After Samoans, the next-largest NHPI group are the natives of the island of Guam, also known as Chamorro. Besides the cultural and ethnic differences between Asians and Pacific Islanders, one of the main motivations for NHPI activists to fight for separate racial recognition by the Census Bureau was the very real socioeconomic differences between the groups.There are only about 157,000 people living on today's multicultural Guam, of whom about half are Chamorro. Indeed, while some NHPIs have very high incomes and educations, a disproportionate percentage are impoverished, have lower educations, and may require or need public assistance. And the way these specific couples are – it doesn’t even begin to compare to other interracial pairings.

That's nearly a threefold growth from the 1990 population of 49,345. Today, the islands are divided up into American Samoa and Samoa. Samoa, known as Western Samoa until 1997, is an independent nation with islands totaling 1,090 square miles, and a population of 179,058.

Like the Native Hawaiians, they are considered Polynesians, and are theorized to have migrated from the west (the East Indies, the Malay peninsula or the Philippines) as far back ago as 1,000 B. The former is only 76 square miles, has a population of around 67,000, and sends a delegate to the U. The economy of American Samoa remains undeveloped; nearly one-third of workers are employed in the fishing or canning industry. In recent years, one of American Samoa's main exports has been football players.

The 2000 Census further allowed respondents to pick more than one racial identity and as a result, divining what the exact NHPI population is became more difficult, especially since a huge proportion-more than half of all NHPIs-are of multiracial ancestry. territories of Guam, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, and the U. Virgin Islands are completely excluded by the Census. Through diseases introduced into the islands by colonization, by 1900 the pure Native Hawaiian population declined to 29,800 with another 7,800 Hawaiians of mixed ancestry.

Examining the 2000 Census report on the NHPI population, we see an increase of 9.3%, from roughly 365,000 people in 1990 to 399,000 in 2000, using the NHPI-alone numbers. Seventy-three percent of NHPIs lived the thirteen-state Western region and in fact, 58% lived in just two states: Hawai'i (282,667) and California (221,458). According to the 2000 Census, Native Hawaiians and part-Native Hawaiians number 239,655 and comprise about 20% of Hawai'i's population.

That year, the Census counted about 260,000 Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders (NHPI).

In 1990, the category "Other Asian or Pacific Islander" was added to the questionnaire along with a write-in area for all unspecified groups of Polynesian, Micronesian or Melanesian cultural backgrounds.

The per-capita income in 1999 for NHPIs was ,054.

That is 37% lower than the ,918 per capita income for Whites and 31% lower than the ,823 figure for Asian Americans.

The Akaka bill would provide an avenue for both the people of Hawai'i and the U. Congress to correct the historical injustices they have suffered collectively as a people, and enable them to exercise self-determination through self-governance, in order to heal as a people. There are more than 130,000 Samoans living in the U.