|
List All Cities Palau Listing cities Palau database :
|
Description Palau by rbd.me
|
|
After three decades as part of the UN Trust Territory of the Pacific under US administration, this westernmost cluster of the Caroline Islands opted for independence in 1978 rather than join the Federated States of Micronesia. A Compact of Free Association with the US was approved in 1986 but not ratified until 1993. It entered into force the following year when the islands gained independence.
|
|
Location
|
|
Oceania, group of islands in the North Pacific Ocean, southeast of the Philippines
|
|
Area - comparative
|
|
slightly more than 2.5 times the size of Washington, DC
|
|
Natural resources Palau
|
|
varying geologically from the high, mountainous main island of Babelthuap to low, coral islands usually fringed by large barrier reefs
|
|
Population Palau
|
|
20,879 (July 2010 est.)
|
|
Religions Palau
|
|
Roman Catholic 41.6%, Protestant 23.3%, Modekngei 8.8% (indigenous to Palau), Seventh-Day Adventist 5.3%, Jehovah's Witness 0.9%, Latter-Day Saints 0.6%, other 3.1%, unspecified or none 16.4% (2000 census)
|
|
Languages
|
|
Palauan 64.7% official in all islands except Sonsoral (Sonsoralese and English are official), Tobi (Tobi and English are official), and Angaur (Angaur, Japanese, and English are official), Filipino 13.5%, English 9.4%, Chinese 5.7%, Carolinian 1.5%, Japanese 1.5%, other Asian 2.3%, other languages 1.5% (2000 census)
|
|
Education Palau expenditures
|
|
10.3% of GDP (2002)
|
|
Government Palau type
|
|
constitutional government in free association with the US; the Compact of Free Association entered into force on 1 October 1994
|
|
Independence
|
|
1 October 1994 (from the US-administered UN trusteeship)
|
|
Palau Economy - overview
|
|
The economy consists primarily of tourism, subsistence agriculture, and fishing. The government is the major employer of the work force relying heavily on financial assistance from the US. The Compact of Free Association with the US, entered into after the end of the UN trusteeship on 1 October 1994, provided Palau with up to $700 million in US aid for the following 15 years in return for furnishing military facilities. Business and tourist arrivals numbered 85,000 in 2007. The population enjoys a per capita income roughly 50% higher than that of the Philippines and much of Micronesia. Long-run prospects for the key tourist sector have been greatly bolstered by the expansion of air travel in the Pacific, the rising prosperity of leading East Asian countries, and the willingness of foreigners to finance infrastructure development.
|
|
Investment Palau
|
|
$NA
|
|
Industries Palau
|
|
$0 (FY99/00)
|
|
Airports Palau
|
|
|
|
|
|
