Tuvalu (2006) | Reunion (2001) | |
Administrative divisions | none | none (overseas department of France); there are no first-order administrative divisions as defined by the US Government, but there are 4 arrondissements, 24 communes, and 47 cantons |
Age structure | 0-14 years: 30.2% (male 1,819/female 1,752)
15-64 years: 64.7% (male 3,715/female 3,923) 65 years and over: 5.1% (male 228/female 373) (2006 est.) |
0-14 years:
32.07% (male 120,259; female 114,669) 15-64 years: 62.25% (male 224,347; female 231,698) 65 years and over: 5.68% (male 16,892; female 24,705) (2001 est.) |
Agriculture - products | coconuts; fish | sugarcane, vanilla, tobacco, tropical fruits, vegetables, corn |
Airports | 1 (2006) | 2 (2000 est.) |
Airports - with paved runways | - | total:
2 2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2000 est.) |
Airports - with unpaved runways | total: 1
1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006) |
- |
Area | total: 26 sq km
land: 26 sq km water: 0 sq km |
total:
2,512 sq km land: 2,502 sq km water: 10 sq km |
Area - comparative | 0.1 times the size of Washington, DC | slightly smaller than Rhode Island |
Background | In 1974, ethnic differences within the British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands caused the Polynesians of the Ellice Islands to vote for separation from the Micronesians of the Gilbert Islands. The following year, the Ellice Islands became the separate British colony of Tuvalu. Independence was granted in 1978. In 2000, Tuvalu negotiated a contract leasing its Internet domain name ".tv" for $50 million in royalties over a 12-year period. | The Portuguese discovered the uninhabited island in 1513. From the 17th to the 19th centuries, French immigration supplemented by influxes of Africans, Chinese, Malays, and Malabar Indians gave the island its ethnic mix. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 cost the island its importance as a stopover on the East Indies trade route. |
Birth rate | 22.18 births/1,000 population (2006 est.) | 21.26 births/1,000 population (2001 est.) |
Budget | revenues: $22.78 million
expenditures: $14.23 million; including capital expenditures of $4.2 million (2000 est.) |
revenues:
NA expenditures: NA |
Capital | name: Funafuti
geographic coordinates: 8 30 S, 179 12 E time difference: UTC+12 (17 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) note: administrative offices are located in Vaiaku Village on Fongafale Islet |
Saint-Denis |
Climate | tropical; moderated by easterly trade winds (March to November); westerly gales and heavy rain (November to March) | tropical, but temperature moderates with elevation; cool and dry from May to November, hot and rainy from November to April |
Coastline | 24 km | 207 km |
Constitution | 1 October 1978 | 28 September 1958 (French Constitution) |
Country name | conventional long form: none
conventional short form: Tuvalu local long form: none local short form: Tuvalu former: Ellice Islands note: "Tuvalu" means "group of eight," referring to the country's eight traditionally inhabited islands |
conventional long form:
Department of Reunion conventional short form: Reunion local long form: none local short form: Ile de la Reunion former: Bourbon Island |
Currency | - | French franc (FRF); euro (EUR) |
Death rate | 7.11 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.) | 5.52 deaths/1,000 population (2001 est.) |
Debt - external | $NA | $NA |
Dependency status | - | overseas department of France |
Diplomatic representation from the US | the US does not have an embassy in Tuvalu; the US ambassador to Fiji is accredited to Tuvalu | none (overseas department of France) |
Diplomatic representation in the US | Tuvalu does not have an embassy in the US - the country's only diplomatic post is in Fiji - Tuvalu does, however, have a UN office located at 800 2nd Avenue, Suite 400D, New York, NY 10017, telephone: [1] (212) 490-0534 | none (overseas department of France) |
Disputes - international | none | none |
Economic aid - recipient | $13 million; note - major donors are Australia, Japan, and the US (1999 est.) | $NA; note - substantial annual subsidies from France |
