Marshall Islands
POPULATION 73,630
CHRISTIAN 90 percent
OTHER 10 percent
Country Overview
Introduction
The Republic of the Marshall Islands consists of 29 low-lying coral atolls, along with other islands and islets, in the central Pacific Ocean. Two-thirds of the people live on two atolls: Majuro, the political center, and Kwajalein, a U.S. nuclear testing facility. The islands have been settled for approximately 2,000 years.
Beginning in the nineteenth century the islands came under European control, and Christianity was introduced. Some 80 percent of the population is Protestant, and 10 percent is Roman Catholic. There are smaller numbers of other faiths, including Bahais and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Religious Tolerance
The constitution of the Marshall Islands expresses a strong adherence to Christian principles. There is tolerance, however, of non-Christian faiths.
Major Religion
Christianity
DATE OF ORIGIN 1857 C.E.
NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS 66,000
History
Indigenous beliefs that had persisted in the islands for some 2,000 years were disrupted by the arrival of new ideologies and political control in the nineteenth century. Following the island's contact with Spanish, German, British, and American traders, Germany established a protectorate in 1885, and the islands came under Japanese control after World War I.
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