Northern Mariana Islands Country Info - Oceania

Description and Basic Information

Northern Mariana Islands with its capital Capitol Hill is located in Oceania (Oceania, islands in the North Pacific Ocean). It covers some 478 square kilometres (2.5 times the size of Washington, DC) with 80,362 citizens. Tagalog, Chinese, Chamorro and English are the languages used by people in Northern Mariana Islands (consider regional differences).

Northern Mariana Islands is a commonwealth in political union with (and in practice, close to a territory of) the United States. The Marianas' top activity among Americans is scuba diving and snorkeling. In additional to the coral reefs you might expect, the waters around the islands were the scene of fierce fighting during World War II and there are many ship wrecks and even rusting tanks stuck on the seabed. Many Asian (particularly South Koreans) visitors come to the CNMI for gambling (especially on Tinian), and karaoke/hostess bars. Saipan has a thriving (but illegal) prostitution industry, most of the workers being from China or the Philippines.

Pictures from Capital (Capitol Hill)

Photos provided by Panoramio are under the copyright of their owners.

About Northern Mariana Islands

The terrain offers southern islands are limestone with level terraces and fringing coral reefs having northern islands are volcanic. The average density of population is about 168 per km². The climate in Northern Mariana Islands can be described as tropical marine with moderated by northeast trade winds, little seasonal temperature variation, dry season December to June, rainy season July to October. Possible natural disasters include active volcanoes on Pagan and Agrihan or typhoons (especially August to November).

To reach someone in Northern Mariana Islands dial +1-670 prior to a number. There are 25,100 installed telephones. And there are 20,500 registered mobile phones. The cellular networks operate on frequencies of 1900 Mhz. Websites typically end with the top level domain ".mp". If you want to bring electric appliances (e.g. battery charger), keep in mind the local 120V - 60Hz. The following list are the 4 regions/states in Northern Mariana Islands we know off.

Demographic Statistics

In the year 2010, the total population shrinked at a rate of -5.57% (or by 2,690 citizens). With 153 deaths and 1,017 babies born, the natural increase rate lies at 1.79%. -3,554 persons more in total emmigrated from the country than immigrated.

An overview of age distribution in Northern Mariana Islands: Each pair of bars represents a single age group (male/female). Each group is spanning 5 years. E.g. 0 to 5 years, 5 to 10 etc. and group "0 to 5" being at the left end and "100 +" at the right end of the chart.

Based on content from wikitravel.org. The original article can be found here based on the work of these users.
Geographic information is based on the data provided by geonames.org, CIA factsbook and Unesco.