United States Minor Outlying Islands | |
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Flag | |
Motto:
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Anthem: "The Star-Spangled Banner" | |
![]() Locations of the United States Minor Outlying Islands in the Pacific Ocean; note that Navassa Island is not located on this map. | |
Administrative center | Washington, D.C. |
Largest village | Wake Atoll |
National language | English |
Demonym(s) | American Islander |
Government | |
Joe Biden (D) | |
Area | |
• Total | 34.2 km2 (13.2 sq mi)(unranked) |
• Water (%) | 88.6 |
Population | |
• 2009 estimate | 300(232nd) |
• 2000 census | 316 |
GDP (PPP) | estimate |
• Per capita | $46,381a(6th) |
Currency | United States dollar (USD) |
Time zone | UTC −12 to −10, −5, +12 |
ISO 3166 code | UM |
Internet TLD | .us b |
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United States Minor Outlying Islands is a statistical designation defined by the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 3166-1 code. The entry code is ISO 3166-2:UM. The minor outlying islands and groups of islands consist of eight United States insular areas in the Pacific Ocean (Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Atoll, Palmyra Atoll, and Wake Atoll) and one in the Caribbean Sea (Navassa Island).
In 1936 a colonization program began to settle Americans on Baker, Howland, and Jarvis, but all three islands were evacuated in 1942 as a result of World War II. [1] [2]
ISO introduced the term "United States Minor Outlying Islands" in 1986. From 1974 until 1986, five of the islands (Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Palmyra Atoll, and Kingman Reef) were grouped under the term United States Miscellaneous Pacific Islands, with ISO 3166 code PU. The code of Midway Atoll was MI, the code of Johnston Atoll was JT, and the code of Wake Island was WK. Prior to 1986, Navassa Island, along with several small islands in the Caribbean Sea that are no longer under U.S. sovereignty, were grouped under the term United States Miscellaneous Caribbean Islands, with FIPS country code BQ.
The populated Stewart Islands, called Sikaiana and now effectively controlled by the Solomon Islands, are not included in official lists of U.S. Minor Outlying Islands. In 1856, the Kingdom of Hawaii Privy Council and King Kamehameha IV voted to accept their voluntary cession. The Kingdom later became the Republic of Hawaii, all of which was annexed by the United States in 1898. In 1959, the resulting federal U.S. Territory of Hawaii, excluding only Palmyra Atoll and Midway Atoll, became a U.S. state. Residents of the Stewart Islands, who are Polynesian like the native Hawaiians rather than Melanesian, claimed to be citizens of the United States since the Stewart Islands were given to King Kamehameha IV in 1856 and were part of Hawaii at the time of the United States' annexation in 1898. The U.S. federal and Hawaii state governments informally accept the recent claim of the Solomon Islands over the Stewart Islands, and the United States makes no official claim of sovereignty. [3]
Except for Palmyra Atoll, all of these islands are unincorporated unorganized territories of the United States. As of 2019 [update] , none of the islands has any permanent residents. The Territory of Palmyra Atoll is an incorporated territory, separated in 1959 from the rest of the former incorporated Territory of Hawaii when Hawaii became a state. The only human population consists of temporarily stationed scientific and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service personnel. The 2000 census counted 315 people on Johnston Atoll and 94 people on Wake Atoll. [4]
There has been no modern indigenous population, except at the 1940 census.
The islands are grouped together as a statistical convenience. They are not administered collectively, nor do they share a single cultural or political history beyond being uninhabited islands under the sovereignty of the United States. They are all outside of the customs territory of the United States and have no customs duties. [5] Except for Midway Atoll, the Pacific islands are surrounded by large exclusive economic zones and are within the bounds of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.
They are collectively represented by the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code UM. The individual islands have ISO 3166-2 numerical codes.
The Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) ".um" has historically been assigned to the islands; however, the .um ccTLD was retired in January 2007. [6]
Most of the islands in the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands are closed to the public. Visitors to islands such as Jarvis Island need a permit. Palmyra Atoll is open to the public, but there is no easy way to reach it. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
Airports in the United States minor outlying islands provide critical emergency landing points across the vast Pacific Ocean for all types of aircraft, allow for important military presence in key strategic zones, and have limited scheduled commercial services. The following is a list of island airports with ICAO (IATA) codes:
Other airports include:
Three of the islands are listed with ports in the World Port Index, [18] with World Port Number:
Baker Island, Howland Island, and Jarvis Island each have a small boat landing place. Kingman Reef and Navassa Island have offshore anchorage only.
Atoll or island | Island area (km2) | Lagoon (km2) | Coordinates | NWR established | Acquired | FIPS CodeF | GECG [19] | ||
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Midway Atoll | 6.2 [20] | 40 | 28°13′N177°22′W / 28.217°N 177.367°W | 1988 April 22 [21] | 1867 August 28 | 74300 | MQ | ||
North Pacific Ocean, scattered isolated islands | |||||||||
Wake Island A | 6.5 [22] | 6 | 19°18′N166°38′E / 19.300°N 166.633°E | 2009 January 16 [23] [24] | 1899 January 17 | 74450 | WQ | ||
Johnston Atoll B | 2.63 [25] | 130 | 16°45′N169°31′W / 16.750°N 169.517°W | 1926 June 29 [26] | 1859 September 6 | 74200 | JQ | ||
North Pacific Ocean, Northern Line Islands | |||||||||
Kingman Reef | 0.03 [27] | 76 | 6°24′N162°24′W / 6.400°N 162.400°W | 2001 January 18 [28] | 1860 February 8 | 74250 | KQ | ||
Palmyra Atoll B | 11.9 [29] | 15 | 5°53′N162°05′W / 5.883°N 162.083°W | 2001 January 18 [30] | 1912 February 21 | 74400 | LQ | ||
North Pacific Ocean, Northern Phoenix Islands | |||||||||
Howland Island | 1.6 [31] | – | 0°48′N176°37′W / 0.800°N 176.617°W | 1974 June 27 [1] | 1856 October 28 | 74100 | HQ | ||
Baker Island | 1.5 [32] | – | 0°12′N176°29′W / 0.200°N 176.483°W | 1974 June 27 [1] | 1856 October 28 | 74050 | FQ | ||
South Pacific Ocean, Central Line Islands | |||||||||
Jarvis Island | 4.5 [33] | – | 0°22′S160°01′W / 0.367°S 160.017°W | 1974 June 27 [2] | 1856 October 28 | 74150 | DQ | ||
North Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea | |||||||||
Navassa Island C | 5.4 [34] | – | 18°24′N75°01′W / 18.400°N 75.017°W | 1999 December 3 [35] | 1858 October 31 | 74350 | BQ | ||
Bajo Nuevo Bank D | 0.02 | 155 | 15°53′N78°38′W / 15.883°N 78.633°W | 1869 November 22 | (none) | (none) | |||
Serranilla Bank E | 0.02 | 1200 | 15°50′N79°50′W / 15.833°N 79.833°W | 1879 September 8 1880 September 13 | (none) | (none) | |||
U.S. Minor Outlying Islands | 40.26 | 267 | |||||||
A Claimed by the Marshall Islands. B Previously claimed by Hawaii when independent. Palmyra Atoll was officially part of Hawaii until 1959. C Claimed by Haiti. D Administered by Colombia and claimed by Jamaica and Nicaragua, not included in the ISO list of territories; its area is not included in the total. E Administered by Colombia and claimed by Honduras and Nicaragua, not included in the ISO list of territories; its area is not included in the total. FEach island (except for Bajo Nuevo Bank and Serranilla Bank) has a unique FIPS (INCITS) code treating it as a county-equivalent for statistical purposes; "74" is the state-level code for the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands. [36] [37] GGEC stands for "Geopolitical Entities and Codes", a coding system superseding the FIPS 10-4 codes; the codes (such as FQ for Baker Island) treat each island as if it were a country. [19] |
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Jarvis Island is an uninhabited 1 3⁄4-square-mile (4.5 km2) coral island located in the South Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Hawaii and the Cook Islands. 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. Unlike most coral atolls, the lagoon on Jarvis is wholly dry.
