Insular area
An insular area is a United States territory that is neither a part of one of the fifty states nor a part of the District of Columbia, the nation's federal district.
Because those insular areas that are inhabited are unincorporated territories, their native-born inhabitants are not constitutionally entitled to United States citizenship under the Citizenship Clause. However, Congress has extended citizenship rights to all inhabited territories with the exception of American Samoa, and these citizens may vote and run for office in any U.S. jurisdiction in which they are resident. Residents of American Samoa are U.S. nationals, but not U.S. citizens; they are free to move around and seek employment within the whole United States without immigration restrictions, but cannot vote or hold office outside of American Samoa.
Residents of insular areas do not pay U.S. federal taxes, but most pay taxes to the territorial governments at the same rates as U.S. federal income taxes. Insular areas do not choose electors in U.S. presidential elections nor do they elect voting members of the U.S. Congress. Goods manufactured in insular areas of the United States can be labeled "Made in USA."
The U.S. State Department uses the term insular area to refer not only to these territories under the sovereignty of the United States, but also those independent nations that have signed a Compact of Free Association with the United States. While these nations participate in many otherwise domestic programs, they are legally distinct from the United States and their inhabitants are not United States citizens or nationals.
List and status of insular areas
Several islands in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea are considered insular areas of the United States.
Inhabited
 none
Uninhabited
Palmyra Atoll (uninhabited, owned by The Nature Conservancy but administered by the Office of Insular Affairs; part of the United States Minor Outlying Islands)
Inhabited
American Samoa (officially unorganized, although self-governing under authority of the U.S. Department of the Interior)
Guam (organized under Organic Act of 1950)
Northern Mariana Islands (commonwealth, organized under 1977 Covenant)
Puerto Rico (territory with commonwealth status, organized under terms of Puerto Rico-Federal Relations Act)
U.S. Virgin Islands (organized under Revised Organic Act of 1954)
Uninhabited
Along with Palmyra Atoll, these form the United States Minor Outlying Islands:
Baker Island
Howland Island
Jarvis Island
Johnston Atoll
Kingman Reef
Midway Islands (administered as the Midway Atoll National Monument)
Navassa Island
Wake Island
From July 18, 1947 until October 1, 1994, the U.S. administered the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, but more recently entered into a new political relationship with all four political units (one of which is the Northern Mariana Islands listed above, the others being the three freely associated states noted below).
Freely associated states
The freely associated states are the three sovereign states with which the United States has entered into a Compact of Free Association. They have not been within U.S. jurisdiction since they became sovereign; however, many considered them to be dependencies of the United States until each was admitted to the United Nations in the 1990s.
Republic of the Marshall Islands
Federated States of Micronesia
Republic of Palau
Disputed
Navassa Island (with Haiti)
Wake Island (with Marshall Islands)
Serranilla Bank (with Colombia)
Bajo Nuevo Bank (with Jamaica)
Former colonies
Philippines, granted to U.S. through the Treaty of Paris in 1898, achieved independence on July 4, 1946.
Cuba, granted to U.S. through the Treaty of Paris in 1898, gained formal independence on May 20, 1902.
See also
Dependent territory
Commonwealth (United States insular area)
Incorporated territory
Organized territory
Unorganized territory
Compact of Free Association
Freely associated states
Guano Islands Act
Guantanamo Bay
Insular Cases
Political divisions of the United States
United States Minor Outlying Islands
United States territorial acquisitions
United States territory
External links
Office of Insular Affairs
Department of the Interior Definitions of Insular Area Political Types
Rubin, Richard, "The Lost Islands", The Atlantic Monthly, February 2001
Chapter 7: Puerto Rico and the Outlying Areas, U.S. Census Bureau, Geographic Areas Reference Manual (PDF)
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