Samoa

OceaniaCapital city: ApiaCapital metro: ApiaHead of State: Tuimalealiʻifano Vaʻaletoʻa Sualauvi IIPrime Minister: Laʻauli Leuatea Schmidt
2026 population
206K
Rank #196 globally
Area
3k km² (1k sq mi)
Metros tracked
1
45% of population in metros
Composite score
1.5
Rank #181 globally

population: 2021 census (6 Nov 2021) · indicators as of 2026-09-05 · 1 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography1 metro

Samoa metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
1 polygons

Hover for rank, click to open the metro page. Boundaries derived from Overture Maps administrative divisions; metros without source coverage are omitted.

🏙️ 1 tracked metro
1 metros
#1037Apia★ Capital▲ Largest
1.5
🗂️ Electoral Constituencies

51 entries listed under Samoa. Click any to see its metros and footprint.

51 total
📋 At a glance
Official languages
English, Samoan
Legislature
Legislative Assembly of Samoa
Demonym
Samoan
Time zone
UTC+13:00
Driving side
Left
Calling code
+685
Internet TLD
.ws
ISO 3166
WS
Established
1962
Highest point
Silisili (1,858 m (6,096 ft))
National anthem
The Banner of Freedom

Facts via Wikidata.

💹 Economy and developmentUpper middle income
Human Dev. Index
#121 / 191
0.708
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#183 / 193
$1.3B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#111 / 193
$5.9k
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#130 / 190
$9.3k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#111 / 192
$5.6k
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#118 / 194
71.8 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
19.9 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#192 / 194
18%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
0.6%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#107 / 193
78/km²
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#134 / 193
1.8%
World Bank · 2024
Gini index
#111 / 166
38.7
World Bank · 2013
Internet users
#176 / 193
21%
World Bank · 2014
Inflation
#65 / 185
2.2%
World Bank · 2025
CO₂ per capita
#58 / 192
1.1 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#76 / 186
44%
Ember · 2024

Ranks are among sovereign countries with data; ★ marks a top-5% finish. Sources: World Bank Open Data and Our World in Data (UNDP, UN WPP, V-Dem, Global Carbon Budget, Ember, Energy Institute; CC BY 4.0). Each card credits its originating body. Renewable share is of electricity generation, not of primary energy. Each figure is the most recent year available.

Alliances & Organisations3 full memberships

Political & Economic

Regional

Subregional

Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer

🏛️ Leadership History17 leaders · click to expand

marks a leader associated with atrocities or defiance of law, systemic subversion of democratic institutions, or a criminal conviction. Convictions arising from political persecution, and annulled convictions, are excluded. denotes a monarch. These are editorial designations, applied per entry rather than derived automatically.

Laʻauli Leuatea Schmidt✦ Current

2025Present

Prime Minister

Tenure: 0y 9m

Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa

20212025

Prime Minister

Tenure: 4y 1m

Tuimalealiʻifano Vaʻaletoʻa Sualauvi II✦ Current

2017Present

Head of State

Tenure: 8y 11m

Tui Ātua Tupua Tamasese Efi

20072017

Head of State

Tenure: 10y 1m

Tuilaʻepa Saʻilele Malielegaoi

19982021

Prime Minister

Tenure: 22y 8m

Tofilau Eti Alesana

19881998

Prime Minister

Tenure: 10y 7m

Va'ai Kolone

19851988

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2y 3m

Tofilau Eti Alesana

19821985

Prime Minister

Tenure: 3y 0m

Tui Ātua Tupua Tamasese Efi

19821982

Prime Minister

Tenure: 0y 3m

Va'ai Kolone

19821982

Prime Minister

Tenure: 0y 5m

Tui Ātua Tupua Tamasese Efi

19761982

Prime Minister

Tenure: 6y 0m

Tupua Tamasese Lealofi IV

19751976

Prime Minister

Tenure: 0y 10m
Show all 17 leaders

Fiamē Mataʻafa Faumuina Mulinuʻu II

19731975

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2y 2m

Tupua Tamasese Lealofi IV

19701973

Prime Minister

Tenure: 3y 0m

Fiamē Mataʻafa Faumuina Mulinuʻu II

19621970

Prime Minister

Tenure: 8y 1m

Malietoa Tanumafili II

19622007

Head of State

Tenure: 45y 4m

Tupua Tamasese Mea'ole

19621963

Head of State

Tenure: 1y 3m
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#175 · 0.0%
3%5%8%10%2000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)
Samoa · share of world power, 1976–2026

The powerline is the headline share of world power, running from the state’s first ranked year (benchmark estimates with wide error bars before 1816). Latent power is material mass a state could mobilise (population, manpower, heavy industry). Recognised power is what the system actually treats it as (military spending, productive economy, reach, and status such as a Security Council seat or nuclear arsenal). When latent runs above recognised, a power is rising or under-rated; when recognised runs higher, it is punching above its weight or coasting on prestige. Material sub-indices run 1816 through 2016.

