Insular area
An
insular area is
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.
Insular area is the current generic term used by the
U.S. State Department to refer to any commonwealth, freely associated state, possession or territory controlled by the U.S. government. In other contexts, U.S. insular areas may be described as
dependencies,
protectorates or
dependent areas. (Dependent areas need not be under the formal jurisdiction of the United States, but excludes areas that are clearly part of or governed by another
state.)
Residents of insular areas are often U.S.
citizens, although they do not pay American federal
taxes and cannot participate in
U.S. presidential elections nor elect voting members of the
U.S. Congress. Goods manufactured in insular areas of the United States can be labeled "Made in the USA."
Several islands in the
Pacific Ocean and
Caribbean Sea are considered
insular areas of the United States.
Incorporated (integral part of 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)
Unincorporated (United States' possessions)
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 IslandFrom
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).
Disputed
*
Navassa Island (with Haiti)*
Machias Seal Island (with Canada)*
Wake Island (with Marshall Islands)*
Serranilla Bank (with Colombia)*
Bajo Nuevo Bank (with Jamaica)*
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*
Office of Insular Affairs*
Department of the Interior Definitions of Insular Area Political Types*
Does Taiwan Meet the Criteria to Qualify as an Insular Area of the United States?*
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)
