Country:  Jarvis Island
(territory of the US)
- Geography
Total area: 4.5 km2; land area: 4.5 km2
 
Comparative area: about 7.5 times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC
 
Land boundaries: none
 
Coastline: 8 km
 
Maritime claims:
 
Contiguous zone: 12 nm;
 
Continental shelf: 200 m;
 
Extended economic zone: 200 nm;
 
Territorial sea: 12 nm
 
Climate: tropical; scant rainfall, constant wind, burning sun
 
Terrain: sandy, coral island surrounded by a  narrow fringing reef
 
Natural resources: guano (deposits worked until late 1800s)
 
Land use: 0% arable land; 0% permanent crops; 0% meadows and pastures;
0% forest and woodland; 100% other
 
Environment: sparse bunch grass, prostrate vines, and low-growing
shrubs; lacks fresh water; primarily a nesting, roosting, and foraging
habitat for seabirds, shorebirds, and marine wildlife; feral cats
 
Note: 2,090 km south of Honolulu in the South Pacific Ocean, just south
of the Equator, about halfway between Hawaii and the Cook Islands
 
- People
Population: uninhabited
 
Note: Millersville settlement on western side of island occasionally used
as a weather station from 1935 until World War II, when it was abandoned;
reoccupied in 1957 during the International Geophysical Year by scientists who
left in 1958; public entry is by special-use permit only and generally
restricted to scientists and educators
 
- Government
Long-form name: none (territory of the US)
 
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 in the
middle of the west coast and another near the southwest corner of the island
 
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