Insular area facts for kids

Locations of the insular areas (blue) of the United States (pink).

Insular area is the name for one of the territories of the United States which are not a state of the union. People that live in these areas usually have no right to vote in US elections. Sometimes, they take part in preliminary elections.

There are three areas in the Pacific Ocean:

• Guam
• Northern Mariana Islands
• American Samoa

The following areas are in the Carribean:

• Puerto Rico
• US Virgin Islands

Uninhabited islands

The term is also used for many uninhabited islands, which the US claims as its territory. Most of these are in the Pacific:

• Palmyra Atoll
• Baker Island
• Howland Island
• Jarvis Island
• Johnston Atoll
• Kingman Reef
• Midway Atoll
• Wake Island (disputed with Marshall Islands)

Only a few are in the Carribean:

• Navassa Island (disputed with Haiti)
• Serranilla Bank (disputed with Colombia, Jamaica and Nicaragua)
• Bajo Nuevo Bank or Petrel Islands (disputed with Colombia, Honduras and Jamaica)

Images for kids

• 

  American Samoa

• 

  Capitol of Puerto Rico, the largest insular area

• 

  Wake Island lagoon

See also

In Spanish: Área insular de Estados Unidos para niños