Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. It comprises 33 atolls dispersed over 1,351 square miles (3,500 square kilometers) close to the equator. The name Kiribati is the Kiribati rendering of "Gilberts", derived from the English name for the main group of islands: the former Gilbert Islands. Because the written native language lacks the letter 's', the sound is rendered as 'ti.' Likewise, the Pacific island known as Christmas Island (not to be confused with the Australian-administered island of that name in the Indian Ocean) is known in the Kiribati language as Kiritimati Island. The total population of Kiribati totals about 90,000. Ethnically, the Kiribati people are Micronesians, but recent archeological evidence indicates that Austronesians originally settled the islands thousands of years ago. Around the 14th century, Fijians and Tongans invaded the islands thus complicating the ethnic range, and there are also people of Polynesian ancestry further diversifying the ethnic typologies. Intermarriage among all ancestral groups, however, has led to a population reasonably homogeneous in appearance and traditions. The people of Kiribati speak a Micronesian dialect called Gilbertese or I-Kiribati, however, English is the official language. English is not used very often outside the island capital of Tarawa. It is more likely that English is mixed in its use with Gilbertese. Older generations tend to use more complicated versions of Gilbertese. (This portion of our site is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Kiribati").

Evangelical believers represent 7.0% of the population of Kiribati (Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandryk, Operation World. Milton Keynes, United Kingdom, 2005, pg. 384).

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