Palau Country Info - Oceania

Description and Basic Information

Palau with its capital Koror is located in Oceania (Oceania, group of islands in the North Pacific Ocean). It covers some 459 square kilometres (slightly more than 2.5 times the size of Washington, DC) with 20,303 citizens. English, Japanese and Chinese are the official languages spoken in Palau (consider regional differences).

Palau is a group of islands in the Micronesia area of Oceania, to the southeast of the Philippines. Palau enjoys a tropical climate all year round with an annual mean temperature of 82 °F (28 °C). Rainfall can occur throughout the year, averaging a total of 150 inches (3,800 mm). Palau is most famous for scuba diving. One of the most famous dive sites - Blue Corner, with constant sharks and a high current - is located less than 1 hour's boat ride from most resorts.

Pictures from Capital (Koror)

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

About Palau

The landscape features varying geologically from the high, mountainous main island of Babelthuap to low, coral islands usually fringed by large barrier reefs. The average density of population is about 44 per km². The climate in Palau can be described as tropical with hot and humid, wet season May to November. Potential threats by nature are typhoons (June to December).

To reach someone in Palau dial +680 prior to a number. There are 7,100 installed telephones. And there are 13,200 registered mobile phones. The cellular networks operate on frequencies of 900 Mhz. Websites typically end with the top level domain ".pw". If you want to bring electric appliances (e.g. battery charger), keep in mind the local 115/230V - 50Hz. The following list are the 16 regions/states in Palau we know off.

Demographic Statistics

In the year 2010, the total Palauan population grew at a rate of 0.37% (or by 78 citizens). With 163 deaths and 223 babies born, the natural increase rate lies at 0.29%. 18 persons more in total immigrated to the country than emmigrated.

An overview of age distribution in Palau: 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.