In the Pacific Ocean's Polynesian subregion, Tuvalu is an island nation and microstate. Its islands are roughly in the middle of Australia and Hawaii. They lie east-upper east of the St Nick Cruz Islands (which have a place with the Solomon Islands), upper east of Vanuatu, southeast of Nauru, south of Kiribati, west of Tokelau, northwest of Samoa and Wallis and Futuna, and north of Fiji. Six atolls and three reef islands make up Tuvalu. They are spread out between 176° and 180° longitude, and their latitude is between 5° and 10° south. The International Date Line can be found to their west.
11,204 people live in Tuvalu (2021 World Bank). The Tuvalu islands have a total land area of 26 square kilometers (10 square miles).

According to well-established theories, Polynesians were the first people to live on Tuvalu. These theories say that Polynesians started migrating into the Pacific about 3000 years ago. Polynesians used canoes to travel between the islands frequently long before Europeans arrived. They were able to make elaborately planned journeys in either double-hulled sailing canoes or outrigger canoes thanks to their navigational skills in Polynesia. Scholars hypothesize that Polynesians moved from Samoa and Tonga to the Tuvaluan atolls, where they became a stepping stone for further migration to Polynesian outliers in Melanesia and Micronesia.