'Samoans' are a
Polynesian ethnic group living in the
Samoan Islands. On their home islands they are divided between an independent state —
Samoa (also informally known as
Western Samoa, its former official name) — and a territory of the
United States,
American Samoa.
The majority of ethnic Samoans (c. 280,000 or 60 per cent) now reside in the Samoan diaspora, primarily in
New Zealand (115,017), the
United States (133,281) and
Australia (28,091). In this diaspora, around 61 percent of ethnic Samoans can still speak the
Samoan language.