Country profile
Samoa
Malo Sa'oloto Tuto'atasi o Samoa
Oceania · Polynesia
WS · WSM
- Capital
- Apia
- Population
- 205,557
- Area
- 2,842 km²
- Democracy index
- 85
- Regime type
- Robust Democracy
Events
Ballots from Samoa
The latest elections, referendums, and opinion polls from Samoa. Community totals are not official results.
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Classification
Democracy profile
The score and regime label are assigned by Porto Voto using our in-house democracy index and classification framework, not ratings from governments or external agencies.
Democracy index
85/100
Regime type
Robust Democracy
Samoa continues to operate as a stable parliamentary democracy with a strong commitment to its constitutional framework, upholding the rule of law and ensuring regular, peaceful transfers of power. The electoral process remains transparent and highly competitive, supported by an independent judiciary that protects fundamental civil liberties and human rights. While the nation balances traditional faamatai customary authority with modern democratic institutions, this integration has fostered a resilient political environment characterized by high levels of public engagement and institutional accountability. The small size of the country facilitates direct interaction between representatives and constituents, ensuring that public policies remain responsive to local needs and that democratic norms are consistently maintained across all branches of governance.
Last evaluation:
How we classify regimes →World Factbook
Country background
A concise introduction to Samoa, together with notes on how power and law are organized, to put local ballots in context.
The first Austronesian settlers arrived in Samoa around 1000 B.C., and early Samoans traded and intermarried with Fijian and Tongan nobility. The fa’amatai system of titles and nobility developed, which dominates Samoan politics to this day; all but two seats in the legislature are reserved for matai, or heads of families. A Dutch explorer was the first European to spot the islands in 1722.
Christian missionaries arrived in the 1830s and were followed by an influx of American and European settlers and influence. By the 1880s, Germany, the UK, and the US had trading posts and claimed parts of the kingdom. In 1886, an eight-year civil war broke out, with rival matai factions fighting over royal succession and the three foreign powers providing support to the factions.
Germany, the UK, and the US all sent warships to Apia in 1889 and came close to conflict, but a cyclone damaged or destroyed the ships of all three navies. At the end of the civil war in 1894, Malietoa LAUPEPA was installed as king, but upon his death in 1898, a second civil war over succession broke out. When the war ended in 1899, the Western powers abolished the monarchy, giving the western Samoan islands to Germany and the eastern Samoan islands to the US.
The UK abandoned claims in Samoa and received former German territory in the Solomon Islands. New Zealand occupied Samoa during World War I but was accused of negligence and opposed by many Samoans, particularly an organized political movement called the Mau (“Strongly Held View”) that advocated for independence. During the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, about 20% of the population died.
In 1929, New Zealand police shot into a crowd of peaceful Mau protestors, killing 11, in an event known as Black Sunday. In 1962, Samoa became the first Polynesian nation to reestablish its independence as Western Samoa but dropped the “Western” from its name in 1997. The Human Rights Protection Party dominated politics from 1982 until Prime Minister FIAME Naomi Mata'afa's Fa'atuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) party gained a majority in elections in 2021.