The Marshall Islands chief planner Carl Hacker says there is increasing hardship in the country, particularly in urban communities.
His office has been conducting a series of health, water and population surveys on Majuro, Ebeye and the remote outer islands.
They've shown that migration from remote islands is leading to overcrowding and heavy urbanisation of what used to be small towns.
Mr Hacker says many communities lack electricity and water and are crammed with more children than can be fed adequately.
Throughout the Marshalls, unemployment is high, wage levels have not kept up with inflation, and consumer debt, mostly to banks, has grown 80 percent in the last decade.
Our correspondent in Majuro, Giff Johnson, says local leadership has yet to fully recognise the serious hardships.
"People kind of think that life is still like it was 25 or 30 years ago when things were much lower key, there weren't as many people, populations were lower, people shared more, island customs were stronger and life was just easier. And times have really changed in the urban centres."
Giff Johnson
