Country:  Baker Island
(territory of the US)
- Geography
Total area: 1.4 km2; land area: 1.4 km2
 
Comparative area: about 2.3 times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC
 
Land boundaries: none
 
Coastline: 4.8 km
 
Maritime claims:
 
Contiguous zone: 12 nm;
 
Continental shelf: 200 m;
 
Extended economic zone: 200 nm;
 
Territorial sea: 12 nm
 
Climate: equatorial; scant rainfall, constant wind, burning sun
 
Terrain: low, nearly level coral island surrounded by a narrow
fringing reef
 
Natural resources: guano (deposits worked until 1891)
 
Land use: 0% arable land; 0% permanent crops; 0% meadows and
pastures; 0% forest and woodland; 100% other
 
Environment: treeless, sparse and scattered vegetation consisting of
grasses, prostrate vines, and low growing shrubs; lacks fresh water;
primarily a nesting, roosting, and foraging habitat for seabirds,
shorebirds, and marine wildlife
 
Note: remote location 2,575 km southwest of Honolulu in the North Pacific
Ocean, just north of the Equator, about halfway between Hawaii and Australia
 
- People
Population: uninhabited
 
Note: American civilians evacuated in 1942 after Japanese air and naval
attacks during World War II; occupied by US military during World War II, but
abandoned after the war; public entry is by special-use permit only and
generally restricted to scientists and educators; a cemetery and cemetery ruins
located near the middle of the west coast
 
- Government
Long-form name: none
 
Type: unincorporated territory of the US administered by the Fish
and Wildlife Service of the US Department of the Interior as part of the
National Wildlife Refuge system
 
- Economy
Overview: no economic activity
 
- Communications
Ports: none; offshore anchorage only, one boat landing area along the
the middle of the west coast
 
Airports: 1 abandoned World War II runway of 1,665 m
 
Note: there is a day beacon near the middle of the west coast
 
- Defense Forces
Note: defense is the responsibility of the US; visited annually by the
US Coast Guard