Insular area

From Free net encyclopedia

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 US 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."

1 List and status of insular areas
2 See also
3 External links

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List and status of insular areas

Several islands in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea are considered insular areas of the United States:

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Inhabited

American Samoa (unincorporated, officially unorganized, although self-governing under authority of the U.S. Department of the Interior)
Guam (unincorporated, organized under Organic Act of 1950)
Midway Islands (unincorporated; administered as the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge)
Northern Mariana Islands (unincorporated, commonwealth, organized under 1977 Covenant)
Puerto Rico (unincorporated, commonwealth, organized under terms of Puerto Rico-Federal Relations Act)
U.S. Virgin Islands (unincorporated, organized under Revised Organic Act of 1954)
Wake Island (unincorporated, unorganized; under military control)

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Uninhabited

Image:US Hawaiian and Remote Pacific Islands NWR.png All of the following U.S. territories are unincorporated and are part of the National Wildlife Refuge System administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Together, along with the Midway Islands, Palmyra Atoll and Wake Island, they are officially categorized as the United States Minor Outlying Islands.