"Nauru - World's Smallest Republic" a Nauru Travel Page by glenn57

Nauru is the world's smallest republic, and 3rd smallest independent nation. It is a very small island in the Pacific Ocean, very close to the equator.

In the 1970's, Nauru became one of the world's richest nations on a per capita basis, due to its mining of phophate from its interior. Royalties from this flowed both to the people who owned the land the phosphates were on, and to the government. Unfortunately, the government spent its money rather lavishly, and made some poor investment, so now its money has dried up. The phosphate has virtually all been moned, so now Nauru's largest (by far) source of income is gone.

Meanwhile, Nauru has one of the world's highest rates of diabetes and obesity (the two are linked, of course).

The Nauruan people are among the friendliest in the world, in my opinion. As a tourist there, I was quite an oddity, and everyone wanted to talk to me. I couldn't walk the ring road of the island for even a few minutes without someone offering me a ride. One woman even offered me free use of her vehicle for my entire stay on Nauru (I refused politely).