Kiribati Flag

Description

Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is a country in the central Pacific Ocean. The permanent population is just over 110,000 (2015), more than half of whom live in Tarawa Atoll. The state comprises 32 atolls and one raised coral island, Banaba. They have a total land area of 800 square kilometres (310 sq mi) and are dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometres (1.3 million square miles). In terms of its Exclusive Economic Zone in the Pacific, it straddles across all three primary geographic regions; Banaba (Melanesian-Micronesian Border), the Gilbert Islands (Micronesia) and the Line and Phoenix Islands (Polynesia). Their spread straddles both the equator and the 180th meridian, although the International Date Line goes around Kiribati and swings far to the east, almost reaching the 150°W meridian. This brings the Line Islands into the same day as the Kiribati Islands. Kiribati’s easternmost islands, the southern Line Islands, south of Hawaii, have the most advanced time on Earth: UTC+14 hours. Kiribati is the only country in the world to be situated in all four hemispheres. Kiribati gained its independence from the United Kingdom becoming a sovereign state in 1979. The capital, South Tarawa, which is now the most populated area, consists of a number of islets, connected by a series of causeways. These comprise about half the area of Tarawa Atoll.

The flag of Kiribati is red in the upper half with a gold frigatebird flying over a gold rising sun, and the lower half is blue with three horizontal wavy white stripes to represent the ocean and the three groups (Gilbert, Phoenix and the Line Islands). The 17 rays of the sun represent the 16 Gilbert Islands and Banaba (former Ocean Island). The frigatebird symbolises command of the sea, power, freedom and Kiribati cultural dance patterns, the blue and white wavy bands represent the Pacific Ocean, which surrounds Kiribati and the sun refers to Kiribati’s position astride the Equator. The badge was designed by Sir Arthur Grimble in 1932 for the Gilbert and Ellice Islands British colony. Kiribati’s flag is an armorial banner, a flag having a design corresponding exactly to that of the shield in the coat of arms. The coat of arms dates back to May 1937 when it was granted to the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, as Kiribati and Tuvalu were then known. The shield was incorporated into the centre of the fly half of a British Blue Ensign as the state ensign of the colony.