Economy - overview | Tuvalu consists of a densely populated, scattered group of nine coral atolls with poor soil. The country has no known mineral resources and few exports. Subsistence farming and fishing are the primary economic activities. Fewer than 1,000 tourists, on average, visit Tuvalu annually. Government revenues largely come from the sale of stamps and coins and remittances from seamen on merchant ships abroad. About 1,000 Tuvaluans are being repatriated from Nauru, with the decline of phosphate resources there. Substantial income is received annually from an international trust fund established in 1987 by Australia, NZ, and the UK and supported also by Japan and South Korea. Thanks to wise investments and conservative withdrawals, this fund has grown from an initial $17 million to over $35 million in 1999. The US Government is also a major revenue source for Tuvalu because of payments from a 1988 treaty on fisheries. In an effort to reduce its dependence on foreign aid, the government is pursuing public sector reforms, including privatization of some government functions and personnel cuts of up to 7%. Tuvalu derives around $1.5 million per year from the lease of its ".tv" Internet domain name. With merchandise exports only a fraction of merchandise imports, continued reliance must be placed on fishing and telecommunications license fees, remittances from overseas workers, official transfers, and income from overseas investments. | The economy has traditionally been based on agriculture. Sugarcane has been the primary crop for more than a century, and in some years it accounts for 85% of exports. The government has been pushing the development of a tourist industry to relieve high unemployment, which amounts to more than 40% of the labor force. The gap in Reunion between the well-off and the poor is extraordinary and accounts for the persistent social tensions. The white and Indian communities are substantially better off than other segments of the population, often approaching European standards, whereas minority groups suffer the poverty and unemployment typical of the poorer nations of the African continent. The outbreak of severe rioting in February 1991 illustrates the seriousness of socioeconomic tensions. The economic well-being of Reunion depends heavily on continued financial assistance from France. |
Electricity - consumption | - | 1.023 billion kWh (1999) |
Electricity - exports | - | 0 kWh (1999) |
Electricity - imports | - | 0 kWh (1999) |
Electricity - production | - | 1.1 billion kWh (1999) |
Electricity - production by source | - | fossil fuel:
54.55% hydro: 45.45% nuclear: 0% other: 0% (1999) |
Elevation extremes | lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
highest point: unnamed location 5 m |
lowest point:
Indian Ocean 0 m highest point: Piton des Neiges 3,069 m |
Environment - current issues | since there are no streams or rivers and groundwater is not potable, most water needs must be met by catchment systems with storage facilities (the Japanese Government has built one desalination plant and plans to build one other); beachhead erosion because of the use of sand for building materials; excessive clearance of forest undergrowth for use as fuel; damage to coral reefs from the spread of the Crown of Thorns starfish; Tuvalu is concerned about global increases in greenhouse gas emissions and their effect on rising sea levels, which threaten the country's underground water table; in 2000, the government appealed to Australia and New Zealand to take in Tuvaluans if rising sea levels should make evacuation necessary | NA |
Environment - international agreements | party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements |
- |
Ethnic groups | Polynesian 96%, Micronesian 4% | French, African, Malagasy, Chinese, Pakistani, Indian |
Exchange rates | Tuvaluan dollars or Australian dollars per US dollar - 1.3095 (2005), 1.3598 (2004), 1.5419 (2003), 1.8406 (2002), 1.9334 (2001) | euros per US dollar - 1.06594 (January 2001), 1.08540 (2000), 0.9386 (1999); French francs per US dollar - 5.8995 (1998), 5.8367 (1997), 5.1155 (1996) |
Executive branch | chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952), represented by Governor General Filoimea TELITO (since 15 April 2005)
head of government: Prime Minister Apisai IELEMIA (since 14 August 2006) cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the governor general on the recommendation of the prime minister elections: the monarch is hereditary; governor general appointed by the monarch on the recommendation of the prime minister; prime minister and deputy prime minister elected by and from the members of Parliament; election last held 14 August 2006 (next to be held following parliamentary elections in 2010) election results: Apisai IELEMIA elected Prime Minister in a Parliamentary election on 14 August 2006 |
chief of state:
President Jacques CHIRAC of France (since 17 May 1995), represented by Prefect Robert POMMIES (since NA 1996) head of government: President of the General Council Jean-Luc POUDROUX (since NA March 1998) and President of the Regional Council Paul VERGES (since NA March 1993) cabinet: NA elections: French president elected by popular vote for a seven-year term; prefect appointed by the French president on the advice of the French Ministry of the Interior; the presidents of the General and Regional Councils are elected by the members of those councils |
Exports | $1 million f.o.b. (2004 est.) | $214 million (f.o.b., 1997) |
Exports - commodities | copra, fish | sugar 63%, rum and molasses 4%, perfume essences 2%, lobster 3%, (1993) |
