American Samoa to develop population policy
Updated
American Samoa is hoping to develop a population policy to deal with the nation's rapidly increasing population growth.
The American territory is holding its first ever Population Summit this week.
American Samoa's population since 1980 has doubled from 32,000 to 60,000.
Amercian Samoa's Department of Commerce chief statistician, Meleisa Vai Filigia has told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat program the increase in the territory's population means more services are needed.
"There is a need to keep up with change, there is a need for more infrastructure developments, there is a need for new classrooms and hospitals and new roads," he said.
"So definitely the change in population has been so tremendous that American Samoa can not keep up with the costs of maintaining and providing services as needed by people."
