The United States acquired its current territories between 1898 and 1947 through war, purchase, and international agreements. Unlike earlier territories that became states, these have remained in an in-between status for more than a century. Their residents serve in the military at high rates and pay many federal taxes but lack full representation.
This guide explains each territory, how territories are governed, the legal framework, and the debates over their future.
Guam, the Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa each elect a delegate to the House of Representatives for a two-year term, and Puerto Rico elects a resident commissioner for a four-year term. They can introduce bills, serve on committees, and speak, but cannot vote on final passage. The territories have no senators. Congress governs them under the Territory Clause of Article IV, which gives it power to make all needful rules and regulations respecting territory belonging to the United States.
Congress granted citizenship to Puerto Ricans in 1917, Virgin Islanders in 1927, Guamanians in 1950, and Northern Mariana Islanders in 1986. People born in American Samoa are U.S. nationals who can live and work in the United States but must naturalize to become citizens, and courts have declined to extend birthright citizenship there, with some Samoan leaders favoring the current status. Territorial residents vote in party presidential primaries but have no electoral votes. If they move to a state, they can vote there.
After Puerto Rico accumulated more than 70 billion dollars in debt, Congress passed the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act in 2016, creating a federal oversight board to supervise budgets and restructure debt. Hurricane Maria in 2017 caused thousands of deaths and devastated the power grid. Puerto Ricans have voted in several nonbinding status referendums, with statehood winning majorities in 2012, 2017, 2020, and 2024, though turnout and wording have been disputed. Only Congress can change Puerto Rico's status, and the House passed a bill in 2022 to hold a binding vote, but it did not become law.
In a series of decisions beginning in 1901, the Supreme Court held that the Constitution does not fully apply in unincorporated territories not destined for statehood, allowing Congress to treat them differently. Some opinions relied on openly racist reasoning, and justices across the spectrum have criticized the cases. In United States v. Vaello Madero in 2022, the Court upheld excluding Puerto Rico residents from Supplemental Security Income, while one justice wrote that the Insular Cases should be overruled. Residents of Puerto Rico generally do not pay federal income tax on local income but pay Social Security and Medicare taxes, and federal programs such as Medicaid are capped.
Three Pacific nations, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau, are independent countries in a compact of free association with the United States, which provides defense and economic aid while their citizens can live and work in the United States. The compacts were renewed in 2024. Debates over the territories include statehood or independence for Puerto Rico, voting rights for President, equal treatment in federal programs, and whether to overrule the Insular Cases, with residents themselves divided on many of these questions.
Puerto Rico, with about 3.2 million people, and Guam came to the United States from Spain after the Spanish-American War of 1898. American Samoa was acquired through agreements in 1899 and 1900, the Virgin Islands were bought from Denmark in 1917, and the Northern Mariana Islands joined as a commonwealth after a 1975 covenant. Each has an elected governor and legislature, and the Interior Department's Office of Insular Affairs coordinates federal relations for all but Puerto Rico. The United States also holds several small uninhabited islands in the Pacific and Caribbean.
See another place without statehood in the D.C. statehood debate, explore Native nations in tribal sovereignty explained, or learn about voting rights in voting rights law.