Exports - partners | Germany 60.5%, Italy 20.1%, Fiji 6.9% (2005) | France 74%, Japan 6%, Comoros 4% (1994) |
Fiscal year | calendar year | calendar year |
Flag description | light blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant; the outer half of the flag represents a map of the country with nine yellow five-pointed stars symbolizing the nine islands | the flag of France is used |
GDP | - | purchasing power parity - $3.4 billion (1998 est.) |
GDP - composition by sector | agriculture: 16.6% NA%
industry: 27.2% NA% services: 56.2% NA% |
agriculture:
NA% industry: NA% services: NA% |
GDP - per capita | - | purchasing power parity - $4,800 (1998 est.) |
GDP - real growth rate | 1.2% (2002 est.) | 3.8% (1998 est.) |
Geographic coordinates | 8 00 S, 178 00 E | 21 06 S, 55 36 E |
Geography - note | one of the smallest and most remote countries on Earth; six of the coral atolls - Nanumea, Nui, Vaitupu, Nukufetau, Funafuti, and Nukulaelae - have lagoons open to the ocean; Nanumaya and Niutao have landlocked lagoons; Niulakita does not have a lagoon | - |
Highways | - | total:
2,724 km paved: 1,300 km (including 73 km of four-lane road) unpaved: 1,424 km note: 370 km of road are maintained by national authorities, 754 km by departmental authorities and 1600 km by local authorities (1994) |
Household income or consumption by percentage share | lowest 10%: NA%
highest 10%: NA% |
lowest 10%:
NA% highest 10%: NA% |
Imports | $9.186 million c.i.f. (2004 est.) | $2.5 billion (c.i.f., 1997) |
Imports - commodities | food, animals, mineral fuels, machinery, manufactured goods | manufactured goods, food, beverages, tobacco, machinery and transportation equipment, raw materials, and petroleum products |
Imports - partners | Fiji 46.1%, Japan 18.9%, China 18.2%, Australia 7.7%, NZ 4.1% (2005) | France 64%, Bahrain 3%, Germany 3%, Italy 3% (1994) |
Independence | 1 October 1978 (from UK) | none (overseas department of France) |
Industrial production growth rate | NA% | NA% |
Industries | fishing, tourism, copra | sugar, rum, cigarettes, handicraft items, flower oil extraction |
Infant mortality rate | total: 19.47 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 22.27 deaths/1,000 live births female: 16.52 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.) |
8.49 deaths/1,000 live births (2001 est.) |
Inflation rate (consumer prices) | 3.7% (2003 est.) | NA% |
International organization participation | ACP, AsDB, C, FAO, IFRCS (observer), IMO, ITU, OPCW, PIF, Sparteca, SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UPU, WHO | FZ, InOC, WFTU |
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) | - | 1 (2000) |
Irrigated land | NA | 60 sq km (1993 est.) |
Judicial branch | High Court (a chief justice visits twice a year to preside over its sessions; its rulings can be appealed to the Court of Appeal in Fiji); eight Island Courts (with limited jurisdiction) | Court of Appeals or Cour d'Appel |
Labor force | 3,615 (2004 est.) | 261,000 (1995) |
Labor force - by occupation | note: people make a living mainly through exploitation of the sea, reefs, and atolls and from wages sent home by those abroad (mostly workers in the phosphate industry and sailors) | agriculture 8%, industry 19%, services 73% (1990) |
Land boundaries | 0 km | 0 km |
Land use | arable land: 0%
permanent crops: 66.67% other: 33.33% (2005) |
arable land:
17% permanent crops: 2% permanent pastures: 5% forests and woodland: 35% other: 41% (1993 est.) |
Languages | Tuvaluan, English, Samoan, Kiribati (on the island of Nui) | French (official), Creole widely used |
Legal system | NA | French law |
Legislative branch | unicameral Parliament or Fale I Fono, also called House of Assembly (15 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
elections: last held 3 August 2006 (next to be held in 2010) election results: percent of vote - NA%; seats - independents 15 |
unicameral General Council (47 seats; members are elected by direct popular vote to serve six-year terms) and a unicameral Regional Council (45 seats; members are elected by direct popular vote to serve six-year terms)
elections: General Council - last held NA March 1994 (next to be held NA 2000); Regional Council - last held 15 March 1998 (next to be held NA 2004) election results: General Council - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - PCR 12, PS 12, UDF 11, RPR 5, others 7; Regional Council - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - PCR 7, UDF 8, PS 6, RPR 4, various right-wing candidates 15, various left-wing candidates 5 note: Reunion elects three representatives to the French Senate; elections last held 14 April 1996 (next to be held NA 2001); results - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - RPR 1, PCR 2; Reunion also elects five deputies to the French National Assembly; elections last held 25 May and 1 June 1997 (next to be held NA 2002); results - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - PCR 3, PS 1, and RPR-UDF 1 |
