Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 97%
male: 97%
female: 96% (1980 est.)
Government Northern Mariana Islands
Country name:
conventional long form: Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
conventional short form: Northern Mariana Islands
former: Mariana Islands District (Trust Territory of the Pacific
Islands)
Dependency status:
commonwealth in political union with the US; federal funds to the
Commonwealth administered by the US Department of the Interior,
Office of Insular Affairs
Government type:
commonwealth; self-governing with locally elected governor,
lieutenant governor, and legislature
Capital:
Saipan
Administrative divisions:
none (commonwealth in political union with the US); there are no
first-order administrative divisions as defined by the US
Government, but there are four municipalities at the second order;
Northern Islands, Rota, Saipan, Tinian
Independence:
none (commonwealth in political union with the US)
National holiday:
Commonwealth Day, 8 January (1978)
Constitution:
Covenant Agreement effective 4 November 1986 and the Constitution
of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands effective 1
January 1978