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 considered U.S. "nationals", since they do not pay U.S. federal taxes, participate in U.S. presidential elections or elect voting members of the U.S. Congress. They are free to move around the whole United States without immigration restrictions. Goods manufactured in insular areas of the United States can be labeled "Made in the USA."

List and status of insular areas

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) Originally was granted to U.S. through the Treaty of Paris in 1898
• 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)
• Machias Seal Island (with Canada)
• Wake Island (with Marshall Islands)
• Serranilla Bank (with Colombia)
• Bajo Nuevo Bank (with Jamaica)

Former Insular areas

• Philippines, granted to U.S. through the Treaty of Paris in 1898
• Cuba, granted to U.S. through the Treaty of Paris in 1898

See also

• 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

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