Flag | |
Quick Facts | |
Capital | Hagatna (Agana) |
Government | U.S. Territory |
Currency | US dollar (USD) |
Area | total: 549 km2 water: 0 km2 land: 549 km2 |
Population | 173,456 (July 2007 est.) |
Language | English, Chamorro, Japanese |
Religion | Roman Catholic 85%, other 15% (1999 est.) |
Calling Code | +1-671 |
Internet TLD | .gu |
Time Zone | UTC+10 |
Guam is an island in the western South Pacific Ocean, about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to the Philippines. (Geographic coordinates: 13 28 N, 144 47 E)
It is the largest and southernmost island in the Mariana Islands archipelago. Guam is a territory of the United States of America. It is considered to occupy a militarily strategic location, south of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Guam is one of many islands that make up Micronesia, which politically consists of Belau (Palau), the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Kiribati (anthropologically having affinities with Polynesia and Micronesia), the Marshall Islands, and several remote islands designated as the U.S.-administered islands of the Central Pacific. All of Micronesia has close political ties to the U.S.