The total land area is 1.3 square kilometers (0.50 sq mi), and is thickly wooded with coconut and breadfruit trees.

Cultural forms primarily revolve around dance and story-telling, and an alcoholic beverage known as tuba (a palm wine) is brewed from fermented sap of the coconut flower spike.

The island came under the control of the Empire of Japan after World War I, and was subsequently administered under the South Seas Mandate.

On March 18, 1994, the freighter Oceanus ventured out of the main shipping channel when its captain attempted to peek at topless Satawalese women.

The best-known of the Satawal master navigators (paliuw), Mau Piailug, served as mentor and teacher to the founding members of the Polynesian Voyaging Society.

Low produced The Navigators: Pathfinders of the Pacific, a documentary film about Mau Piailug and communal life on Satawal including food preparation, fishing and boat building.

The Polynesian Voyaging Society presented Piailug a canoe, the Alingano Maisu, as a gift for his key role in reviving traditional wayfinding navigation in Hawaii.