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Updates: 

Samoa originally announced that it would adopt daylight saving time on a trial basis from 2009-10-04 to 2010-03-28. The country was struck by an earthquake and tsunami shortly before the implementation date, and apparently remained on standard time. It still intends to go ahead with DST for 2010-2011.

Sorin Cosoveanu sent me 2006 population and area data retrieved from the Samoa Bureau of Statistics  site about 2009-04-22.

ISO 3166-1 Newsletter V-1 was issued on 1998-02-05. The official name of Samoa had been "Independent State of Western Samoa"; this newsletter dropped the word "Western" from that phrase. The short name was left unchanged, "Samoa".

Country overview: 

Short name	SAMOA
ISO code	WS
FIPS code	WS
Language	Samoan (sm), English (en)
Time zone	-11~
Capital	Apia

 

By 1900, the islands of Samoa had recently been divided between Germany and the United States. The line between them fell at about 171° W., with Germany getting the islands to the west. German Samoa was occupied by New Zealand and Britain on 1914-08-29, and mandated to New Zealand by the League of Nations in 1920. The mandate was converted to a United Nations trusteeship in 1946. It voted for independence, which was granted on 1962-01-01. Although the ISO standard gives Samoa as the short name, the country is still generally called Western Samoa to distinguish it from American Samoa.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Samoa, Den uafhængige stat Samoa (formal), Vest-Samoa (obsolete)
2. Dutch: Samoa, Onafhankelijke Staat Samoa (formal), West Samoa (obsolete)
3. English: Independent State of Samoa (formal), Western Samoa (obsolete)
4. Finnish: Samoa, Länsi-Samoa
5. French: Samoa, Samoa fp occidentales (obsolete)
6. German: Samoa, Westsamoa n (obsolete)
7. Icelandic: Samóa, Vestur-Samóa (obsolete)
8. Italian: Samoa, Samoa fp Occidentali (formal)
9. Norwegian: Samoa, Vest-Samoa (obsolete)
10. Portuguese: Samoa, Estado m Independente da Samoa f (formal), Samoa f Ocidental (obsolete)
11. Samoan: Malotuto'atasi o Samoa i Sisifo (formal)
12. Spanish: Samoa, Estado m Independiente de Samoa (formal), Samoa Occidental (obsolete)
13. Swedish: Samoa, Västsamoa (obsolete)

Origin of name: 

may be from a chief's name, or may mean "place of the moa"

Primary subdivisions: 

Samoa is divided into eleven districts.

District	HASC	FIPS	Pop-2006	Pop-1966	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital	Island
A`ana	WS.AA	WS01	20,769	18,000	193	75	Leulumoega	Upolu
Aiga-i-le-Tai	WS.AL	WS02	4,857	4,000	27	10	Mulifanu'a	Upolu
Atua	WS.AT	WS03	21,826	18,000	413	159	Lufilufi	Upolu
Fa`asaleleaga	WS.FA	WS04	13,404	10,000	266	103	Safotulafai	Savai`i
Gaga`emauga	WS.GE	WS05	7,487	6,000	223	86	Sale'aula	Savai`i, Upolu
Gagaifomauga	WS.GI	WS07	4,842	5,000	365	141	Safotulafai	Savai`i
Palauli	WS.PA	WS08	9,082	8,000	523	202	Vailoa i Palauli	Savai`i
Satupa`itea	WS.SA	WS09	5,260	4,000	127	49	Satupa'itea	Savai`i
Tuamasaga	WS.TU	WS10	85,112	51,000	479	185	Afega	Upolu
Va`a-o-Fonoti	WS.VF	WS06	1,624	2,000	38	15	Samamea	Upolu
Vaisigano	WS.VS	WS11	6,478	6,000	178	69	Asau	Savai`i
11 districts			180,741	132,000	2,832	1,094
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. If periods are replaced by hyphens, these are the same as the district codes from ISO standard 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Pop-2006: 2006-11-06 census. Pop-1966: 1966-11-21 census (rounded). Capitals: Main village. Island: Which of the main islands contains each district.

Further subdivisions:

The districts are subdivided into 43 faipule districts.

Territorial extent: 

1. A`ana district has an exclave on the coast of Upolu, surrounded on three sides by Aiga-i-le-Tai.
2. Aiga-i-le-Tai district contains the small islands of Apolima and Manono.
3. Atua district contains the uninhabited islands of Namu`a, Nu`utele, and Nu`ulua.
4. Gaga`emauga district, which lies primarily on Savai`i island, has two exclaves on Upolu. One is on the north shore and is surrounded by Tuamasaga; the other on the south shore, between Tuamasaga and A`ana.
5. Palauli and Satupa`itea each consist of two separate sections with part of the other in between.
6. The country's capital, Apia, is in Tuamasaga district.