U.S. Territories (2024)

FAQs

U.S. Territories? ›

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.

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.

American Samoa, Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Wake Island, Midway Islands, Navassa Island, Serranilla Bank, Bajo Nuevo Bank are unincorporated unorganized territories.

The United States has control over fourteen territories. Five of them (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) have a permanent, nonmilitary population, while nine of them (the United States Minor Outlying Islands) do not.

This means that federal taxes will generally only be levied when a territory resident or corporation has income that can be sourced (or connected) to the United States. Second, the territories are generally considered to be beyond the physical borders of the United States for federal tax purposes.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services describe a territory as: A partially self-governing piece of land under the authority of the U.S. government. U.S. territories are not states, but they do have representation in Congress. Each territory is allowed to send a delegate to the House of Representatives.

Except for the brief interruption of the Japanese occupation between 1942 and 1945, the United States ruled the Philippines from 1898 to 1946, after which, the Philippines was granted independence after being devastated by the Second World War.

This same CRS report also asserts that citizens born in the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, are legally defined as "natural born" citizens and are, therefore, also eligible to be elected president.

There are fifty (50) states and Washington D.C.The last two states to join the Union were Alaska (49th) and Hawaii (50th). Both joined in 1959.

First of all, people could be adding Puerto Rico and Washington DC as states. After all, “52 states” is certainly easier to rhyme with than “50 states plus associated territories”.

Who runs all US territories? ›

In the executive branch, the U.S. Interior Department's Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) coordinates federal relations with territories except Puerto Rico. Since the Kennedy Administration, the Executive Office of the President has coordinated federal relations with Puerto Rico.

As mentioned, Puerto Rico is the most populous U.S. territory, home to more than 3.3 million people.

People born in any of the 50 states, one federal district and four major territories (Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands) are automatically American citizens.

There are fifty (50) states and Washington D.C.The last two states to join the Union were Alaska (49th) and Hawaii (50th). Both joined in 1959. Washington D.C. is a federal district under the authority of Congress. Local government is run by a mayor and 13 member city council.

A possession is a term for an insular area which has gone out of style. The Office of Insular Affairs website describes it as equivalent to a territory. A territory (notice the little t) is an insular area which is unincorporated area.

Guam (Chamorro: Guåhan) is an island in Micronesia in the Pacific Ocean and is a U.S. territory. This means that it is part of the United States and citizens of Guam are citizens of the United States as well.