South Tarawa

South Tarawa is the capital and administrative hub of the Republic of Kiribati, a chain of islets on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands of the Pacific Ocean, spanning 15.76 square kilometers with a maximum elevation of only 3 meters. Selected in 1895 as the seat of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Protectorate, it served as its colonial headquarters until 1906, lost that status to Ocean Island, and regained it in 1946 after the end of Japanese occupation. The 2026 census recorded 73,073 residents, more than half of Kiribati's total population, stretched from Betio in the west to Bonriki and Tanaea in the northeast and connected by road, and the settlement holds most of the country's government, commercial and education facilities, including the port, high court, state house, government ministries, foreign embassies, parliament and a university campus.