Pacific Islander Americans

Total population
Alone (one race) 689,966 (2020 census)[1] 0.21% of the total US population In combination (multiracial) 896,497 (2020 census)[1] 0.27% of the total US population Alone or in combination 1,586,463 (2020 census)[1] 0.48% of the total US population
Regions with significant populations
Predominantly inHawaii,American Samoa,Guam, and theNorthern Mariana Islands
Hawaii	157,445[1]
California	157,263[1]
Washington	64,933[1]
Utah	36,930[1]
Texas	33,611[1]
Languages
American English,Oceanic languages
Religion
Christianity,Polytheism,Baháʼí,Judaism,Mormonism,Hinduism,Buddhism,Taoism,Islam,Sikhism,Jainism,Confucianism
Related ethnic groups
Pasifika New Zealanders, otherPacific Islanders

Pacific Islander Americans (also colloquially referred to asIslander Americans) areAmericans who are ofPacific Islander ancestry (or are descendants of theIndigenous peoples of Oceania). For its purposes, theUnited States census also countsIndigenous Australians as part of this group.^[2][3]

Pacific Islander Americans make up 0.5% of the US population including those with partial Pacific Islander ancestry, enumerating about 1.4 million people. The largest ethnic subgroups of Pacific Islander Americans areNative Hawaiians,Samoans, andChamorros. Much of the Pacific Islander population resides in Hawaii, Alaska, California, Utah, Texas, and Minnesota.

Pacific Islanders may be consideredOceanian Americans, but this group may include Australians and New Zealander-origin people, who can be of non-Pacific Islander ethnicity. Many Pacific Islander Americans are mixed with other races, especially Europeans and Asians, due to Pacific Islanders being a small population in several communities across the mainland US.

American Samoa,Guam, and theNorthern Mariana Islands areinsular areas (US territories), whileHawaii is astate.

Migration fromOceania to theUnited States began in the last decade of the 18th century, but the first migrants to arrive in the country wereNative Hawaiians. People from other Oceanian backgrounds (except Australians and Māori) did not migrate to the United States until the late 19th century. The first Native Hawaiians to live in the present-day US were fur traders. They were hired by British fur traders inHawaii and taken to theNorthwestern US, from where trade networks developed with Honolulu. However, they charged less thanAmericans for doing the same jobs and returned to Hawaii when their contracts ended. The first Native Hawaiians to live permanently in the US settled in theAstoria colony (in present-dayOregon) in 1811, having been brought there by its founder, fur merchantJohn Jacob Astor. Astor created thePacific Fur Company in the colony and used the Native Hawaiians to build the city's infrastructure and houses and to develop the primary sector (agriculture, hunting and fishing). The labor employment of the Native Hawaiians was done to make them serve the company (although later, most of them worked forNorth West Company when this company absorbed the Pacific Fur Company in 1813).

After 1813, Native Hawaiians continued to migrate to thePacific Northwest. They migrated to work in companies such as theHudson's Bay Company (which absorbed the North West Company in 1821) and the Columbia Fishing and Trading Company, as well as in Christian missions.^[4] Since 1819, some groups of Polynesian Protestant students immigrated to the United States to study theology.^[5] Since the 1830s, another group of Native Hawaiians arrived on California's shores,^[5][4] where they were traders and formed communities. So, they made up 10% of the population ofYerba Buena, nowSan Francisco, in 1847. During theCalifornia gold rush, many other Native Hawaiians migrated to California to work as miners.^[4]

In 1889, the first PolynesianMormon colony was founded in Utah and consisted of Native Hawaiians, Tahitians, Samoans, and Māori.^[5] Also in the late 19th century, small groups of Pacific Islanders, usually sailors, moved to the western shores, mainly on San Francisco.^[6] Later, the US occupied Hawaii in 1896,Guam in 1898, andAmerican Samoa in 1900.^[7] This fact diversified Oceanian emigration in the US.

However, the first record of non-Hawaiian Pacific Islanders in the US is from 1910,^[4] with the first Guamanians living in the US. In the following decades small groups of people from islands such as Hawaii, Guam,^[6] Tonga, or American Samoa immigrated to the US. Many of them were Mormons (including most of Tongans and American Samoans),^[8][9] who immigrated to help build Mormon churches,^[8] or to seek an education, either inLaie^[9] orSalt Lake City.^[10] However, the immigration of Pacific Islanders to the US was small until the end ofWorld War II,^[4] when many American Samoans,^[11] Guamanians (who got the American citizenship in 1929),^[9] and Tongans immigrated to the US. Most of them were in the military or married with military people,^[6] but some Pacific Islanders, particularly Tongans, looked for a job in several religious and cultural centers. Since then the immigration increased and diversified every decade, with a majority immigrating to the Western urban areas and Hawaii.^[4]

This increase and diversification in the Oceanian emigration was especially true in the 1950s. In 1950, the population of Guam gained full American citizenship.^[8] In 1952, the natives of American Samoa become American nationals, although not American citizens, through theImmigration and Nationality Act of 1952.^[12] Shortly thereafter, the first major waves of migration from American Samoa^[13][11] and Guam^[14] emerged, while other groups of places such asFrench Polynesia,Palau, orFiji began to emigrate. Over 5,100 Pacific Islanders immigrated to the United States in the 1950s, mostly from American Samoa, Guam, and Tonga.^[15] The first of them were Samoan military personnel, who had worked at the American bases ofPago Pago but moved to the Honolulu's American bases when American Samoa began to be administered by theUS Department of the Interior, as well as their relatives.^[16][8] Most of the new Pacific Islander immigrants were Mormons^[15] and many islanders from the region immigrated to the US seeking economic opportunities.

