Districts of American Samoa

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Updates: 

A correspondent mentioned that the constitution of American Samoa  names Fagatogo as the seat of government (Art. V Sec. 9) and Eastern and Western as two of the political districts (Art. V Sec. 10). These were listed as Pago Pago, Eastern Tutuila, and Western Tutuila, respectively.

I agree that the districts should be named Eastern and Western. I've made those changes on this page. The capital is not a cut-and-dried issue, though. Many sources - including the widely copied CIA World Factbook - still list Pago Pago as the capital. Some sources say it's "Pago Pago (Fagatogo)". This Census Bureau map  shows clearly that Pago Pago and Fagatogo are separate, but neighboring, villages within Ma'oputasi county. Some sources say that Pago Pago is the capital and Fagatogo is the seat of government. It can also be argued that Pago Pago is the common name for the agglomeration around Pago Pago Harbor. I generally go along with the majority of respected reference sources, and in this case most of them agree on Pago Pago. For a discussion of the principles involved in identifying a capital, click on the "i" (info) icon at the end of the next line.

Country overview: 

On 1900-02-19, the interested European powers recognized American Samoa as a territory of the United States. Swain's Island was added in 1925.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Amerikansk Samoa
2. Dutch: Amerikaans Samoa
3. English: Territory of American Samoa (formal)
4. French: Samoa fp américaines
5. German: Amerikanisch-Samoa
6. Icelandic: Samóaeyjar
7. Italian: Samoa americane
8. Norwegian: Amerikansk Samoa
9. Portuguese: Samoa Americana
10. Samoan: Amerika Samoa
11. Spanish: Samoa Americana, Samoa Estadounidense
12. Turkish: Amerikan Samoası

Origin of name: 

American possessions in Samoan Islands

Primary subdivisions: 

American Samoa is divided into three districts and some additional territory which is unorganized.

* Note that this is not the same as FIPS PUB 10-4, which is shown for many countries. FIPS PUB 6-4 codes are used to represent second-level administrative divisions of the United States. The codes for American Samoa in FIPS PUB 5-2 (states and territories of the U.S.) are AS (alpha) and 60 (numeric). When the FIPS 5-2 and 6-4 codes are concatenated, as in 60020 for Manu'a, the result is a code that uniquely identifies a county-equivalent unit in the United States. In addition to the codes listed, 030 is used for Rose Island and 040 for Swain's Island.

Postal codes: 

The postal code for the entire country is 96799, part of the U.S. system.

Further subdivisions:

See the Counties of American Samoa page.

The territory is further subdivided into 15 counties.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Eastern: Eastern Tutuila (variant)
2. Western: Western Tutuila (variant)