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 range from 250 to 900; BGs were to contain 70 housing units as an optimum, but could range from 50 to 100. The BGs also served as the basic geographic units—called address register areas (ARAs)—used as enumerator assignments for performing the enumeration. For the 1980 census, the Census Bureau assigned one ED to each village or village part, with oversized EDs to be split in the field to facilitate the enumeration.

In both 1980 and 1990, the Census Bureau took a census of agriculture in American Samoa in conjunction with the decennial census, using the EDs/ARAs as the geographic basis for the enumerations. The census of agriculture reports data for American Samoa and the first-order subdivisions; however, Swains Island is counted with Manu’a District, and tabulations do not include Rose Island, which is unpopulated. American Samoa is not included in the economic censuses.

Guam is the largest and southernmost island of a chain of volcanic islands in part of Micronesia known as the Marianas Archipelago (see and ). It is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States and is located in the western Pacific Ocean, 6,000 miles southwest of San Francisco, 3,700 miles west of Honolulu, 1,500 miles south of Tokyo, and 1,500 miles east of Manila. Inhabited for more than 3,500 years, the discovery of Guahan or Guan (as the Spanish documented the name apparently used by the indigenous population) in 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan was the basis for Guam coming under Spanish rule. Spain claimed Guam and the Marianas in 1565, established a supply station on Guam the next year, and established the first permanent Spanish settlement in 1668. As a result of the Spanish–American war, Spain ceded Guam to the United States by the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898.

Diseases and conflicts resulted in the near annihilation of the original Guamanians, known as Chamorros. Intermarriage of Spaniards and Filipinos with Chamorros during the 18th and 19th centuries gave rise to the modern Guamanian race and culture, and Chamorro is still commonly spoken in Guam. Over 90 years of American influence also has had its effect on Puerto Rico and the Outlying Areas7-19