What is the United States Minor Outlying Islands?

Technically, the United States Minor Outlying Islands isn’t an actual legal term. It isn’t used by the United States at all. It was created and is used by the International Standards Organization. They are the group that comes up with the standard of codes for countries. It is called ISO 3166-1.

How many Insular Islands are there in the United States?

The United States currently claims sixteen insular areas as territories. These include American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, and the United States Minor Outlying Islands.

Are the Minor Outlying Islands categorized separately?

These territories are all categorized separately. The Minor Outlying Islands specifically refers to nine islands which are all US territories. Eight of them are in the Pacific and one is in the Caribbean. These are sort of the crumbs of the United States

Are the Minor Outlying Islands inhabited?

At the outer edges of the USA are the tattered fragments of its dominion, known as the Minor Outlying Islands. Though officially uninhabited, each of these islands is one of the 14 Territories of the USA (along with five that are inhabited: Puerto Rico, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa).

Who lives in the United States Minor Outlying Islands?

When you fill out some form online and it requires you to select a country, and you see an option for United States Minor Outlying Islands, they are just using the ISO 3166-1 list. There is no one who permanently lives there. No one has these islands as an address.

When was the United States Minor Outlying Islands created?

ISO introduced the term "United States Minor Outlying Islands" in 1986. From 1974 until 1986, five of the islands (Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Palmyra Atoll, and Kingman Reef) were grouped under the term United States Miscellaneous Pacific Islands, with ISO 3166 code PU.