Northern Mariana Islands

The Northern Mariana Islands are a group of fourteen islands and eight islets situated in the Oceania region of the western Pacific Ocean. They are also known as the Northern Marianas. Administered by the United States as the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), the Northern Marianas are renowned for their scenic natural beauty. They combine with the US overseas territory of Guam to form the Mariana Archipelago.

Informally divided into a northern chain and a southern chain, the Northern Mariana Islands have a sunny and stable tropical marine climate but are sparsely populated. The northern chain includes three volcanic islands, including the active Anatahan Volcano. The large majority of the population lives in the southern chain, with most residents living on the islands of Saipan, Tinian, and Rota, which are the three largest islands in the Northern Mariana group.

Brief History

Experts believe the Northern Mariana Islands first became inhabited by humans around 2000 BCE, with the islands’ initial settlers consisting of seafaring peoples who migrated to the islands from an origin point in Southeast Asia. The islands’ original occupants had a language and culture consistent with that of the Chamorro peoples, leading anthropologists to characterize the Chamorro as the Indigenous peoples of the Mariana Archipelago. Prior to the era of European contact, the Indigenous society of the Mariana Archipelago was hierarchical in nature, consisting of a small upper class (matua) and larger middle (achaot) and lower (mana’chang) classes. The religious traditions of the Chamorro people included great reverence for ancestral spirits.

Spain was the first country to colonize the Northern Marianas, with the era of Spanish administration beginning in 1668 and continuing until 1899 when Spain sold the islands to Germany in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War of 1898. Spain also ceded Guam to the United States as part of the settlement that ended that war. Since that time, Guam has functioned as a separate political entity from the Northern Mariana Islands despite their geographic union in the Mariana Archipelago.

Following World War I (1914–1918), the League of Nations—the forerunner of the United Nations (UN)—enacted a directive known as the South Seas Mandate or South Pacific Mandate. The agreement targeted Germany’s Pacific possessions and transferred control of the Northern Marianas to Japan, which held the islands until the United States invaded in 1944 as part of World War II (1939–1945) military operations. The invasion marked the beginning of US administration of the Northern Mariana Islands and coincided with an extended battle between the United States and Japan for control of Guam, which the United States eventually won. Notably, the US military aircraft that transported and dropped the atomic weapon on the Japanese city of Hiroshima during the final days of World War II departed from the Northern Marianas island of Tinian.

Under US control, the Northern Marianas became known as the CNMI and were incorporated in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI). The United States managed the TTPI with UN authorization from 1947 to 1994, with the TTPI dissolving in 1994 when the final polity in the organization, Palau, elected for independent statehood. In 1975, the CNMI chose to become an overseas territory of the United States and finalized its new constitution two years later. The first government to hold office under the CNMI’s new constitution took power in 1978.

Overview

Geography and Climate

The twenty-two islands and islets that make up the Northern Mariana Islands roughly follow a north-to-south orientation spanning approximately 375 miles (604 kilometers) and have a total land surface area of 179 square miles (464 square kilometers). Most of the islands in the northern part of the chain are unoccupied due to their volcanic nature, while those that do host human populations have few inhabitants. Three of the northern islands—Agrihan, Anatahan, and Paga—have active volcanoes. Anatahan Volcano abruptly entered a period of active eruption in 2003, which has continued on a sporadic basis since that time. The chain’s southern islands cover 65 percent of the CNMI’s total land area, with Saipan holding the status of the largest island in the Northern Marianas.

A sunny, tropical marine climate brings little seasonal temperature variation, with the Pacific Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (Pacific RISA) citing an average year-round temperature of 28.9 degrees C (84 degrees F). Like other tropical regions, the Northern Marianas alternate between a dry season (December–June) and a rainy season (July–November). Winds are common and run in an easterly direction from May–October while northeasterly trade winds begin in November and continue through March. From July–January, the Northern Marianas are prone to typhoons, and most years see at least one typhoon make landfall in the chain. The Mariana Archipelago is located in a highly active Pacific tropical storm zone informally known as “Typhoon Alley.”

