| Districts of the U.S. Virgin Islands | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Category | County equivalent |
| Location | United States Virgin Islands |
| Number | 2 (administrative districts) 3 (census districts) |
| Populations | 3,881 (Saint John) – 42,461 (Saint Thomas (census districts) |
| Areas | 19.69 sq mi (51.0 km2) (Saint John) – 83.32 sq mi (215.8 km2) (Saint Croix) (census districts) |
| Government | |
| Subdivisions | |
 |
|---|
The territorial government of the United States Virgin Islands has for operational purposes established two districts, which include the minor islets nearest to the major islands: [1] [2] [3]
The U.S. Virgin Islands legislature has 15 seats: 7 seats are for the Saint Croix District, 7 seats are for the Saint Thomas and Saint John District, and one seat is for someone who must live in Saint John. [2]
The U.S. Virgin Islands have no municipalities; the only government is for the territory as a whole. [4]
The Colonial Law of 1863 divided the islands into two municipalities: St. Croix, and St. Thomas–St. John. [2] Each municipality was served by a Colonial Council. [2] After the United States had purchased the islands, the U.S. Congress passed the Organic Act of 1936, under which the two Colonial Councils became Municipal Councils. [2] In 1954, the Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands created a unicameral body called the Legislature of the Virgin Islands, consisting of 11 members across three districts (one district for each major island). [2] In 1966, the United States Congress and the Virgin Islands Legislature passed a resolution, which increased the number of seats from 11 to 15, changed the number districts back to two, and changed the distribution of seats to its current distribution. [2]
The territory has historically been divided into quarters (which are not one-fourth of anything) and estates. These were used for census purposes until 1980, and estates are commonly used for navigation, writing addresses, and discussing real estate. [4] The U.S. Census uses three districts (Saint Thomas, Saint John, and Saint Croix) as county equivalents. [5] [6] [7]
In more recent census decades, quarters and estates have been replaced by 20 census subdistricts, which were defined by the territorial government as more meaningful given the terrain and current population distribution. These are used as minor civil divisions. [4]
| Map | Division | Population [8] | Land area [9] [10] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | 2020 | 2010 | sq mi | km2 | |
| Saint Croix | 41,004 | 50,601 | 83.32 | 215.80 | |
| 1 | Anna's Hope Village | 3,282 | 4,041 | 9.89 | 25.61 |
| 2 | Christiansted | 1,866 | 2,626 | 0.76 | 1.97 |
| Christiansted town | 1,770 | 2,433 | 0.51 | 1.32 | |
| 3 | East End | 2,336 | 2,453 | 12.91 | 33.44 |
| 4 | Frederiksted | 2,303 | 3,091 | 1.38 | 3.57 |
| Frederiksted town | 528 | 859 | 0.17 | 0.44 | |
| 5 | Northcentral | 4,197 | 4,977 | 12.66 | 32.79 |
| 6 | Northwest | 3,431 | 4,863 | 18.19 | 47.11 |
| 7 | Sion Farm | 10,332 | 13,003 | 9.40 | 24.35 |
| 8 | Southcentral | 7,415 | 8,049 | 12.62 | 32.69 |
| 9 | Southwest | 5,842 | 7,498 | 5.51 | 14.27 |
| Saint Thomas | 42,261 | 51,634 | 31.31 | 81.09 | |
| 1 | Charlotte Amalie | 14,477 | 18,481 | 3.36 | 8.70 |
| Charlotte Amalie town | 8,194 | 10,354 | 1.21 | 3.13 | |
| 2 | East End | 7,502 | 8,403 | 5.26 | 13.62 |
| 3 | Northside | 8,889 | 10,049 | 10.59 | 27.43 |
| 4 | Southside | 4,112 | 5,411 | 4.42 | 11.45 |
| 5 | Tutu | 5,129 | 6,867 | 1.52 | 3.94 |
| 6 | Water Island | 164 | 182 | 0.97 | 2.51 |
| 7 | West End | 1,988 | 2,241 | 5.19 | 13.44 |
| Saint John | 3,881 | 4,170 | 19.69 | 51.00 | |
| 1 | Central | 470 | 779 | 14.09 | 36.49 |
| 2 | Coral Bay | 724 | 634 | 1.91 | 4.95 |
| 3 | Cruz Bay | 2,652 | 2,706 | 2.77 | 7.17 |
| 4 | East End | 35 | 51 | 0.92 | 2.38 |
| U.S. Virgin Islands | 87,146 | 106,405 | 134.32 | 347.89 | |
The United States Virgin Islands, officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and a territory of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles. The islands have a tropical climate.
