American Samoa

The Samoan archipelago is situated in the Polynesian part of the Pacific. Migrants from south-east Asia settled in the islands more than 2000 years ago, and from there moved on to other parts of Polynesia further to the east. At the beginning of the 20th century, the island group was divided in two by the USA and Germany. The eastern part was attributed to the USA. American Samoa is a self-governing unincorporated territory of the USA. It has a traditional Polynesian economy in which more than 90 percent of the land is communally owned. Economic activity is strongly linked to the US. Tuna fishing and processing plants are the backbone of the private sector, with canned tuna the primary export. Attempts by the government to develop a larger and broader economy are restrained by American Samoa’s remote location, its limited transportation, and its devastating hurricanes. Tourism is a promising developing sector. The territory has a negative population growth rate because of migration, to Australia, New Zealand and the USA. The Congregational Christian Church is the majority church. Pentecostal and other independent churches have made significant inroads in the last decades. The national council of churches groups together the Protestant churches and the Catholic church. The Methodist churches in American Samoa and Samoa form one church.