1968 after periods of German, Australian, Japanese, and international administration. It is also the world’s smallest independent republic. A frequent mix-up is Tuvalu, which is smaller in population and consists of many low-lying islands, but has a larger total land area.