Insular area

For the region within an animal brain sometimes known as "insular area", see Insular cortex.

An insular area is a United States territory, that is neither a part of one of the fifty U.S. states nor the District of Columbia, the federal district of the United States.^[1] They are called "insular" from the Latin word insula ("island") and because they were once administered by the War Department's Bureau of Insular Affairs, now the Office of Insular Affairs at the Interior Department. The term insular possession is also sometimes used, but has fallen out of favor.

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 and these citizens may vote and run for office in any U.S. jurisdiction in which they are residents. The sole exception is American Samoa, whose people 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 the Caribbean Sea are considered insular areas of the United States.

Incorporated (integral part of United States)

Inhabited

• none

Uninhabited

• Palmyra Atoll (uninhabited, mostly 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)
• United States 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 Atoll (administered as a National Wildlife Refuge)
• Navassa Island (disputed with Haiti)
• Wake Island (disputed with Marshall Islands)
• Serranilla Bank (disputed with Colombia)
• Bajo Nuevo Bank (disputed with Colombia)

From July 18, 1947 until October 1, 1994, the U.S. administered the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, but later 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.

• Republic of the Marshall Islands
• Federated States of Micronesia
• Republic of Palau

Former territories

• 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, achieved independence on May 20, 1902.

See also

• Dependent territory
• Commonwealth (United States insular area)
• Territories of the United States
• Unorganized territory
• Guano Islands Act
• Guantanamo Bay
• Insular Cases
• Political divisions of the United States
• Territorial acquisitions of the United States

Notes and references

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

Coordinates: 18°15′N 66°30′W / 18.25°N 66.5°W