Territories of the United States

Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions overseen by the United States government.

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or simply America, is a country comprising 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions.

The various U.S. territories differ from the U.S. states and Native American tribes in that they are not sovereign entities.

Native Americans, also known as American Indians, Indigenous Americans and other terms, are the indigenous peoples of the United States, except Hawaii and territories of the United States.

Five territories (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) are permanently inhabited, unincorporated territories; the other nine are small islands, atolls and reefs with no native (or permanent) population.

Guam (Guåhån ; is an unincorporated and organized territory of the United States in Micronesia in the western Pacific Ocean.

Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions overseen by the United States government.

The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic in North America, composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories and several island possessions.

(Each state has individual sovereignty which it shares with the federal government; each federally recognized tribe possesses limited tribal sovereignty as a "dependent sovereign nation".) They are classified by incorporation and whether they have an "organized" government through an organic act passed by Congress.

In United States law, an organic act is an act of the United States Congress that establishes a territory of the United States and specifies how it is to be governed, or an agency to manage certain federal lands.

Five territories (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) are permanently inhabited, unincorporated territories; the other nine are small islands, atolls and reefs with no native (or permanent) population. Each territory elects a non-voting member (a non-voting resident commissioner in the case of Puerto Rico) to the U.S. House of Representatives.

As residents of a U.S. territory, American citizens in Puerto Rico are disenfranchised at the national level and do not vote for the president or vice president of the United States, and only some residents pay federal income tax.

Many organized incorporated territories of the United States existed from 1789 to 1959.

Organized incorporated territories are territories of the United States that are both incorporated (part of the United States proper) and organized (having an organized government authorized by an Organic Act passed by the United States Congress, usually consisting of a territorial legislature, territorial governor, and a basic judicial system).

The various U.S. territories differ from the U.S. states and Native American tribes in that they are not sovereign entities.

States, unlike U.S. territories, possess a number of powers and rights under the United States Constitution.

Of the nine, only one is classified as an incorporated territory (Palmyra Atoll).

Palmyra Atoll is an unoccupied equatorial Northern Pacific atoll administered as an unorganized incorporated territory, the only one of its kind, by the United States federal government.

Five territories (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) are permanently inhabited, unincorporated territories; the other nine are small islands, atolls and reefs with no native (or permanent) population.

The United States Virgin Islands (abbreviated USVI; also called the US Virgin Islands or American Virgin Islands), officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and an unincorporated and organized territory of the United States.

The first were the Northwest and Southwest territories and the last were the Alaska and Hawaii territories.

On July 4, 1898, the United States Congress passed the Newlands Resolution authorizing the U.S. annexation of the Republic of Hawaii, and five weeks later, on August 12, Hawaii became a U.S. territory.

American Samoa and Jarvis Island are in the Southern Hemisphere — all other U.S. territories are in the Northern Hemisphere.

It is an unincorporated, unorganized territory of the United States, administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service of the United States Department of the Interior as part of the National Wildlife Refuge system.

Organized territories are lands under federal sovereignty (but not part of any state) which were given a measure of self-rule by Congress through an organic act subject to the Congress's plenary powers under the territorial clause of the Constitution's Article Four, section 3.

It also empowers Congress to admit new states and administer the territories and other federal lands.

Each territory elects a non-voting member (a non-voting resident commissioner in the case of Puerto Rico) to the U.S. House of Representatives.

There are currently six non-voting members: a delegate representing the federal district of Washington D.C., a resident commissioner representing Puerto Rico, and one delegate for each of the other four permanently inhabited US territories: American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the US Virgin Islands.

The territorial capitals are Pago Pago (American Samoa), Hagåtña (Guam), Saipan (Northern Mariana Islands), San Juan (Puerto Rico) and Charlotte Amalie (U.S. Virgin Islands).

San Juan (, ; "Saint John") is the capital and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States.

Politically, the islands of Micronesia are divided between six sovereign nations: the Caroline Islands are divided between the Republic of Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia, the latter often shortened to "FSM" or "Micronesia" and not to be confused with the overall region; the Gilbert Islands and the Line Islands comprise the Republic of Kiribati, except for three of the Line Islands that are United States territories (Palmyra Atoll being noteworthy as the only current incorporated U.S. Territory); the Mariana Islands are in union with the United States, divided between the U.S. Territory of Guam and the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands; Nauru is a fully sovereign nation, coextensive with the island of the same name; and the Republic of the Marshall Islands is coextensive with that island group.

American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands are the inhabited U.S. territories

Like the District of Columbia, U.S. territories do not have voting representation in Congress and have no representation in the Senate.

The District of Columbia and all other territories are not entitled to representation allowed to vote in either house of Congress; though they do have official non-voting delegates in the House of Representatives, they have zero representation in the Senate.

When a portion of the Missouri Territory became the state of Missouri, the remainder of the territory (the present-day states of Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota, most of Kansas, Wyoming, and Montana, and parts of Colorado and Minnesota) became an unorganized territory.

An unorganized territory can also be a United States territory for which the United States Congress has not enacted an organic act.

In 2010, American Samoa's population was 92.6% Pacific Islander (including 88.9% Samoan); Guam's population was 49.3% Pacific Islander (including 37.3% Chamorro) and 32.2% Asian (including 26.3% Filipino); the population of the Northern Mariana Islands was 34.9% Pacific Islander and 49.9% Asian; and the population of the U.S. Virgin Islands was 76.0% African-American.

The Chamorro people are the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands, politically divided between the United States territory of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Micronesia.

Each territory elects a non-voting member (a non-voting resident commissioner in the case of Puerto Rico) to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Other U.S. territories have a similar representative position called a delegate.

The territories do not have administrative counties.

If the 100 county equivalents in the U.S. territories are counted, then the total is 3,242 counties and county-equivalents in the United States.

See also: Politics of American Samoa, Politics of Guam, Politics of the Northern Mariana Islands, Politics of Puerto Rico, and Politics of the U.S. Virgin Islands

The politics of Puerto Rico take place in the framework of a democratic republic form of government that is under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United States as an organized unincorporated territory.

As a result of Puerto Rico's status as a U.S. territory, the citizens of Puerto Rico do not have any voting representation in the U.S. Federal government.