In 1959, Hawaii became a state^[17] and its natives got US citizenship. This made more than 630,000 people Americans;^[18] many of them were Pacific Islanders, both Native Hawaiians and people of other Oceanian origins. Thus, the Hawaiian migration to the continental US began to increase. In the 1960s, many more Pacific Islanders emigrated to the US, mainly due to increased migration from Guam,^[19] Fiji, Tonga,^[10][20] and Samoa archipelago (both independent and AmericanSamoa^[9]).^[21] The Pacific Islanders migrated by diverse reasons: Many Guamanians fled theKorean War andTyphoon Karen,^[19] and the Fijian population living in the US skyrocketed from a few dozen people in the 1950s to more than 400 people. The Pacific Islander migration increased especially since 1965,^[10][9][20] when the United States government facilitated the non-European migration to the US.^[10] Many of them were recruited to pick fruit in California.^[19]

During the 1970s, over nine thousand Pacific Islanders migrated to the US, mostly from Samoa^[13] (both Western and American^[22]), Guam, Tonga, and Fiji, but also from other islands such asFederated States of Micronesia or Palau. Many of these people immigrated to the US to study at its universities.^[23] Moreover, in the 1980s, migration from the Pacific Islands to the United States became more diversified when this country acquired theNorthern Marianas Islands in 1986^[24] and signed an agreement withTTPI (FSM, Palau and theMarshall Islands) called theCompact of Free Association. The Compact of Free Association allows the inhabitants from TTPI to travel and work in the US without visas.^{[note 1]} On the other hand, theTyson Foods company, which employed a significant part of the population of the Marshall Islands, relocated many of its Marshellese employees inSpringdale, Arkansas, where the company is based.^[25] However, most of Pacific Islanders continued to migrate to western urban areas and Hawaii.^[4] More of five thousand Pacific Islanders migrated to the US in the 1990s, settling mostly in western cities such asLos Angeles, San Francisco,Seattle, or Salt Lake City.^[4] In the2000 US census, almost all the countries of Oceania were mentioned, although only the ethnic groups mentioned in the article consisted of thousands of people.^[26] In the 2000s and 2010s, several thousands more Pacific Islanders immigrated to the US.

In the 2000 and2010 censuses, the term "Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander" refers to people having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Marshalls or other Pacific Islands. Most Pacific Islander Americans are of Native Hawaiian,Samoan, andChamorro origin.

The fact that Hawaii is a US state (meaning that almost the entire native Hawaiian population lives in the US), as well as the migration and high birth rate of the Pacific Islanders have favored the permanence and increase of this population in the US (especially in the number of people who are of partial Pacific Islander descent). In the 2000 census, over 800,000 people claimed to be of Pacific Islander descent and in the 2010 census 1,225,195 Americans claimed "'Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander'" as their race alone or in combination. Most of them live in urban areas of Hawaii and California, but they also have sizeable populations inWashington,Utah,Nevada, Oregon,Texas,Florida,Arizona, andNew York. On the other hand, Pacific Islander Americans represent the majority (or are the main ethnic group) in American Samoa, Guam, and theNorthern Mariana Islands, from where many of them are natives.

Melanesian Americans are Americans ofMelanesian descent.

Most of them are ofFijian descent. Most Fijian Americans are ofFijian and Indian descent. More than 32,000 people of Fijian origin live in the US. Most of them live in California.

Smaller communities ofNew Caledonian,Papuan,Vanuatuan, andSolomon Islander origin also live in the US.

Micronesian Americans are Americans ofMicronesian descent. They come from the whole region, mainly from the Mariana Islands, but also from territories as theMarshall Islands, theFederated States of Micronesia orPalau.

There are more than 8,000 people living in the US whose origins are in the Federated States of Micronesia. Most of them live in Hawaii, California, Oregon, and Texas, as well as in Mariana Islands. Another 7,000 Americans are ofPalauan descent.

According to the 2010 census, the largest Chamorro populations were located in California, Washington, and Texas, but their combined number from these three states totaled less than half the number living throughout the US. It also revealed that the Chamorro people are the most geographically dispersed Oceanian ethnicity in the country.^[27]

Marshallese Americans come from theMarshall Islands. In the 2010 census, 22,434 Americans identified as being of Marshallese descent. Due to the Marshall Islands entering the Compact of Free Association in 1986, Marshallese have been allowed to migrate and work in the US. There are many reasons why Marshallese came to the US. Some Marshallese came for educational opportunities, particularly for their children. Others sought work or better health care than what is available in the islands. Massive layoffs by the Marshallese government in 2000 led to a second big wave of immigration. Arkansas has the largest Marshallese population with over 6,000 residents. Many live inSpringdale, and the Marshallese constitute over 5% of the city's population. Other significant Marshallese populations includeSpokane andCosta Mesa.

