Tuvalu

Tuvalu is an island country in the Polynesian region of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean, roughly midway between Hawaii and Australia, comprising three reef islands, Nanumanga, Niutao and Niulakita, and six atolls, Funafuti, Nanumea, Nui, Nukufetau, Nukulaelae and Vaitupu, spanning a land area of just 26.26 square kilometers, the world's fourth-smallest country. Funafuti is the capital and largest settlement of a country whose 2022 census population of 10,643 makes it the 194th most populous nation and the second-least-populated United Nations member state, ahead only of Vatican City among sovereign entities of similar size. Formerly called the Ellice Islands under British colonial rule, Tuvalu separated from the Gilbert Islands, now Kiribati, in 1975 to 1976 and achieved full independence on 1 October 1978, becoming the 189th United Nations member in 2000. Tuvalu is a constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth, with Charles III as reigning monarch under a parliamentary democratic system; official languages are Tuvaluan and English, and about 96 percent of the population is Christian, predominantly Calvinist. The nation relies on fishing permits, international aid and seafarer remittances, and as a low-lying atoll nation it is acutely vulnerable to sea-level rise, a central concern of its foreign policy through the Alliance of Small Island States.