How Many US Territories Exist: 5 Inhabited and 9 Uninhabited

There are 14 United States territories. Five have permanent civilian populations: Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The other nine are small, uninhabited islands in the Pacific and Caribbean that the federal government manages mainly for wildlife conservation or limited military use. None of the 14 is a state, and residents live under a legal framework that differs from the mainland in ways that reach voting, taxes, and federal benefits.

The Five Inhabited Territories

Puerto Rico is the largest, with roughly 3.2 million people in the northeastern Caribbean. Residents are U.S. citizens by birth. They cannot vote in presidential general elections and have no voting representation in Congress. Puerto Rico runs its own tax system under its own constitution.¹

Guam sits in the western Pacific and is a major U.S. military hub. Its civil government was established by the Organic Act of Guam, with executive, legislative, and judicial branches under the general supervision of the Secretary of the Interior.² Residents are U.S. citizens.

The U.S. Virgin Islands are a group of Caribbean islands and cays operating under the Revised Organic Act of 1954. Congress has authorized the territory to adopt its own constitution, but voters have never approved a proposed version, so the Organic Act remains the governing framework.³ Residents are U.S. citizens.

American Samoa, in the South Pacific, is the exception. People born there are U.S. nationals, not U.S. citizens. That classification traces to the 1900 annexation and has been preserved in federal law since.⁴ Nationals can live and work anywhere in the United States but cannot vote in federal elections unless they naturalize as citizens. American Samoa’s traditional leaders have generally supported the status, in part because full constitutional application could expose the territory’s communal land ownership system, which largely restricts land ownership to people of Samoan ancestry, to equal protection challenges.

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is in the western Pacific near Guam. It joined the United States through a negotiated agreement known as the Covenant, approved by Congress under 48 U.S.C. § 1801. The Covenant gives the CNMI a high degree of local self-government while reserving foreign affairs and defense to the federal government, and it authorizes the CNMI to restrict the sale of permanent land interests to people of Northern Marianas descent.⁵ Residents born after the Covenant took effect are U.S. citizens.

The Nine Uninhabited Islands

The remaining nine territories are collectively called the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands. None has a permanent civilian population. They are Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Atoll, Navassa Island, Palmyra Atoll, and Wake Island.⁶

Most sit in the central or western Pacific. Navassa Island is the exception, located in the Caribbean between Haiti and Jamaica. Midway Atoll, known for the World War II battle, is now a national wildlife refuge managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.⁷ Palmyra Atoll is also a wildlife refuge, and it holds a further legal distinction: it is the only territory the Department of the Interior treats as incorporated, meaning the full Constitution applies there as it does in the states.⁸ Access to nearly all of these islands requires special federal permits because of their protected ecological status. Despite their small size, they extend U.S. resource rights over vast stretches of ocean through their exclusive economic zones.

How Territory Status Differs From Statehood

The 14 territories are under U.S. sovereignty, but the practical consequences of not being a state show up in several places at once.

Voting and Representation

Each of the five inhabited territories sends a representative to the U.S. House, but none can vote on final passage of legislation on the House floor. Puerto Rico’s representative is called the Resident Commissioner and serves a four-year term; the delegates from the other four territories serve two-year terms.⁹ The CNMI was the last to gain a delegate, seated in January 2009.¹⁰ All five can introduce bills, speak on the floor, serve on committees, and vote in committee. No territory has any senator. Territory residents can vote in presidential primaries and send delegates to the parties’ nominating conventions, but they have no Electoral College votes and cannot vote in the general presidential election.

Taxes

Bona fide residents of Puerto Rico, Guam, the USVI, the CNMI, and American Samoa generally do not pay federal income tax on income earned within their territory. They file returns with the territory’s tax department instead. Residents with income from multiple sources may need to file both a territorial return and a federal return.¹ Territory residents do pay other federal taxes, including Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes.

Federal Benefits

Federal benefit programs treat the territories differently from the states. Medicaid funding runs through a capped annual allotment rather than the open-ended matching system states receive, and the federal share is set by statute at 55 percent rather than calculated through the state formula. Supplemental Security Income is more restrictive still: it is available only to residents of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Residents of Puerto Rico, Guam, the USVI, and American Samoa are not eligible.¹¹

Travel Documents

U.S. citizens do not need a passport to travel to Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, or the Northern Mariana Islands. American Samoa is the exception: entry requires either a valid passport or a certified U.S. birth certificate.¹²

Federal Oversight

The statutes governing the territories are collected in Title 48 of the U.S. Code.¹³ Day-to-day federal oversight of the inhabited territories runs through the Office of Insular Affairs within the Department of the Interior.¹⁴

What Is Not a U.S. Territory

Three Pacific island nations are commonly confused with U.S. territories: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. These are independent countries. They maintain a relationship with the United States through Compacts of Free Association, which provide economic aid and let their citizens live and work in the U.S. without visas in exchange for U.S. military access. The Office of Insular Affairs administers those compacts, which likely adds to the confusion.¹⁴ U.S. citizens need a passport to visit any of the Freely Associated States.¹² They do not count toward the 14.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Individuals Living or Working in a U.S. Territory
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 48 USC Chapter 8A – Guam
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 48 USC Chapter 12 – Virgin Islands 1954
4
U.S. Department of State. 8 FAM 308.2 – Acquisition by Birth in American Samoa and Swains Island
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 48 USC 1801 – Approval of Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
6
U.S. Geological Survey. What Administrative Areas of the United States Are Included in Geographic Names Information System (GNIS)
7
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge
8
U.S. Department of the Interior. Palmyra Atoll
9
Representative Pablo Hernandez. What Is a Resident Commissioner?
10
U.S. Department of the Interior. Former Representatives of Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
11
Social Security Administration. Understanding Supplemental Security Income SSI Eligibility Requirements
12
USAGov. Do You Need a Passport to Travel to or From U.S. Territories or Freely Associated States?
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Title 48 – Territories and Insular Possessions
14
U.S. Department of the Interior. Office of Insular Affairs