Pre-Trip Information

 

The Marshall Islands are comprised of five coral islands and 29 major atolls, roughly aligned in two parallel groups, the "Ratak" or sunrise chain and the "Ralik" or sunset chain. The nation also includes some 1,200 atoll-type islets, mostly uninhabited, spread across hundreds of miles of the South Pacific approximately midway between Hawaii and Papua New Guinea. Today, nearly three-fourths of the nation's population lives in Majuro (the island capital) and Ebeye.  The population is approximately 55,000.

 

 

 

The people of the Marshall Islands, referred to as Marshallese, are predominantly Micronesian, a term referring to a combination of peoples who emigrated from Southeast Asia in the remote past. There is also a small Polynesian minority. The matrilineal Marshallese culture (tracing lineage through the mother's family line) revolves around a complex clan system tied to land ownership.

 

Two Malayo-Polynesian dialects are the indigenous Marshallese languages, which together with English rank as official languages. English is spoken by most of the urban population, but both the "Nitijela" (parliament) and the national radio use Marshallese. The elementary education program in the Marshall Islands employs a bilingual/bicultural curriculum.

 

 

The population of the Marshall Islands has a life expectancy at birth of 70.9 years (68.88 years for males, and 73.03 for females) and an infant mortality rate of 26.36 deaths/1,000 live births. In terms of literacy, 93 percent of the female population and 100 percent of the male population, age 15 and over, can read and write.

About  12 percent of GDP is spent in this country on educational expenditures. About 2.5 percent of GDP is spend on health expenditures. Access to sanitation, water,  and health care is considered to be very good.