The mid-year population estimate for the territory, dated July 1st, 2023, according to the Department of Commerce is 53,331.
That’s an increase of about 2,000 from the 2022 estimate.
For perspective, the 2020 census for American Samoa was 49,710 people.
In 2010, the population total was 55,519.
The mid-year population count for 2023 had 27,092 males and 26,239 females.
About 62.7% of the population were between 16 to 65.
38% or 20,233 were below 19-years-old.
The new estimate is based on the published official count of the 2020 American Samoa Census five-year age distributions, plus natural growth and net travelers.
Natural growth is births minus deaths; while net travelers are all arrivals, less all departures.
Fertility continued to decline while more and more deaths were recorded, resulting in less natural growth of the resident population.
However, a substantial increase in net travels was recorded due to more visits of relatives/families and guest workers brought in for cannery/domestic works despite another net outward movement of the local residents.
The Department of Commerce factored in those here on the guest worker program, where close to 1,300 workers are employed at the cannery.
The population estimate is derived from the Balancing Equation Methodology by adding the natural growth (births minus deaths) and net migration of residents and immigrants to the base population every year.
Historical travel data since 2000 is no longer used in the population estimate due to much lower counts in the last two censuses.
