Samoan Islands

The Samoan Islands or Samoa Islands is an archipelago covering 3,030 km2 (1,170 sq mi) in the central South Pacific, forming part of Polynesia and the wider region of Oceania.

The population of the Samoan Islands is approximately 250,000, sharing a common language, Samoan, and culture, known as fa'a Samoa. It was also referred to by early European explorers as the Navigators' Islands.

The archipelago includes 13 islands and lies between 13° and 14° south latitude and 169° and 173° west longitude, about 480 km (298 mi) from west to east; it is approximately 800 km (497 mi) from Fiji, 530 km (329 mi) from Tonga, 2,900 km (1,802 mi) from New Zealand, and 4,000 km (2,485 mi) from Hawaii, U.S.A.[1] The larger islands are volcanic in origin, mountainous, and covered in tropical moist forest. Some of the smaller islands are coral atolls. Not all of the islands are inhabited.

Today, politically there are two jurisdictions on the islands:

• The Independent State of Samoa, situated at the western half of the islands, gained political independence in 1962 (2,831 km² and 185,000 inhabitants)
• American Samoa, an unincorporated territory of the United States consisting of the islands to the east (199 square kilometers and 65,000 inhabitants)

For more details see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoan_Islands

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