Samoa today
- 205,557 people lived in Samoa at the 2021 census 1
Source
- Samoa Population and Housing Census (PHC) 2021: Factsheet
- 31,137 occupied private households at the 2021 census 1
Source
- Samoa Population and Housing Census (PHC) 2021: Factsheet
- 15.2% of people lived below the basic-needs poverty line in 2023 1
Source
- Samoa Monetary Poverty Assessment 2023
- 17.6% of children aged 0 to 14 lived below the basic-needs line in 2023 1
Source
- Samoa Monetary Poverty Assessment 2023
- 9 in 10 of households received cash remittances in the year before the 2023 household survey 1
Source
- Samoa 2023 Household Income and Expenditure Survey Report
- SAT$952.8m in remittances in FY2025/26, up 5.5% on the year before 1
Source
- Visitor Earnings & Remittances Report, June 2026
- SAT$5.24 an hour minimum wage from 1 July 2026 1
Source
- Minimum wage increases by 40 cents
- 5.0% unemployment in the 2022 labour force survey, the latest measured 1
Source
- 2022 Samoa Labour Force and Child Labour Survey Report
Economy and jobs
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Economy and the budget
MixedReal GDP fell 1.6% in the year to June 2026, the first fall since the post-COVID recovery, while remittances rose to SAT$952.8m, visitor earnings to SAT$701.5m and government debt fell to 19.4% of GDP.
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Jobs, wages and prices
MixedThe minimum wage has risen from SAT$3.00 to SAT$5.24 an hour since July 2024, but the last measured unemployment rate is 5.0% from the 2022 labour force survey, and no later survey shows what the rises and the 2026 price surge did to jobs or poverty.
Daily life
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Hardship and household life
Too early to tellThe share of people below the basic-needs poverty line was 15.2% in the 2023 survey against 21.9% in 2018, but the Bureau of Statistics says the two surveys were collected and measured differently, so the fall is not a confirmed like-for-like improvement.
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Health
Too early to tellNon-communicable diseases caused 83% of deaths in 2021, and a dengue outbreak running since 1 January 2025 had reached 20,232 clinically diagnosed cases and nine deaths by 22 September 2026.
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Education outcomes
Too early to tellThe 2025 to 2030 education plan says achievement stays below expected standards: in its 2022 baseline only 5.1% of Year 4 boys and 13.7% of girls reached the higher English levels, and about one boy in two and one girl in four leave before finishing Year 12.
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Public services
Too early to tellThe public service counted 3,970 employees in 2016, 5,622 in June 2021 and 5,519 in June 2024, and the national digital ID promised since 2019 is still not issued: mass registration is due to start in 2027.
Society
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Village, church and custom
Too early to tellVillage councils gained express power in 2017 to make bylaws, set curfews and banish, and church donations were 47% of the SAT$275.1m a year that households gave away in 2023; no later figure shows whether either has changed.
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Freedom of religion
Getting worseSamoa has been a Christian nation under article 1(3) of its Constitution since 2017, public bodies have been directed to hold Wednesday prayer and fasting since 11 January 2026, and UN special rapporteurs wrote on 13 April 2026 that compulsory observance and a proposed ban on non-Christian faiths could conflict with freedom of religion.
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Women, youth, disability and minorities
MixedSix women sit in a 52-member Parliament under the 10% rule, youth unemployment fell from 31.9% in 2017 to 13.4% in 2022, and the disability benefit rose from SAT$100 to SAT$300 a month with 2,875 recipients reported in May 2026.
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Family violence and child protection
Too early to tellSix in ten women consulted by the 2018 National Inquiry reported intimate-partner violence in their lifetime, 31.4% of ever-partnered women reported it in the past year in 2019–20, and no national survey since then shows whether violence has fallen.
Government and the law
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The Prime Minister's court cases and the treason inquiry
Too early to tellLaʻauli was acquitted of every charge on 27 March 2026, the state did not appeal, and the Supreme Court on 9 September 2026 upheld that decision while calling his earlier direction of a police investigation as a minister "foolhardy and unconstitutional" but not criminal.
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Independent institutions
Getting worseSamoa fell from 44th to 59th of 180 in the Reporters Without Borders press-freedom index between 2025 and 2026, while a bill to change the Central Bank's governance passed its second reading in August 2026 against IMF warnings and is not yet law.
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Crime, police and courts
Too early to tellPolice reported 26% fewer crimes in early 2025 than a year earlier while the Police Commissioner warned of a worsening methamphetamine problem, and in January 2026 a remand area built for 60 held more than 100 people.
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What the public thinks
MixedNo representative poll on the government has been published since 2021; FAST won 30 of 51 seats and 40.86% of candidate votes on 29 August 2025 and every by-election since, but its winners took under a third of the vote in both September 2026 contests, and Samoa's press-freedom rank fell from 44th to 59th.
Development and the world
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National development plans and aid
Too early to tellSamoa has had three national plans since 2016, and the one measured thing that clearly improved is public debt, down from 49.2% of GDP in 2020 (45.8% on SBS's later revised series) to 19.4% in FY2025/26, while no full scorecard of either plan's targets has been published.
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Climate and environment
Too early to tellRenewable electricity fell from 42.4% of generation in 2020 to 29.3% in 2024, well short of EPC's target of 100% renewable energy by 2025, and no measured figure for the period since September 2025 has been published.
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Samoa and the world
MixedSince September 2025 Samoa has signed agreements with Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Japan and capped seasonal-worker recruitment, while debt owed to China fell from SAT$233.9 million in June 2025 to SAT$204.3 million in June 2026.