Majuro

Majuro is the Marshall Islands' capital and largest city. It is also a 64-island coral atoll in the Pacific Ocean. It is a legislative district of the Marshall Islands' Ratak (Sunrise) Chain. The atoll has a land area of 9.7 square kilometers (3.7 square miles) and a lagoon size of 295 square kilometers (114 sq mi). Majuro, like the other Marshall Islands atolls, is made up of narrow landmasses. It has a tropical trade wind environment with an average temperature of 27 degrees Celsius (81 degrees Fahrenheit).

Majuro has been inhabited by humans for at least 2,000 years and was first populated by the Austronesian ancestors of today's Marshallese people. The German Empire acquired the Marshall Islands in 1885, and Majuro became its first and principal commercial post. The city has also been administered by the Japanese and the Americans. Majuro became the new country's capital and the meeting place of the Nitije after the Marshall Islands seceded from the Federated States of Micronesia in 1978, supplanting the earlier capital of Jaluit.

Delap-Uliga-Djarrit (DUD), the primary population center, is made up of three contiguous motus and has a population of 20,301 people as of 2012. Majuro is home to a port, a shopping district, and a number of hotels. Majuro has an international airport providing flights to Hawaii, the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Guam, and Nauru, as well as domestic flights across the country. Its economy is mostly based on the service sector.

Location: Marshall Islands