Politics of the United States Virgin Islands takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic dependency, whereby the governor is the head of the territory's government, and of a multi-party system. United States Virgin Islands are an unincorporated and organized territory of the United States, administered by the Office of Insular Affairs of the United States Department of the Interior. Executive power is exercised by the local government of the Virgin Islands. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
Charlotte Amalie, located on St. Thomas, is the capital and the largest town of the United States Virgin Islands. It is the anchor of the subdistrict of Charlotte Amalie that is composed of the town of Charlotte Amalie, the census-designated place (CDP) of Charlotte Amalie West, and the CDP of Charlotte Amalie East. It was founded in 1666 as Taphus. In 1691, the town was renamed to Charlotte Amalie after the Danish queen Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel (1650–1714). It has a deep-water harbor that was once a haven for pirates and is now one of the busiest ports of call for cruise ships in the Caribbean, with about 1.5 million-plus cruise ship passengers landing there annually. Protected by Hassel Island, the harbor has docking and fueling facilities, machine shops, and shipyards and was a U.S. submarine base until 1966. The town has been inhabited for centuries. When Christopher Columbus arrived in 1493, the area was inhabited by Caribs, Arawaks, Ciboney and Taíno native peoples. It is on the southern shore at the head of Saint Thomas Harbor. In 2020 the subdistrict of Charlotte Amalie had a population of 14,477 which makes it the most densly populated area in the Virgin Islands Archipelago with the town of Charlotte Amalie as the anchor of "the City". Hundreds of ferries and yachts pass by the town each week.
Okeechobee County is a county located in the Florida Heartland region of the state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 39,644. The county seat is Okeechobee.
In the United States, a county or county equivalent is an administrative or political subdivision of a U.S. state or other territories of the United States which consists of a geographic area with specific boundaries and usually some level of governmental authority. The term "county" is used in 48 states, while Louisiana and Alaska have functionally equivalent subdivisions called parishes and boroughs, respectively. Counties and other local governments exist as a matter of U.S. state law, so the specific governmental powers of counties may vary widely between the states, with many providing some level of services to civil townships, municipalities, and unincorporated areas. Certain municipalities are in multiple counties; New York City is uniquely partitioned into five counties, referred to at the city government level as boroughs. Some municipalities have been consolidated with their county government to form consolidated city-counties, or have been legally separated from counties altogether to form independent cities. Conversely, counties in Connecticut and Rhode Island, eight of Massachusetts's 14 counties, and Alaska's Unorganized Borough have no government power, existing only as geographic distinctions.
Saint Croix is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States.
In 45 of the 50 states of the United States, the county is used for the level of local government immediately below the state itself. Louisiana uses parishes, and Alaska uses boroughs. In Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, some or all counties within states have no governments of their own; the counties continue to exist as legal entities, however, and are used by states for some administrative functions and by the United States Census bureau for statistical analysis. There are 3,242 counties and county equivalent administrative units in total, including the District of Columbia and 100 county-equivalents in the U.S. territories.
Saint Thomas is one of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea, and a constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States. Along with surrounding minor islands, it is one of three county-equivalents in the USVI. Together with Saint John, it forms one of the districts of the USVI. The territorial capital and port of Charlotte Amalie is located on the island.
Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions and dependent territories overseen by the federal government of the United States. The American territories differ from the U.S. states and Indian reservations as they are not sovereign entities. In contrast, each state has a sovereignty separate from that of the federal government and each federally recognized Native American tribe possesses limited tribal sovereignty as a "dependent sovereign nation". Territories are classified by incorporation and whether they have an "organized" government through an organic act passed by the Congress. American territories are under American sovereignty and may be treated as part of the U.S. proper in some ways and not others. Unincorporated territories in particular are not considered to be integral parts of the U.S., and the U.S. Constitution applies only partially in those territories.
Saint John is one of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea and a constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States.
Most U.S. states and territories have at least two tiers of local government: counties and municipalities. Louisiana uses the term parish and Alaska uses the term borough for what the U.S. Census Bureau terms county equivalents in those states. Civil townships or towns are used as subdivisions of a county in 20 states, mostly in the Northeast and Midwest.
The United States Virgin Islands general election was held on November 2, 2010. Voters chose the Governor of the United States Virgin Islands, the non-voting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives and all fifteen seats in the Legislature of the Virgin Islands. The election coincided with the 2010 United States general election.
Allandale is an uninhabited settlement on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands.
Hermitage, Saint Croix, also known as Estate Hermitage, is a settlement on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands. In the historical system of quarters and estates used there, it is estate 5 in St. Croix's King's Quarter. It has an area of 1.478 square kilometres (0.571 sq mi) and had a population of 14 as of 2020.
Ruby M. Rouss was an American citizen born on Saint Croix in the US Virgin Islands. Her career was marked by a series of firsts. She was the first Virgin Islander in the Women's Army Corps (WAC), first African-American woman to serve on General Eisenhower’s staff, and first black woman assigned as a permanent staff of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. After a 20-year military career, she retired from service and became the first woman parole officer in St. Croix. In 1973, she was elected as one of the first women to serve in the Virgin Island's legislature. In 1981, Rouss served as the first female President of the Virgin Islands Legislature, becoming the first black woman to lead a legislature in the United States. She was elected to serve a second presidency of the Senate in 1987 and died the following year. Posthumously, she was inducted into the Virgin Island's Women's Hall of Fame and a housing project in St. Croix was renamed in her honor.
Ianthe Blyden was a Virgin Islander, born at a time when the islands were held by the Danish. She trained as a nurse and served for fifty-three years at Knud Hansen Memorial Hospital, for thirty-seven of those years she was head nurse. She was instrumental in the development of nursing in the US Virgin Islands and the influence for establishing the island's nursing board.
