Chapter 16 – Insular Areas comparisons

The United States, in addition to the District of Columbia, has 5 populated areas that are not states.  Puerto Rico and the D.C. are treated as States for statistical purposes, but the other four areas are called Insular Areas.  These are the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), the incorporated territories of Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the unincorporated territory of American Samoa.

In 2010, The CNMI had an enumerated population of 53,883, making it the smallest of the four Insular Areas.  American Samoa’s population was 55,519 compared to the U.S. Virgin Islands 106,405 and Guam’s 159,338.  The U.S. Virgin Islands people were oldest, with a median age of 39.1 years (Half were older and half younger), CNMI at 30.7, Guam at 29.5 and American Samoa youngest at 22.6 years.  At that time the U.S. Median Age in 2010 37.2.

Only the Virgin Islands had more females than males (the normal situation in closed populations since fe-males tend to live longer than males).  More males were present than females in CNMI, Guam, and Ameri-can Samoa because of migration trends, mostly for employment.  But the median age for males in the CNMI (34.4 years) was older than for females (32.5); the median age for females was older than males in Guam (30.0 vs 29.0), American Samoa (23.3 vs 22.0) and the Virgin Islands (39.7 vs 38.4).

Guam had by far the largest population enrolled at various levels of education because of its largest popu-lation, but also because of its various tertiary colleges and the University of Guam.  While CNMI’s popula-tion was only slightly less than American Samoa, it had about 50 percent fewer students.  But, among adults, CNMI had the highest percentage of high school graduates, at 82.4 percent of adults, compared to 82.1 percent for American Samoa, 79.4 percent for Guam, and 68.9 percent for the Virgin Islands.  The percentage of college graduates, though, was about the same for Guam, CNMI, and the Virgin Islands, at about 1 in every 5 adults, compared to about 1 in 10 for American Samoa.

About 72 percent of adults in the CNMI were in the labor force in 2010, the highest among the four Areas.  About equal numbers of those in Guam and the Virgin Islands were in the labor force (about 2 of every 3), while only somewhat more than half of American Samoans were.  But CNMI had the highest unemploy-ment rate (as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau), at 11 percent.  American Samoa was next, at 9 percent, followed by the Virgin Islands (also 9 percent), and Guam (8 percent).  The rates are all based on the U.S. definitions of labor force participation – the U.N. definitions would differ somewhat.  Median household incomes could not be compared because different categories were used for the various Areas.  

Because of the end of the garment factories, CNMI had the highest vacancy rate at 23 percent of all hous-ing units, but the Virgin Islands was at almost the same level.  About 17 percent of Guam’s units were un-occupied as were about 12 percent of American Samoa’s.  But American Samoa had the highest level of “owner” occupied units at almost 3 of 4, compared to about half of those in Guam and the Virgin Islands, but only a little more than 1 in 4 of CNMI’s units. Conversely, the SNMI had the highest percentage of rental units.