The capital of the Independent State of Samoa is Apia.
Apia sits on the central north coast of Upolu, Samoa’s second-largest island, beside a harbor on the South Pacific. Although Apia began as a smaller Samoan village, the modern city developed during the nineteenth century and has served as Samoa’s official capital since 1959.
Samoa’s formal constitutional name is the Independent State of Samoa. It should not be confused with American Samoa, a separate United States territory to the east. Apia is also Samoa’s largest city and the country’s main administrative, commercial, and transport center.
Samoa became an independent state in 1962 after a period of New Zealand administration. Another unusual geographic detail is that Samoa moved west of the International Date Line in 2011, effectively skipping December 30 that year to align its calendar more closely with major trading partners. The country also switched to driving on the left in 2009.