Overview
The United States Minor Outlying Islands is not a country in the traditional sense but a statistical designation used to group together a collection of small, mostly uninhabited islands and atolls that are insular areas of the United States. Eight of these territories lie scattered across the Pacific Ocean, while a ninth, Navassa Island, is located in the Caribbean Sea. The grouping exists primarily for the purposes of statistics, international standards, and record-keeping rather than as a unified political or administrative entity.
Geography
The islands that make up this designation are widely dispersed, with the Pacific territories spread across vast distances of open ocean, some near the equator and others closer to Hawaii. Navassa Island, by contrast, sits in the Caribbean Sea between Haiti and Jamaica. Most of these islands are small coral atolls or low-lying islets, and none support a permanent civilian population.
The Islands
The United States Minor Outlying Islands comprise the following territories:
- Baker Island – a small, uninhabited atoll near the equator in the Pacific.
- Howland Island – an uninhabited coral island in the central Pacific, notable for its association with aviator Amelia Earhart's disappearance.
- Jarvis Island – a remote, uninhabited coral island in the South Pacific.
- Johnston Atoll – a former military and wildlife refuge site in the North Pacific.
- Kingman Reef – a largely submerged reef that is uninhabited and difficult to access.
- Midway Atoll – site of the pivotal Battle of Midway during World War II, now managed as a wildlife refuge.
- Navassa Island – the sole Caribbean territory in the group, uninhabited and disputed in ownership with Haiti.
- Palmyra Atoll – a group of small islets known