Samoa 🇼🇸

Quick facts

• Capital: Apia
• Continent: Oceania
• Population: 222,382
• Area: 2,842 km²
• Density: 78.2 people per km²
• Currency: WST
• Languages: Samoan, English
• ISO code: WS

Where Samoa sits

Samoa 🇼🇸 is one of 14 countries in Oceania, with its capital at Apia. It covers 2,842 square kilometres — 169th in the world — and is home to about 222,382 people, 178th globally.

The countries it shares a continent with include Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Fiji and Solomon Islands. If you are learning geography region by region — which works far better than alphabetically, because memory for places is spatial — those are the ones to learn alongside it.

How Samoa compares

Raw figures are hard to hold on their own, so it helps to anchor them. In population, Samoa sits closest to São Tomé and Príncipe and Saint Lucia. In land area, its nearest counterparts are Luxembourg and Mauritius.

At 78.2 people per square kilometre it is somewhat above the world average of 59.4. It ranks higher by area than by population, so it is more spacious than its population alone suggests.

Samoan is listed as official in Samoa alone. The WST is used by Samoa and no one else.

To see Samoa next to every other country, sort the country rankings by population, area or density; its currency and languages are listed alongside every other country's in world currencies and world languages.

How to remember Samoa

Samoa has two big islands, Upolu and Savai'i, and Apia is on Upolu. Apia and Upolu both start with a vowel, so pair them up. For the flag, look for the Southern Cross stars in a blue corner on red.

The flag of Samoa: red, blue and white

🇼🇸 The flag is a red flag with a blue rectangle in the top-left corner holding five white stars. The five white stars show the Southern Cross, a group of stars seen in the southern sky. Red stands for courage, blue for freedom and white for purity.

Region and neighbours

Samoa is an island country in the South Pacific, in Polynesia, about halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand. As an island country it has no land neighbours.

Three facts about Samoa

1. At the end of 2011 Samoa moved its clocks across the International Date Line, so Friday 30 December 2011 never happened there.
2. In 1962 Samoa became the first small-island country in the Pacific to become independent.
3. Samoa is made up of two main islands, Upolu and Savai'i, plus a few smaller ones.

Sources: Wikipedia: Samoa, Wikipedia: Flag of Samoa, Wikipedia: Apia, CIA World Factbook.

Quiz yourself on Samoa

• Oceania capitals quiz — match Samoa to Apia
• Oceania flags quiz — spot the Samoa flag among its neighbours
• Island nations quiz — Samoa is an island country

Quizzes that include Samoa

Three angles are worth covering for any country — where it is, what its flag looks like, and what its capital is. For Samoa those are:

• Oceania map quiz — place it on a blank map
• Oceania flags quiz — identify its flag among its neighbours
• Oceania capitals quiz — match it to Apia
• Samoa capital quiz — five quick questions starting with Samoa
• Daily Map Challenge — five countries to find on a blank world map, the same five for everyone each day

Doing all three for one continent before moving on is far more efficient than learning flags globally, then capitals globally, then the map.

Read more about Samoa

• Capital of Samoa: Apia — the capital in detail, with size and density rankings
• All 14 countries of Oceania

Nearby countries

• Australia 🇦🇺 — capital Canberra
• Fiji 🇫🇯 — capital Suva
• Kiribati 🇰🇮 — capital Tarawa
• Marshall Islands 🇲🇭 — capital Majuro
• Micronesia 🇫🇲 — capital Palikir
• Nauru 🇳🇷 — capital Yaren
• New Zealand 🇳🇿 — capital Wellington
• Palau 🇵🇼 — capital Ngerulmud
• Papua New Guinea 🇵🇬 — capital Port Moresby
• Solomon Islands 🇸🇧 — capital Honiara
• Tonga 🇹🇴 — capital Nukuʻalofa
• Tuvalu 🇹🇻 — capital Funafuti

Frequently asked questions

What are the colours of the Samoa flag?

The flag of Samoa is a red flag with a blue rectangle in the top-left corner holding five white stars. The five white stars show the Southern Cross, a group of stars seen in the southern sky. Red stands for courage, blue for freedom and white for purity.

Which countries border Samoa?

None. Samoa is an island country in the South Pacific, in Polynesia, about halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand, so it has no land borders with other countries.

How can I remember the capital of Samoa?

Samoa has two big islands, Upolu and Savai'i, and Apia is on Upolu. Apia and Upolu both start with a vowel, so pair them up. For the flag, look for the Southern Cross stars in a blue corner on red.