Here’s the list most sources mean when they say there are 16 territories of the United States today, combining the five main inhabited territories and the small “minor outlying islands.”

The 5 permanently inhabited territories

  1. American Samoa (unincorporated, unorganized)
  1. Guam (unincorporated, organized)
  1. Northern Mariana Islands (Commonwealth in political union with the U.S., unincorporated, organized)
  1. Puerto Rico (Commonwealth, unincorporated, organized)
  1. U.S. Virgin Islands (unincorporated, organized)

These five have permanent civilian populations and local self‑government, but they are not states and do not have full voting representation in Congress.

The 11 remaining territories (mostly small islands)

Most modern lists get to “16 territories” by adding 11 other territorial areas (often grouped as the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands plus one more) to those 5 inhabited ones. Commonly included are:

  • Baker Island (Pacific, unincorporated, unorganized, uninhabited)
  • Howland Island (Pacific, unincorporated, unorganized, uninhabited)
  • Jarvis Island (Pacific, unincorporated, unorganized, uninhabited)
  • Johnston Atoll (Pacific, unincorporated, unorganized, currently no permanent population)
  • Kingman Reef (Pacific, unincorporated, unorganized, mostly submerged)
  • Midway Atoll (Pacific, unincorporated, unorganized, no permanent civilian population)
  • Palmyra Atoll (Pacific, incorporated but unorganized; only one incorporated territory)
  • Wake Island (Pacific, unincorporated, unorganized, military‑administered)
  • Navassa Island (Caribbean, unincorporated, unorganized, claimed by both U.S. and Haiti)
  • Serranilla Bank (Caribbean, low‑lying reef area under U.S. claim but also claimed/controlled by others; often classed as a disputed U.S. possession)
  • Bajo Nuevo Bank (Caribbean, similar to Serranilla Bank, a disputed bank/reef under U.S. claim)

Many government and reference sites say the U.S. has 14 territories (5 inhabited + 9 “U.S. Minor Outlying Islands”), and then treat Serranilla Bank and Bajo Nuevo Bank separately as disputed or contested areas. The “16 territories” framing you’re seeing comes from counting those two disputed Caribbean banks alongside the 14 better‑known territories.

So, in practical everyday use, people usually talk about 5 main territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands), and the rest are mostly tiny, uninhabited islands and reefs that round the total up to 16 when disputed areas are included.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.