US Territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, USVI, etc.)

The United States is not just 50 states. It also holds five permanently inhabited territories home to roughly 3.6 million American citizens and nationals, plus another nine mostly uninhabited outlying islands. The people living in Puerto Rico, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands are US citizens or nationals, pay federal payroll taxes, serve in the military at higher per-capita rates than most states, and yet cannot vote for president while residing there. This guide walks through what each territory is, how it came under US control, and what political rights its residents actually have.

The 5 inhabited US territories at a glance

Four of the five territories were acquired in one 20-year burst between 1898 and 1917. American Samoa came through a 1900 treaty, the Northern Marianas joined much later in 1978. Population and land area vary enormously, from Puerto Rico's 3.3 million on 3,515 square miles down to American Samoa's 45,000 on just 77 square miles.

Territory	Capital	Population (2020)	Acquired
Puerto Rico	San Juan	3,285,874	1898 (Treaty of Paris)
Guam	Hagåtña	153,836	1898 (Treaty of Paris)
US Virgin Islands	Charlotte Amalie	87,146	1917 (purchased from Denmark for $25M)
Northern Mariana Islands	Saipan	47,329	1978 (UN Trust Territory covenant)
American Samoa	Pago Pago	49,710	1900 (Tripartite Convention)

Why 3.6 million Americans cannot vote for president

Article II of the US Constitution says that presidential electors are chosen by each state. Territories are not states, so they get zero electors in the Electoral College. This has been the rule since Downes v. Bidwell in 1901, the first of the Insular Cases, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution does not automatically apply in full to unincorporated territories.

Each of the five territories sends one non-voting delegate to the US House of Representatives. The delegates can serve on committees, introduce legislation, and vote in committee, but they cannot vote on the final passage of any bill. Puerto Rico's delegate carries the special title of Resident Commissioner and serves a four-year term, while the other four delegates serve two-year terms like regular House members. None sit in the Senate.

Residents of the territories can vote in presidential primaries and send delegates to national party conventions. If a territorial resident moves to any of the 50 states or the District of Columbia and registers there, they immediately gain the right to vote for president. The disenfranchisement is tied entirely to physical residence in the territory.

Puerto Rico, the largest territory

Puerto Rico has more residents than 21 US states. If it became a state tomorrow, it would enter with roughly 5 electoral votes, more than Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, and North Dakota combined. Spain ceded the island under the 1898 Treaty of Paris that ended the Spanish-American War. The Jones-Shafroth Act of 1917 granted US citizenship to all Puerto Ricans, timed conveniently just as the US was entering World War I and needed troops. Puerto Ricans have served in every American war since.

The island uses the formal name Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or Estado Libre Asociado in Spanish, but the legal status is unincorporated territory. Puerto Rico has held six referendums on its status: 1967, 1993, 1998, 2012, 2017, and 2020. The most recent, in November 2020, saw statehood win with 52.5 percent of votes, but Congress has not acted. A statehood admission bill, HR 8393, passed the US House in December 2022 but died in the Senate.

Guam and the strategic Pacific

Guam is about 30 miles long and never wider than 12 miles, but Andersen Air Force Base and Naval Base Guam make it the most militarily important American possession in the western Pacific. It sits closer to Manila and Tokyo than to Honolulu. Spain ceded Guam to the US under the same 1898 Treaty of Paris that transferred Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Japan occupied the island from December 1941 to July 1944, and July 21 is still celebrated as Liberation Day.

Chamorros are the indigenous people of Guam. Guamanians received US citizenship through the 1950 Organic Act. The territory has an elected governor, a 15-member legislature, and one non-voting House delegate. About 30 percent of the island is controlled by the US military.

US Virgin Islands, purchased in 1917

The USVI is the only US territory the country actually bought rather than won in war or acquired by treaty. In 1917 the United States paid Denmark $25 million, equivalent to roughly $625 million today, for St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix. The strategic goal was to keep the islands out of German hands during World War I. The Danish West Indies had been a colony since 1672.

Residents received US citizenship in 1927. The territory drives on the left side of the road, a legacy of the Danish era that survives despite most vehicles being American with left-hand drive. St. Croix is the largest island at 84 square miles. St. Thomas holds the capital, Charlotte Amalie, and receives roughly 1.5 million cruise passengers a year.

American Samoa and its unique citizenship status

American Samoa is the only US territory where residents are US nationals but not US citizens at birth. This means Samoans hold US passports, can travel and live anywhere in the country, and can serve in the military, but they cannot vote in state elections or hold most federal offices unless they naturalize. American Samoa has consistently opposed automatic citizenship because it would trigger the 14th Amendment and potentially override the fa'a Samoa customary land system that reserves 90 percent of the territory for ethnic Samoans.

The islands became American through a 1900 deed of cession from local chiefs, following the 1899 Tripartite Convention that split the Samoan archipelago between the US and Germany. The western Samoan islands became independent as the state of Samoa in 1962. American Samoa never joined and remains the only US territory south of the equator. Per capita, it sends more of its citizens into the US military than any state or territory.

The Northern Mariana Islands, the newest addition

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or CNMI, joined the United States in 1978 through a political covenant, not conquest or purchase. Before that the islands were part of the UN-mandated Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, administered by the US after Japan's defeat in World War II. Saipan, Tinian, and Rota are the main inhabited islands. Tinian is where the Enola Gay took off in August 1945 to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

CNMI residents are US citizens by birth. The commonwealth has its own constitution ratified in 1977 and unusual immigration authority, retaining some control over foreign labor rules that the federal government has since limited through 2008 and 2018 legislation.

Uninhabited outlying territories

The US also administers nine minor outlying islands with no permanent civilian population:

• Midway Atoll: Site of the June 1942 Battle of Midway, now a National Wildlife Refuge.
• Wake Island: Between Hawaii and Guam, currently an Air Force refueling stop.
• Palmyra Atoll: Incorporated territory since 1898, purchased in full in 2000 by the Nature Conservancy from a private family.
• Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Howland Island, Baker Island, Jarvis Island, Navassa Island: Small guano-era claims dating to the 1856 Guano Islands Act.

Navassa Island, in the Caribbean between Cuba and Haiti, is claimed by both the United States and Haiti and is the only US territory with a live sovereignty dispute.

Frequently asked questions

Can territory residents vote in Congress?
No. Each territory sends one non-voting delegate to the House, and none send anyone to the Senate. Delegates can vote in committee but not on final passage of legislation.

Do territory residents pay federal income tax?
Puerto Rico, Guam, USVI, CNMI, and American Samoa residents pay federal payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, but most do not pay federal income tax on income earned in the territory. They pay a mirror local income tax instead.

Which territory is closest to becoming a state?
Puerto Rico. Statehood won the 2020 referendum with 52.5 percent of the vote, but Congress must act, and no admission bill has cleared the Senate.

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