||It has been suggested that this article be merged into
Territories of the United States. (Discuss) Proposed since July
2012.| ||This article includes a list of references, but its
sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline
citations. (October 2008)| An insular area is a United States
territory that is neither a part of one of the 50 U.S. states
nor the District of Columbia, the federal district of the U.S.
They are called "insular" from the Latin word insula ("island")
because they were once administered by the War Department's
Bureau of Insular Affairs, now the Office of Insular Affairs at
the Department of the Interior. The term insular possession is
also sometimes used. Because those insular areas that are
inhabited are unincorporated territories, their native-born
inhabitants are not constitutionally entitled to United States
citizenship under the Citizenship Clause. However, Congress has
extended citizenship rights to all inhabited territories except
American Samoa, and these citizens ma