⚔️ Conflicts since 19451 interstate war · click to expand
Samoan Civil War1886–1894
Combat deaths:

Bold = principal belligerent. Source: Wikipedia, “List of interstate wars since 1945.”

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
217k
#189 in the world
Since 1800
4.58×
from 47k
Peak
2023
at its largest now
Share of world
0.00%
0.01% in 1800
55k110k165k221k18001850190019502000
Samoa · people, 1800–2023 · dashed to 2026 is projected

Our World in Data population (CC BY): UN WPP 2024 from 1950, Gapminder v7 1800-1949, HYDE 3.3 earlier; today's borders. Figures above are as of 2023, the last year that is estimated rather than forecast. The dashed tail to 2026 is a UN WPP medium-variant projection. It is drawn because the line should reach the present, and drawn differently because it has not happened yet: no rank, peak or share on this page uses it. Before 1950 the series is reconstruction rather than contemporaneous statistics, which is worth knowing when a country’s peak sits back there. The current population shown elsewhere on this page comes from the workbook and is unchanged by this. Note that people and share of world can move in opposite directions. A country can grow steadily and still become a smaller part of humanity, which is what happened to almost every rich country after 1960.

👥 To 2100

The UN’s probabilistic projection for Samoa: the median with its 80% and 95% bands, the UN’s own high, low and zero-migration scenarios beside it. Not this site’s model; the site reads it and says what it implies.

Peak on the median
after 2100
still growing at 2100
2050
273k
95% band 169k to 404k
2100
384k
95% band 76k to 1.7m
2100 against 2025
1.75×
median still rising in 2100
446k891k1.3m1.8m1950197520002025205020752100

Tap or drag across the chart to read any year: the estimate to 2023, then the UN median, its bands and the scenarios.

estimateUN median80% and 95% bandshigh and low fertilityzero migration

What drives it

Births, deaths and net migration on the UN medium path, with fertility, life expectancy and median age, every decade from 1950.

1950
5k born · 1k died · -1k net migration
TFR 7.55 · life expectancy 49.2 · median age 14.7
1960
6k born · 1k died · -1k net migration
TFR 7.78 · life expectancy 55.2 · median age 14.0
1970
6k born · 1k died · -2k net migration
TFR 7.34 · life expectancy 60.4 · median age 13.5
1980
6k born · 1k died · -3k net migration
TFR 5.86 · life expectancy 65.0 · median age 15.3
1990
6k born · 1k died · -5k net migration
TFR 5.01 · life expectancy 67.8 · median age 17.4
2000
6k born · 970 died · -3k net migration
TFR 4.52 · life expectancy 70.8 · median age 18.8
2010
6k born · 1k died · -3k net migration
TFR 4.52 · life expectancy 71.5 · median age 19.7
2020
6k born · 1k died · -2k net migration
TFR 4.00 · life expectancy 70.7 · median age 20.4
Show all 16 decades
2030
6k born · 1k died · -3k net migration
TFR 3.54 · life expectancy 72.6 · median age 20.3
2040
6k born · 2k died · -2k net migration
TFR 3.17 · life expectancy 73.9 · median age 22.5
2050
6k born · 2k died · -2k net migration
TFR 2.86 · life expectancy 75.2 · median age 24.0
2060
6k born · 2k died · -2k net migration
TFR 2.63 · life expectancy 76.5 · median age 25.5
2070
6k born · 2k died · -1k net migration
TFR 2.43 · life expectancy 77.8 · median age 28.2
2080
6k born · 2k died · -1k net migration
TFR 2.27 · life expectancy 79.1 · median age 31.2
2090
5k born · 3k died · -914 net migration
TFR 2.15 · life expectancy 80.4 · median age 33.9
2100
5k born · 3k died · -749 net migration
TFR 2.06 · life expectancy 81.7 · median age 36.1

Every country to 2100 →

Source: United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2024. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 IGO. Estimates to 2023; projections 2024 to 2100, medium variant and probabilistic intervals. The UN revises every two years; this is the WPP 2024 revision.

🏆 National Teams

Samoa on the international stage. Click a card for the full record.