Life expectancy at birth | total population: 68.32 years
male: 66.08 years female: 70.66 years (2006 est.) |
total population:
72.93 years male: 69.53 years female: 76.49 years (2001 est.) |
Literacy | NA | definition:
age 15 and over can read and write total population: 79% male: 76% female: 80% (1982 est.) |
Location | Oceania, island group consisting of nine coral atolls in the South Pacific Ocean, about one-half of the way from Hawaii to Australia | Southern Africa, island in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar |
Map references | Oceania | World |
Maritime claims | territorial sea: 12 nm
contiguous zone: 24 nm exclusive economic zone: 200 nm |
exclusive economic zone:
200 NM territorial sea: 12 NM |
Merchant marine | total: 52 ships (1000 GRT or over) 196,790 GRT/256,436 DWT
by type: bulk carrier 3, cargo 37, chemical tanker 1, container 2, passenger 3, passenger/cargo 1, petroleum tanker 4, specialized tanker 1 foreign-owned: 43 (China 23, Hong Kong 8, Kenya 1, Russia 2, Singapore 6, Thailand 1, Turkey 2) (2006) |
total:
1 ship (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 28,264 GRT/44,885 DWT ships by type: chemical tanker 1 (2000 est.) |
Military - note | - | defense is the responsibility of France |
Military branches | no regular military forces; Police Force | French forces (Army, Navy, Air Force, and Gendarmerie) |
Military expenditures - dollar figure | NA | - |
Military expenditures - percent of GDP | NA | - |
Military manpower - availability | - | males age 15-49:
190,846 (2001 est.) |
Military manpower - fit for military service | - | males age 15-49:
97,497 (2001 est.) |
Military manpower - military age | - | 18 years of age |
Military manpower - reaching military age annually | - | males:
6,243 (2001 est.) |
National holiday | Independence Day, 1 October (1978) | Bastille Day, 14 July (1789) |
Nationality | noun: Tuvaluan(s)
adjective: Tuvaluan |
noun:
Reunionese (singular and plural) adjective: Reunionese |
Natural hazards | severe tropical storms are usually rare, but, in 1997, there were three cyclones; low level of islands make them sensitive to changes in sea level | periodic, devastating cyclones (December to April); Piton de la Fournaise on the southeastern coast is an active volcano |
Natural resources | fish | fish, arable land, hydropower |
Net migration rate | 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.) | 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2001 est.) |
Political parties and leaders | there are no political parties but members of Parliament usually align themselves in informal groupings | Communist Party of Reunion or PCR [Paul VERGES]; Rally for the Republic or RPR [Andre Maurice PIHOUEE]; Socialist Party or PS [Jean-Claude FRUTEAU]; Union for French Democracy or UDF [Gilbert GERARD] |
Political pressure groups and leaders | none | NA |
Population | 11,810 (July 2006 est.) | 732,570 (July 2001 est.) |
Population below poverty line | NA% | NA% |
Population growth rate | 1.51% (2006 est.) | 1.57% (2001 est.) |
Ports and harbors | - | Le Port, Pointe des Galets |
Radio broadcast stations | AM 1, FM 1, shortwave 0 (2004) | AM 2, FM 55, shortwave 0 (1998) |
Radios | - | 173,000 (1997) |
Railways | - | 0 km |
Religions | Church of Tuvalu (Congregationalist) 97%, Seventh-Day Adventist 1.4%, Baha'i 1%, other 0.6% | Roman Catholic 86%, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist (1995) |
Sex ratio | at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.61 male(s)/female total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.) |
at birth:
1.05 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.68 male(s)/female total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2001 est.) |
Suffrage | 18 years of age; universal | 18 years of age; universal |
Telephone system | general assessment: serves particular needs for internal communications
domestic: radiotelephone communications between islands international: country code - 688; international calls can be made by satellite |
general assessment:
adequate system; principal center is Saint-Denis domestic: modern open wire and microwave radio relay network international: radiotelephone communication to Comoros, France, Madagascar; new microwave route to Mauritius; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) |
Telephones - main lines in use | 700 (2002) | 236,500 (1997) |
Telephones - mobile cellular | 0 (2004) | 85,000 (1999) |
Television broadcast stations | 0 (2004) | 22 (plus 18 low-power repeaters) (1997) |
Terrain | very low-lying and narrow coral atolls | mostly rugged and mountainous; fertile lowlands along coast |
Total fertility rate | 2.98 children born/woman (2006 est.) | 2.58 children born/woman (2001 est.) |
Unemployment rate | NA% | 42.8% (1998) |
Waterways | - | none |