Distillers Country guides / Kiribati
Kiribati
A one-page guide to Kiribati for the spirits trade: the country, its people, its economy and how it drinks.
At a glance
- Capital
- Tarawa
- Official languages
- Gilbertese, English
- Currency
- Australian dollar (AUD); the Kiribati dollar is not the official currency
- Time zone
- UTC+12, UTC+13 and UTC+14 (three zones)
- Area
- 811 km²
People
- Population
- 129,000 (2025)
- Population growth
- 1.5% a year
- Living in towns and cities
- 63.4%
- Aged under 15
- 34.4%
- Aged 65 and over
- 4.4%
- Life expectancy
- 66.6 years
Economy
- GDP
- US$349.0 million (2025)
- GDP per person
- US$2,701 (2025)
- Economic growth
- 4.3% (2025)
- Inflation
- 5.9% (2025)
Climate
Tropical rainforest climate with stable temperatures. Wet and cyclone-prone season runs November to April, with westerly gales and rain; April to October brings steady north-easterly winds. Coral atolls spread over a vast ocean area make shipping slow and expensive.
Alcohol
- Alcohol is
- Legal
- Legal drinking age
- 21 (Liquor Ordinance 1973 art. 11 and Liquor (Amendment) Act 2005, as cited by Wikipedia)
- Alcohol per adult a year
- 0.63 litres of pure alcohol (2024)
Sources: World Bank (population, economy and demographics), WHO Global Health Observatory (alcohol per adult and drinking mix); Wikipedia - Legal drinking age; Wikipedia - Kiribati. Figures are the latest each source publishes; the year is shown beside each one.