🇹🇻Tuvalu

Tuvalu is one of the smallest and most remote nations on Earth, a scattering of low coral atolls in the central Pacific. With a population of only about eleven thousand, it is among the least visited countries in the world. Tuvalu has also become a global symbol of the threat that rising seas pose to low-lying island states.

The country consists of nine tiny islands and atolls, none rising more than a few metres above sea level. Total land area is just 26 square kilometres, scattered across a vast stretch of ocean. The climate is tropical, and the nation is acutely vulnerable to storm surges and sea-level rise.

Tuvaluan life is communal and tradition-bound, centred on extended family, the church and the meeting house, or maneapa. Dance, song and fatele performances mark celebrations, and fishing and handicrafts remain central to daily life. Tuvaluan and English are spoken.

Settled by Polynesians, the islands were known in colonial times as the Ellice Islands and administered with the Gilbert Islands under British rule. Tuvalu separated and gained independence in 1978. In recent decades it has gained a notable income from leasing its internet domain, the sought-after dot tv.