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One of the world's smallest, most isolated states, Tuvalu lies around 2000 km (1250 miles) north of Fiji in the Pacific. A chain of nine coral atolls, it has a land area of just 26 sq. km (10 sq. miles). As the Ellice Islands, it was linked to the Gilbert Islands (now Kiribati) as a British colony until independence in 1978. Politically and socially conservative, Tuvaluans live by subsistence farming and fishing.