Samoans

Samoans

The Samoan people are a Polynesian ethnic group of the Samoan Islands, sharing genetics, language, history and culture. Due to colonialism, the home islands are politically and geographically divided between the country of Samoa, official name Independent State of Samoa (formerly Western Samoa until country name change in 1997); and American Samoa, an unincorporated territory of the United States.

Samoans living in Samoa in 2006 were estimated at 188,000 The majority of ethnic Samoans now reside in other countries, primarily in the United States (180,000 in 2012),, New Zealand (115,000 in 2001) and Australia (39,992 in 2006)