Smaller communities ofI-Kiribati andNauruan origins also live in the US.

Polynesian Americans are Americans ofPolynesian descent.

Large subcategories of Polynesian Americans include Native Hawaiians and Samoan Americans. In addition there are smaller communities ofTongan Americans,French Polynesian Americans, andMāori Americans.

There is a notable Native Hawaiian presence inLas Vegas. The city is sometimes called the "Ninth Island" in reference to the eight islands of Hawaii.^[28][29][30]

A Samoan American is an American who is of ethnicSamoan descent from either the independent nationSamoa or theAmerican territory of American Samoa. Samoan American is a subcategory of Polynesian American. About 55,000 people live on American Samoa, while the 2000 and 2008 US censuses have found four times the number of Samoan Americans live in the mainland US. California has the most Samoans; concentrations live in theSan Francisco Bay Area,Los Angeles County, andSan Diego County.San Francisco has approximately 2,000 people of Samoan ancestry, and other Bay Area cities such asEast Palo Alto andDaly City have Samoan communities. In Los Angeles County,Long Beach andCarson have abundant Samoan communities, as well as inOceanside in San Diego County.^[31][32][33] OtherWest Coast metropolitan areas such asSeattle have strong Samoan communities, mainly inKing County and inTacoma.Anchorage,Alaska, andHonolulu, Hawaii, both have thousands of Samoan Americans residing in each city. Persons born in American Samoa are US nationals, but notUS citizens (this is the only circumstance under which an individual would be one and not the other).^[12] For this reason, Samoans can move to Hawaii or the mainland US and obtain citizenship comparatively easily. Like Native Hawaiians, Samoans arrived in the mainland in the 20th century as agricultural laborers and factory workers. Elsewhere in the US, Samoan Americans are plentiful throughout the state of Utah, as well as inKilleen, Texas;Norfolk, Virginia; andIndependence, Missouri.

ATongan American is an American who is of ethnic Tongan descent. Utah has the largest Tongan American population, followed by Hawaii. Many of the first Tongan Americans came to the United States in connection tothe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They have strong presence in parts ofSalt Lake Valley in Utah, especiallyWest Valley City and Salt Lake City. Utah is roughly one percent Tongan, a high rate compared to Tongans only making up less than a scant 0.02% of the US population. Tongan communities are also more common in the West Coast, such asSan Mateo County, some areas of theSouth Bay of Los Angeles, and the Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area of Washington.Portland, Oregon is also home to a Tongan community that started to emigrate in the 1970s. TheDallas, Texas suburb ofEuless also has a Tongan population in the low thousands.

Pacific Islander Americans in the 2020^[34] United States censuses

Ancestry	Flag	2020
		Numbers	%
Native Hawaiian		680,442
Samoan		296,997
"Pacific Islander" (not specified)		261,391
Chamorro		147,947 (Guamanian or Chamorro:143,947 Saipanese:1,143 Northern Mariana Islander:553)
Tongan		78,871
Fijian		54,383 ("Fijians":54,006 Rotumans: 377)
Marshallese		52,624
"Micronesian" (not specified)		45,364
Micronesian (FSM)		21,596 (Chuukese:12,464 Pohnpeian:4,918 Kosraean:2,148 Yapese:2,066)
Palauan		12,202
Polynesians with New Zealand citizenship (Māori,Tokelauans,Niueans,Cook Islanders)		9,985 (Māori:7,664 Tokelauans:1,207 Niueans:569 Cook Islanders:545)
"Polynesian" (not specified)		9,092
French Polynesian		8,689 ("Tahitian":7,935 "French Polynesian": 754)
Papua New Guinean		1,453
"Melanesian" (not especified)		937
I-Kiribati		831
Tuvaluan		399
New Caledonian (Fr)		265
Ni-Vanuatu		262
Solomonese		220
Total Pacific Islander American population		1,586,463	100.0%

Based on 2003 recruiting data, Pacific Islander Americans were 249% over-represented in the military.^[44]

American Samoans are distinguished among the wider Pacific Islander group for enthusiasm for enlistment. In 2007, a Chicago Tribune reporter covering the island's military service noted, "American Samoa is one of the few places in the nation where military recruiters not only meet their enlistment quotas but soundly exceed them."^[45] As of March 23, 2009^[update], there have been 10 American Samoans who have died inIraq, and 2 who have died inAfghanistan.^[46]

Pacific Islander Americans are also represented in theUnited States Navy SEALs, making up .6% of the enlisted and .1% of the officers.^[47]

• The Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Population: 2010 Census
• Infoplease: Native Hawaiian and Other US Pacific Islander Population, Census 2000 - 2010
• Pacific Islander Populations, Census 2000

• Ethnic groups in the United States
• American people of Oceanian descent
• Oceanian diaspora in the United States

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