The Mariana Trench, in which the ocean floor descends to its deepest point, is situated to the east of the Northern Mariana Islands. Though the islands’ official highest point is Agrihan Volcano, which peaks at 965 meters (3,166 feet), the distance between the lowest point in the adjacent Mariana Trench and the zenith of Saipan’s Mount Tapotchau measures 11,507 meters (37,752 feet).

People

The CIA World Factbook estimated the CNMI’s population at 51,118 in 2043. According to Pacific RISA, 99 percent of that population lives in the southern islands of Saipan, Tinian, and Rota, with more than 90 percent of all CNMI occupants living on Saipan. The CNMI’s capital city, also known as Saipan, has the largest population. Notably, the CNMI had a population estimated at about 69,200 in 2000, with 2024 levels marking a decline of more than 25 percent.

Chamorro, English, and Carolinian are the official languages of the CNMI, with 24.1 percent of the population speaking Chamorro and 17 percent speaking English as a native tongue. Nearly one-third (32.8 percent) of CNMI residents speak Philippine languages, which hold unofficial status. The CIA World Factbook groups Carolinian-speakers with the 10.1 percent of the population that speaks tongues classified as “other Pacific Island languages.” Other Asian languages including Chinese are spoken by 14.1 percent of the population.

Economy

Tourism has historically functioned as the foundational pillar of the modern CNMI economy, with the Northern Marianas welcoming growing numbers of tourists from large regional nations including China and South Korea during the twenty-first century. In October of 2018, a major typhoon struck the Northern Marianas, causing extensive damage, ravaging the local economy, and marking a downturn in tourism that persisted through the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic before recovering in later years.

The CNMI previously hosted a profitable garment manufacturing industry, which benefited from free-trade regulations that exempted the Northern Marianas from certain US labor laws including the federal minimum wage. This economic feature, combined with border controls and immigration policies that mostly operated independently of US federal jurisdiction, allowed the industry to flourish with a low-cost labor force mostly comprised of Chinese migrants until a series of reforms thrust it into rapid and irreversible decline. In 2007, federal minimum wage requirements were extended to the CNMI while the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assumed control of the islands’ borders and immigration policies in 2009. These changes effectively ended the advantages previously enjoyed by garment manufacturers, and the industry was essentially defunct by 2010.

Beyond tourism, major industries include financial services, fisheries, and construction. Though the CNMI has few natural resources, about one-fifth of its land area is arable. Leading agricultural products include tropical fruits, vegetables, nuts, poultry, eggs, and fish.

Political Status and Local Issues

The Northern Mariana Islands’ government functions as a commonwealth under the federal jurisdiction of the United States. The CNMI is classified as a US dependency, and its legal residents are considered citizens of the United States. However, they do not have the legal right to vote in US presidential elections, though they are permitted to cast ballots in the presidential primary processes respectively administered by the Democrat and Republican parties. The US federal government provides extensive economic and developmental support, including subsidy programs, and operates military bases in the region.

Environmental degradation is a topic of increasing concern in the Northern Mariana Islands. In the twenty-first century, the island of Saipan has significantly expanded its presence of landfills, which have contaminated local groundwater resources. Climate change also poses a significant threat to the Northern Marianas, which hosts coral reefs and sensitive coastal and marine ecosystems. Typhoon activity is a major driver of coastal erosion, exacerbating the ongoing threat it poses to the safety of the islands’ residents and the stability of its economy.

Bibliography

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“Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.” U.S. Department of the Interior, 2023, www.doi.gov/oia/islands/cnmi. Accessed 1 Feb. 2025.

“Northern Mariana Islands (U.S.), including Saipan, Tinian, and Rota Island.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 7 Nov. 2022, wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/traveler/none/northern-mariana-islands. Accessed 1 Feb. 2025.

"Northern Mariana Islands." CIA World Factbook, 16 Jan. 2025, www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/northern-mariana-islands/#people-and-society. Accessed 1 Feb. 2025.

“Northern Mariana Islands.” Pacific RISA, 5 May 2021, www.pacificrisa.org/places/commonwealth-of-the-northern-mariana-islands/. Accessed 1 Feb. 2025.

“Northern Mariana Islands.” U.S. National Park Service, 2023, www.nps.gov/state/mp/index.htm. Accessed 1 Feb. 2025.

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