Kingman Reef is a largely submerged, uninhabited triangular-shaped reef, 9.0 nautical miles east-west and 4.5 nmi (8 km) north-south, in the North Pacific Ocean, roughly halfway between the Hawaiian Islands and American Samoa. It has an area of 3 hectares and is one of the unincorporated territories of the United States in Oceania.
Midway Atoll is a 2.4-square-mile (6.2 km2) atoll in the North Pacific Ocean at 28°12′N177°21′W. Midway Atoll is an unorganized, unincorporated territory of the United States.
Palmyra Atoll, also referred to as Palmyra Island, is one of the Northern Line Islands. It is located almost due south of the Hawaiian Islands, roughly one-third of the way between Hawaii and American Samoa. The nearest continent is almost 3,355 miles to the northeast. The atoll is 4.6 sq mi (12 km2), lying in the equatorial Northern Pacific Ocean. Its 9 miles of coastline has one anchorage known as West Lagoon.
In the United States, an unorganized territory is a region of land under U.S. sovereignty that is not within the bounds of a U.S. state and that is without a government established by the United States Congress through an organic act. The term was historically applied either to a newly acquired region not yet constituted as an organized incorporated territory, or to a region previously part of an organized incorporated territory left "unorganized" after part of it had been organized and achieved the requirements for statehood. The U.S. currently exercises sovereignty over ten unorganized territories: American Samoa, Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Atoll, Navassa Island, Palmyra Atoll, and Wake Island.
This article contains links to lists of hospitals in the United States, including U.S. States, the District, insular areas, and outlying islands. Links to more detailed state lists are shown. According to a report by the Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina in 2017, 79 mostly rural hospitals have closed since 2010, mostly across the Southern United States.
In 48 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 several states in New England, 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.
Political divisions of the United States are the various recognized governing entities that together form the United States – states, the District of Columbia, territories and Indian reservations.
An insular area of the United States is a U.S. territory that is not one of the 50 states and is not a Federal district. Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution grants to the United States Congress the responsibility of overseeing these territories. As of 2020, there are 14 U.S. Territories: 3 in the Caribbean Sea and 11 in the Pacific Ocean. These territories are classified by whether they are incorporated and whether they have an organized territorial government established by the U.S. Congress through an organic act. All territories but one are unincorporated, and all but four are considered to be unorganized. Five U.S. territories have a permanent, nonmilitary population. Each of them has a civilian government, a constitution, and enjoys some degree of local political autonomy.
Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions overseen by the United States government. The various US territories differ from the US states and Native American tribes in that they are not sovereign entities. In contrast, each state has a sovereignty separate to 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. U.S. territories are under U.S. sovereignty and, consequently, may be treated as part of the United States proper in some ways and not others. Unincorporated territories in particular are not considered to be integral parts of the United States, and the Constitution of the United States applies only partially in those territories.
An Island Commander is an official who is put in charge of an island, or an insular entity called after an island or an archipelago called Islands.
The Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument is a group of unorganized, mostly unincorporated United States Pacific Island territories managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service of the United States Department of the Interior and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States Department of Commerce. These remote refuges are "the most widespread collection of marine- and terrestrial-life protected areas on the planet under a single country's jurisdiction". They protect many endemic species including corals, fish, shellfish, marine mammals, seabirds, water birds, land birds, insects, and vegetation not found elsewhere.
The United States Miscellaneous Pacific Islands is an obsolete term used to collectively describe Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Kingman Reef, and Palmyra Atoll, all of them territories controlled by the United States by the Guano Islands Act in the Pacific Ocean.
Howland and Baker Islands are two uninhabited U.S. atolls in the Equatorial Pacific that are located close to one another. Both islands are wildlife refuges, the larger of which is Howland Island. The pair of islands may also be referred to as Baker and Howland Islands. They are both part of the larger political territory of the United States Minor Outlying Islands and they are also both part of the larger geographic grouping of the Phoenix Islands. Each is a National Wildlife Refuge managed by a division of Interior, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. On January 6, 2009, President George Bush, in creating the monument, added both islands to the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.
The following outline is provided as an overview and topical guide to Oceania.
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