The migration of Marshall islanders from the tiny nation in the Pacific to the United States has risen to an eight-year high due to the impact of soaring living costs, officials said.
A total of 1,503 people left the Marshall Islands for the United States in 2008, nearly triple the number in 2007, according to US Department of Transportation statistics.
"The dramatic increases in fuel and food can be considered as major influences for outmigration in 2008," Marshall Islands Economic Policy, Planning and Statistics Office director Carl Hacker said Tuesday.
"This is the largest annual level of out-migration since 2001."
Citizens of the former US-administered territory can travel to the United States to live without a visa under a Compact of Free Association, which governs the relationship between Washington and the tiny Western Pacific archipelago of around 55,000 people.
In 2008, 1,223 people left the capital Majuro for the United States, more than two-and-a-half times the 2007 number of 466.
From the second largest urban centre, Kwajalein, 280 people departed, compared with 112 in 2007.
The record Marshall Islanders' migration to the United States was set in 2001, when 2,029 left.
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