Demographics
Nauru had 9,378 residents as of July 2011. The population was previously larger, but in 2006 some 1,500 people left the island during a repatriation of immigrant workers from Kiribati and Tuvalu. The repatriation was motivated by wide-scale reductions-in-force in the phosphate mining industry. The official language of Nauru is Nauruan, a distinct Pacific island language, which is spoken by 96 per cent of ethnic Nauruans at home. English is widely spoken and is the language of government and commerce, as Nauruan is not common outside of the country.
The top ethnic groups of Nauru are Nauruan (58%), other Pacific Islander (26%), European (8%), and Chinese (8%). The main religion practised on the island is Christianity (two-thirds Protestant, one-third Roman Catholic). There is also a sizeable Bahá'í population (10%) – the largest proportion of any country in the world – and Buddhist (9%) and Muslim (2.2%) populations. The Constitution provides for freedom of religion. However, the government has restricted the religious practices of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Jehovah's Witnesses, most of whom are foreign workers employed by the government-owned Nauru Phosphate Corporation.
Literacy on Nauru is 96 per cent. Education is compulsory for children from six to fifteen years old, and two more non-compulsory years are offered (years 11 and 12). There is a campus of the University of the South Pacific on Nauru. Before this campus was built in 1987, students would study either by distance or abroad.
Nauruans are the most obese people in the world: 97 per cent of men and 93 per cent of women are overweight or obese. As a result, Nauru has the world's highest level of type 2 diabetes, with more than 40 per cent of the population affected. Other significant dietary-related problems on Nauru include kidney disease and heart disease. Life expectancy on Nauru in 2009 was 60.6 years for males and 68.0 years for females.
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