Pitcairn Islands
The Pitcairn Islands ( PIT-kairn; Pitkern: Pitkern Ailen), officially Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, are a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean that form the sole British Overseas Territory in the Pacific Ocean. The four islands—Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno—are scattered across several hundred kilometres of ocean and have a combined land area of about 47 square kilometres (18 square miles). Henderson Island accounts for 86% of the land area, but only Pitcairn Island is inhabited. The inhabited islands nearest to the Pitcairn Islands are Mangareva (of French Polynesia), 688 km (428 miles) to the west, as well as Easter Island, 1,929 km (1199 miles) to the east. The Pitcairn Islanders are descended primarily from nine British HMS Bounty mutineers and twelve Tahitian women. In 2023, the territory had a permanent population of 35, making it the smallest territory in the world by number of permanent residents. Owing to the island's extreme isolation and small population, incidents of widespread sexual abuse went undetected until 1999, culminating in a high-profile sexual assault trial in 2004.
American Samoa is a U.S. territory in the South Pacific Ocean that lies about 100 km (60 mi) east of its neighboring country of Samoa, which is part of the same archipelago. American Samoa consists of five main islands and two coral atolls; the largest and most populous island is Tutuila, with the Manuʻa Islands, Rose Atoll and Swains Island also included in the territory. American Samoa is not
For the island in Costa Rica, see Cocos Island National Park. The Cocos (Keeling) Islands (Cocos Malay: Pulu Kokos (Keeling), Malay Wilayah Kepulauan Cocos (Keeling)) or simply Cocos Islands or Keeling Islands are a chain of islands in two adjacent atolls, in the middle of the Indian Ocean some 2,750 km northwest of Perth, and around 900 km west-southwest of Christmas Island. The islands are gener