Ethnicity/race: Samoan 92.6%, Euronesians 7% (persons of
European and Polynesian blood), Europeans 0.4%
Religion: Congregationalist 34.8%, Roman Catholic 19.6%,
Methodist 15%, Latter-Day Saints 12.7%, Assembly of God 6.6%,
Seventh-Day Adventist 3.5%, other Christian 4.5%, Worship Centre
1.3%, other 1.7%, unspecified 0.1% (2001)
Economic summary:GDP/PPP $1.218 billion (2006 est.); per capita $2,100 (2005 est). Real growth rate: 5.5% (2005 est).
Inflation: 3.3% (2005). Unemployment: n.a.
Arable land: 21%. Agriculture: coconuts, bananas,
taro, yams, coffee, cocoa. Labor force: 90,000 (2000
est.). Industries: food processing, building materials, auto
parts. Natural resources: hardwood forests, fish, hydropower.
Exports: $131 million f.o.b. (2006): fish, coconut oil
and cream, copra, taro, automotive parts, garments, beer.
Imports: $324 million f.o.b. (2006): machinery and
equipment, industrial supplies, foodstuffs. Major trading
partners: Australia, U.S., Indonesia, New Zealand, Fiji, Taiwan,
Singapore, Japan (2004).
Communications: Telephones: main lines
in use: 19,500 (2005); mobile cellular: 24,000 (2005). Radio
broadcast stations: AM 2, FM 5, shortwave 0 (2004).
Radios: 174,849 (1997). Television broadcast stations:
2 (2002). Televisions: 8,634 (1999). Internet Service
Providers (ISPs): 10,156 (2007). Internet users: 8,000
(2006).
Transportation: Railways: 0 km.
Highways: total: 2,337 km; paved: 332 km; unpaved: 2,005 km (2004
est.). Ports and harbors: Apia, Asau, Mulifanua, Salelologa.
Airports: 4 (2007).
International disputes: none;
note—some EEZ demarcations, including the one with American
Samoa, are undefined.
Samoa, formerly Western Samoa, is in the South Pacific Ocean about
2,200 mi (3,540 km) south of Hawaii. The larger islands in the Samoan
chain, Upolu and Savai'i, are mountainous and of volcanic origin. There is
little level land except in the coastal areas, where most cultivation
takes place.
Government
Constitutional monarchy under a native chief.
History
Polynesians, possibly from Tonga, first settled in the Samoan islands
about 1000 B.C. Samoa was explored by Dutch and
French traders in the 18th century. Toward the end of the 19th century,
conflicting interests of the U.S., Britain, and Germany resulted in an
1899 treaty that recognized the paramount interests of the U.S. in those
islands west of 171°W (American Samoa) and Germany's interests in the
other islands (Western Samoa).
New Zealand seized Western Samoa from Germany in 1914, and in 1946 it
became a UN trust territory administered by New Zealand. A resistance
movement to both German and New Zealand rule, known as the Mau
(“strongly held view”) movement, helped to edge the islands
toward independence on Jan. 1, 1962. A constitutional monarchy, Samoa has
a legislative assembly whose members are from the matai, or titled
class.
Barraged regularly by cyclones that have wreaked havoc on the country's
primarily agrarian economy, Samoa has begun stepping up its tourism
industry—not such a difficult undertaking in this archetypal South
Pacific paradise.
A referendum in 1990 gave women the right to vote for the first time.
In 1997, a new constitutional amendment changed the country's name to
Samoa.
