Access to THE WORLD FACTBOOK 1993 provided courtesy of 
The Libraries of the University of Missouri-St. Louis
 
 Match 110   DB Rec# - 55,857  Dataset-WOFACT
 
Source        :CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY 
Source key    :CI 
Program       :WORLD FACTBOOK 
Program key   :CI WOFACT 
Update sched. :Annually         
ID number     :CI WOFACT 109              
Title         :HOWLAND ISLAND 
Data type     :TEXT 
End year      :1994
Date of record:02/16/1994
Keywords 3    : 
| HOWLAND ISLAND 
Text          : 
HOWLAND ISLAND 
Affiliation: (territory of the US) 
 
GEOGRAPHY 
Location: in the North Pacific Ocean, 2,575 km southwest of Honolulu, just 
north of the Equator, about halfway between Hawaii and Australia 
 
Map references: Oceania 
 
Area: 
 
total area: 1.6 km2 
 
comparative area: about 2.7 times the size of the Mall in Washington, DC 
 
Land boundaries: 0 km 
 
Coastline: 6.4 km 
 
contiguous zone: 24 nm 
 
continental shelf: 200 m or the depth of exploitation 
 
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm 
 
territorial sea: 12 nm 
 
International disputes: none 
 
Climate: equatorial; scant rainfall, constant wind, burning sun 
 
Terrain: low-lying, nearly level, sandy, coral island surrounded by a 
narrow fringing reef; depressed central area 
 
Natural resources: guano (deposits worked until late 1800s) 
 
Land use: 
 
arable land: 0% 
 
permanent crops: 0% 
 
meadows and pastures: 0% 
 
forest and woodland: 5% 
 
other: 95% 
 
Irrigated land: 0 km2 
 
Environment: almost totally covered with grasses, prostrate vines, and 
low-growing shrubs; small area of trees in the center; lacks fresh water; 
primarily a nesting, roosting, and foraging habitat for seabirds, shorebirds, 
and marine wildlife; feral cats 
 
PEOPLE 
Population: uninhabited; note - American civilians evacuated in 1942 after 
Japanese air and naval attacks during World War II; occupied by US military 
during World War II, but abandoned after the war; public entry is by 
special-use permit only and generally restricted to scientists and educators 
 
GOVERNMENT 
Names: 
 
conventional long form: none 
 
conventional short form: Howland Island 
 
Digraph: HQ 
 
Wildlife Refuge System 
 
Capital: none; administered from Washington, DC 
 
ECONOMY 
Overview: no economic activity 
 
COMMUNICATIONS 
Ports: none; offshore anchorage only, one boat landing area along the 
middle of the west coast 
 
Airports: airstrip constructed in 1937 for scheduled refueling stop on the 
round-the-world flight of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan - they left Lae, New 
Guinea, for Howland Island, but were never seen again; the airstrip is no 
longer serviceable 
 
Note: Earhart Light is a day beacon near the middle of the west coast that 
was partially destroyed during World War II, but has since been rebuilt in 
memory of famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart 
 
Defense forces 
Note: defense is the responsibility of the US; visited annually by the US 
Coast Guard 
 
 
 
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This section of THE WORLD FACTBOOK 1993 produced by the United States
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was derived from the US Dept. of Commerce
Economics and Statistics Division's NATIONAL TRADE DATA BANK CD-ROM,
July, 1994, SuDoc No. C 1.88:994/7/v.1-2 / R. Muns, UM-St. Louis Libraries 
Local Filename: WF940107.TXT