Household Income Fell 13 Percent in American Samoa During the 1990s

(AmeriStat, January 2003) Like other U.S. territories, American Samoa experienced financial setbacks during the last decade, even as the national economy grew at a record pace. Unlike other territories, vacation destinations whose prospects will improve as the tourism industry rebounds, American Samoa has limited avenues for recovery due to its geographic isolation and lack of economic development. Given American Samoa's burgeoning child population — 45 percent of the population is under age 18 — more is now riding on diminished revenues.

American Samoa lies halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand in the South Pacific. Its population, made up of native Samoan, Tongan, and a sprinkling of other ethnic groups, was 57,291 in 2000, similar to that of the island of Kaua'i in Hawaii. The fastest growing segments of the population are children and the foreign-born, most of whom are from nearby Samoa (formerly Western Samoa) and share the same language and traditions as the native people in the territory. The table below shows the growth of both groups.

Total Population, Children, and the Foreign-Born in American Samoa, 1940-2000

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, 1950 Census Characteristics of the Population, Territories and Possessions; 1960 Census General Population Characteristics for American Samoa; 1970 Census General Population Characteristics for American Samoa; 1980 Census General Population Characteristics for American Samoa; 1990 Census General Population Characteristics for American Samoa; and 2000 Census Population and Housing Profile for American Samoa.

The young age structure of American Samoa's population has been sustained by relatively high fertility rates and through the arrival of young, immigrant families and their children. In the 2000 Census in American Samoa, 34 percent of women ages 35 to 44 reported having five or more births in their lifetimes. This is considerably higher than the share of women reporting five or more births in other U.S. territories — including the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (10 percent) and Guam (12 percent) — and in the United States as a whole (3 percent). With a relatively large number of children, American Samoa has an elevated child dependency ratio, or number of people under age 18 for every 100 people of working age. U.S. government spending (federal grants primarily from the Department of the Interior for government operations, capital improvement, and social services) and profits from two tuna canneries account for more than 90 percent of American Samoa's income. Since U.S. government expenditures were generally flat for the last decade, the territory's median household income fell by 13 percent to US$4,357 (compared with an increase of 7 percent in national median income to US$21,587 nationwide), and the percentage of children living in poverty in American Samoa increased from 62 percent to 67 percent (nationally the percentage fell from 18 percent to 16 percent).

For children living in single-parent families, poverty is potentially an even greater problem. Whereas 62 percent of families with children were below poverty in 1999, among female-headed families with children, 65 percent were below poverty. Yet female-headed families are still relatively rare in the territory: In 2000, 10 percent of families in American Samoa were headed by a female householder, compared with 22 percent nationwide.

Although extended family networks in American Samoa provide a safety net for many children, there is also a growing need for programs to provide child care and youth and family services in the territory. Providing services for the young is likely to consume a substantial share of American Samoa's resources — and presents a major challenge given the recent downturn of the economy.