Ten Pacific Island Capitals from Pitcairn to Palau

Adamstown is the capital and only settlement of the Pitcairn Islands, and its roughly 35 residents in 2023 are the entire population of the archipelago. The town takes its name from John Adams, the last surviving mutineer from HMS Bounty, whose crew and Tahitian companions resettled the island in 1790.

Papeete is the capital of French Polynesia, on the island of Tahiti, with 26,654 residents in the commune and 124,274 in the urban area at the 2022 census. Its name means water from a basket, and the city grew after France moved its nuclear testing program to nearby atolls in the 1960s and built the international airport.

Avarua is the capital of the Cook Islands, on the northern coast of Rarotonga, the largest island. It became the religious and commercial center when London Missionary Society missionaries set up their headquarters there in 1823, and its district counted 5,120 residents in 2021.

Alofi, the capital of Niue, is made up of the villages of Alofi North and Alofi South on Alofi Bay. With 610 residents in 2022 it is the second-smallest national capital by population, and many government buildings moved south after Cyclone Heta struck in 2004.

Pago Pago is the capital of American Samoa on Tutuila and the southernmost capital under the American flag. It became the territory's administrative capital in 1899, and its deep natural harbor still supports the world's largest tuna cannery.

Mata-Utu is the capital of Wallis and Futuna, on the island of Uvea. The town is dominated by Mata-Utu Cathedral beside the Palace of the King of Uvea, and its population was 1,029 at the 2018 census, up from 815 in 1998.

Nouméa is the capital and largest city of New Caledonia, built on a peninsula at the southern tip of Grande Terre around a protected deepwater harbor. It had about 86,000 residents in the city proper and is the largest French speaking city in Oceania.

Saipan is the largest island and capital of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Ruled in turn by Spain, Germany and Japan, it saw the Battle of Saipan in 1944, and its 43,385 residents in 2020 are about ninety percent of the territory's population.

Hagåtña is the capital of Guam and was the island's main population center from the arrival of Spanish missionaries in 1668. Heavily damaged in 1944, it fell to 943 residents in the 2020 census yet remains the seat of the legislature and governor.

Koror is a state of Palau and its most populous state and primary commercial hub, with 11,199 residents in the 2020 census. It was the capital during the Japanese administered South Seas Mandate, and tourism built around diving and the Rock Islands anchors its economy.