Pacific Islander American

Pacific Islander American

Pacific Islands Americans, also known as Oceanian Americans, are American residents who have ethnic ancestry of indigenous inhabitants of the continent of Oceania region. The term Pacific Islander refers to those who have ancestry in Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia, which are all the three major sub-regions of Oceania. American Samoa, a part of Polynesia, and the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam, parts of Micronesia, are all territories that are political divisions in the United States. Hawaii, a Polynesian island chain, is a U.S. state.

Pacific Islander Americans make up 0.4% of the United States population including those with partial Pacific Islander ancestry, enumerating about 1.2 million people. The largest ethnic subgroups of Pacific Islander Americans are Native Hawaiians, Samoans, Guamanian/Chamorros and Tongans. Native Hawaiians are concentrated in the state of Hawaii, and Samoans, Tongans, and Chamorros have sizable communities in California, Hawaii, Utah, Washington, Texas, Nevada, Missouri, Oregon, and other states to a lesser extent..