Tuvalu
The Country of the Week
Quick Facts
- Capital
- Funafuti
- Population
- 11,824 (2025 est.)
- Area
- 26 sq km
- Government
- parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy; a Commonwealth realm
- Languages
- Tuvaluan (official), English (official), Samoan, Kiribati (on the island of Nui)
- Religions
- Protestant 92.7% (Congregational Christian Church of Tuvalu 85.9%, Brethren 2.8%, Seventh Day Adventist 2.5%, Assemblies of God 1.5%), Baha'i 1.5%, Jehovah's Witness 1.5%, other 3.9%, none or refused 0.4% (2017 est.)
- Ethnic Groups
- Tuvaluan 97%, Tuvaluan/I-Kiribati 1.6%, Tuvaluan/other 0.8%, other 0.6% (2017 est.)
- Currency
- Tuvaluan dollars or Australian dollars (AUD)
- Life Expectancy
- 69 years (2024 est.)
- Internet Domain
- .tv
- Climate
- tropical; moderated by easterly trade winds (March to November); westerly gales and heavy rain (November to March)
- Terrain
- low-lying and narrow coral atolls
- Natural Resources
- fish, coconut (copra)
- Major Exports
- fish (2023)
Source: CIA World Factbook (public domain)
Overview
Voyagers from either Samoa or Tonga first populated Tuvalu in the first millennium A.D., and the islands provided a stepping-stone for various Polynesian communities that subsequently settled in Melanesia and Micronesia.