FreedomRankings

Outside the Ranking

US Territories & the District of Columbia

Why DC and the five inhabited US territories sit outside the 50-state ranking — and what we know about each.

Why not in the 50?

FreedomRankings ranks the 50 US states. The District of Columbia and the five inhabited US territories — Puerto Rico, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa — are governed under a different constitutional architecture, and the comparison to states isn't always apples-to-apples.

Under the Insular Cases(a line of early-20th-century Supreme Court decisions still operative today), territories are "unincorporated" — Congress holds plenary authority over them via the Territory Clause (Art. IV § 3), and not all constitutional protections apply of their own force. Territory residents have US citizenship (or, in American Samoa, US national status), but none have voting representation in Congress and none cast Electoral College votes for President.

That structural asymmetry matters for several of our ten categories — economic freedom, property rights, and religious liberty all hinge partly on protections that apply differently (or not at all) in territories than in states. Scoring them alongside states without that caveat would mislead readers.

There is also a data-coverage problem: most of the third-party sources in our Hybrid index (Fraser EFNA, EdChoice ABCs, Mercatus RegData, Guns & Ammo) cover only the 50 states. Surfacing territory pages with mostly-empty data would produce low-quality pages — the opposite of helpful.

District of Columbia

DC is a federal district, not a territory, created under Article I § 8 of the Constitution. It has home-rule authority via the DC Home Rule Act (1973), but Congress retains the power to review and overturn local legislation, and the federal government controls the judiciary and much of the prosecutorial apparatus.

Unlike the territories, DC does cast three electoral votes for President (23rd Amendment, 1961). It has one non-voting Delegate in the House and no senators.

We track DC on all ten freedom categories using the same methodology as the states, but we intentionally keep it out of the 1–50 ranking so including or excluding DC never shifts state ranks. See the full breakdown on the DC page.

The Five Inhabited Territories

Puerto Rico

PR

Status: Unincorporated organized territory (Commonwealth since 1952)·Population: ≈ 3.2 million·Citizenship: US citizens by birth (Jones–Shafroth Act, 1917)

  • Residents do not vote in US presidential elections and have a non-voting Resident Commissioner in the House.
  • Own constitution; Congress retains plenary power to preempt local law under the Territory Clause.
  • Firearms: permissive carry regime after 2020 Ley de Armas reform — shall-issue concealed carry, reduced fees, post-Bruen loosening.
  • Taxes: residents pay federal payroll taxes (Social Security, Medicare) but not federal income tax on local-source income; local income tax applies.
  • School choice: limited formal voucher program; parental-choice advocacy active.
  • Drug policy: medical cannabis legal since 2015; no recreational framework.

Guam

GU

Status: Unincorporated organized territory (1950 Organic Act)·Population: ≈ 170,000·Citizenship: US citizens by birth (8 USC § 1407)

  • One non-voting Delegate to the US House; no presidential vote.
  • Firearms: shall-issue concealed carry; rifles and shotguns broadly available; handgun licensing required.
  • Heavy federal military footprint (Andersen AFB, Naval Base Guam) shapes land-use and economic regulation.
  • Drug policy: medical cannabis legal since 2015; recreational legalized 2019 (among the first US jurisdictions to do both).
  • Education: public system; limited charter/voucher options.

US Virgin Islands

VI

Status: Unincorporated organized territory (1954 Revised Organic Act)·Population: ≈ 87,000·Citizenship: US citizens by birth (acquired 1917 from Denmark)

  • One non-voting Delegate to the US House; no presidential vote.
  • Firearms: may-issue concealed carry historically; post-Bruen litigation ongoing to force shall-issue.
  • Taxes: unique "mirror code" — local tax code parallels federal IRC but revenue stays local.
  • Drug policy: medical cannabis legal since 2019; decriminalized small-quantity possession.

Northern Mariana Islands

MP

Status: Commonwealth in political union with the US (Covenant of 1976)·Population: ≈ 47,000·Citizenship: US citizens by birth

  • One non-voting Delegate to the US House; no presidential vote.
  • Own constitution with provisions the US Covenant protects against Congressional preemption (notably land-alienation restrictions for indigenous Chamorro and Carolinian residents).
  • Firearms: Second Amendment applies; 2016 federal ruling (Radich v. Guerrero) struck the CNMI handgun ban.
  • Drug policy: adult-use cannabis legalized 2018 by legislative act — first US jurisdiction to do so by legislature (not ballot).

American Samoa

AS

Status: Unincorporated unorganized territory (no Organic Act)·Population: ≈ 44,000·Citizenship: US nationals (not citizens) by birth — unique among inhabited US territories

  • One non-voting Delegate to the US House; no presidential vote.
  • Citizenship status is actively litigated (Fitisemanu v. United States, pending Supreme Court review as of 2025).
  • Firearms: strict licensing regime; among the most restrictive in US-flag jurisdictions.
  • Matai (chiefly) land-tenure system is constitutionally protected and restricts alienation of communal land.
  • No state-level income tax; local income tax mirrors federal rates.
Roadmap & Corrections

If new annual indexes begin publishing territorial data, or if a territory's legal status changes materially (e.g. a successful statehood referendum for Puerto Rico, or a new Compact revision for the CNMI), we'll revisit the scoring decision.

Spot an error on this page? The prose here is our source of record for territorial facts since we don't have a third-party index to lean on. Corrections are welcome — email Support@FreedomRankings.com.