Samoa Country Info - Oceania

Description and Basic Information

Samoa with its capital Apia is located in Oceania (Oceania, group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean). It covers some 2,945 square kilometres (slightly smaller than Rhode Island) with 217,000 citizens. Samoan and English are the the official languages used in Samoa.

Samoa is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean. It is part of the region of the Pacific known as Polynesia. Its population is around 185,000 but many more Samoans live outside the country, particularly in New Zealand, Australia and California. Samoa is about one-half of the way between Hawaii and New Zealand. The islands have narrow coastal plains with volcanic, rocky, rugged mountains in the interior. The two main islands are Upolu and Savaii. Samoa is a popular place to get married and spend your honeymoon. Several hotels and resorts offer special packages on their web sites and they will make all the arrangements.

Pictures from Capital (Apia)

Photos provided by Panoramio are under the copyright of their owners.

About Samoa

The topography features two main islands (Savaii, Upolu) and several smaller islands and uninhabited islets with narrow coastal plain with volcanic, rocky, rugged mountains in interior. The average density of population is about 73 per km². The climate in Samoa can be described as tropical with rainy season (November to April), dry season (May to October). Potential natural disasters are occasional typhoons or active volcanism.

To reach someone in Samoa dial +685 prior to a number. There are 31,900 installed telephones. And there are 151,000 registered mobile phones. The cellular networks operate on frequencies of 1900 Mhz. Websites typically end with the top level domain ".ws". If you want to bring electric appliances (e.g. battery charger), keep in mind the local 220V - 50Hz. The following list are the 12 regions/states in Samoa we know off.

Demographic Statistics

In the year 2010, the total Samoan population grew at a rate of 0.61% (or by 1,160 citizens). With 1,029 deaths and 4,401 babies born, the natural increase rate lies at 1.76%. -2,212 persons more in total emmigrated from the country than immigrated.

An overview of age distribution in Samoa: Each pair of bars represents a single age group (male/female). Each group is spanning 5 years. E.g. 0 to 5 years, 5 to 10 etc. and group "0 to 5" being at the left end and "100 +" at the right end of the chart.

Based on content from wikitravel.org. The original article can be found here based on the work of these users.
Geographic information is based on the data provided by geonames.org, CIA factsbook and Unesco.