Marshall Islands 🇲🇭

Marshall Islands is a country in Oceania with a population of 41,996. Its capital is Majuro. The official currency is USD, and the main languages are Marshallese, English.

Quick facts

Capital: Majuro
Continent: Oceania
Population: 41,996
Area: 181 km²
Density: 232 people per km²
Currency: USD
Languages: Marshallese, English
ISO code: MH

Where Marshall Islands sits

Marshall Islands 🇲🇭 is one of 14 countries in Oceania, with its capital at Majuro. It covers 181 square kilometres — 191st in the world — and is home to about 41,996 people, 190th globally.

The countries it shares a continent with include Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Fiji and Solomon Islands. If you are learning geography region by region — which works far better than alphabetically, because memory for places is spatial — those are the ones to learn alongside it.

How Marshall Islands compares

Raw figures are hard to hold on their own, so it helps to anchor them. In population, Marshall Islands sits closest to Liechtenstein and Monaco. In land area, its nearest counterparts are Liechtenstein and Saint Kitts and Nevis.

At 232 people per square kilometre it is about 3.9 times the world average of 59.4. It ranks higher by population than by area, so it is more crowded than its size alone suggests.

Marshallese is listed as official in Marshall Islands alone. The USD is shared with 6 other countries, including Ecuador, El Salvador and Micronesia, and 3 others.

To see Marshall Islands next to every other country, sort the country rankings by population, area or density; its currency and languages are listed alongside every other country's in world currencies and world languages.

How to remember Marshall Islands

Majuro is an atoll: a ring of narrow land around a lagoon of 295 square kilometres. Remember 'Marshall Islands, Majuro: double M'. On the flag, the two stripes are the two island chains, Ralik and Ratak.

The flag of Marshall Islands: blue, orange and white

🇲🇭 The flag is a blue flag with an orange and a white stripe rising diagonally from the bottom left, and a white star with 24 rays above them. Blue stands for the Pacific Ocean, orange for the Ralik chain of islands (or sunset and courage) and white for the Ratak chain (or sunrise and peace). The star's rays stand for the electoral districts, with four long rays for the main centres: Majuro, Jaluit, Wotje and Ebeye.

Region and neighbours

Marshall Islands is an island country in the Micronesia region of the northwestern Pacific Ocean, north of the equator and west of the International Date Line. As an island country it has no land neighbours.

Three facts about Marshall Islands

The country is made up of 29 coral atolls, five main islands and 1,220 other very small islands.
The average height above sea level of the whole country is just 7 feet (about 2 m).
In 2011 the government set aside nearly 2 million square kilometres of ocean as a shark sanctuary.

Sources: Wikipedia: Marshall Islands, Wikipedia: Flag of the Marshall Islands, Wikipedia: Majuro, CIA World Factbook.

Quiz yourself on Marshall Islands

Oceania capitals quiz — match Marshall Islands to Majuro
Oceania flags quiz — spot the Marshall Islands flag among its neighbours
Island nations quiz — Marshall Islands is an island country

Quizzes that include Marshall Islands

Three angles are worth covering for any country — where it is, what its flag looks like, and what its capital is. For Marshall Islands those are:

Oceania map quiz — place it on a blank map
Oceania flags quiz — identify its flag among its neighbours
Oceania capitals quiz — match it to Majuro
Marshall Islands capital quiz — five quick questions starting with Marshall Islands
Daily Map Challenge — five countries to find on a blank world map, the same five for everyone each day

Doing all three for one continent before moving on is far more efficient than learning flags globally, then capitals globally, then the map.

Nearby countries

Australia 🇦🇺 — capital Canberra
Fiji 🇫🇯 — capital Suva
Kiribati 🇰🇮 — capital Tarawa
Micronesia 🇫🇲 — capital Palikir
Nauru 🇳🇷 — capital Yaren
New Zealand 🇳🇿 — capital Wellington
Palau 🇵🇼 — capital Ngerulmud
Papua New Guinea 🇵🇬 — capital Port Moresby
Samoa 🇼🇸 — capital Apia
Solomon Islands 🇸🇧 — capital Honiara
Tonga 🇹🇴 — capital Nukuʻalofa
Tuvalu 🇹🇻 — capital Funafuti

Frequently asked questions

What are the colours of the Marshall Islands flag?

The flag of Marshall Islands is a blue flag with an orange and a white stripe rising diagonally from the bottom left, and a white star with 24 rays above them. Blue stands for the Pacific Ocean, orange for the Ralik chain of islands (or sunset and courage) and white for the Ratak chain (or sunrise and peace). The star's rays stand for the electoral districts, with four long rays for the main centres: Majuro, Jaluit, Wotje and Ebeye.

Which countries border Marshall Islands?

None. Marshall Islands is an island country in the Micronesia region of the northwestern Pacific Ocean, north of the equator and west of the International Date Line, so it has no land borders with other countries.