Later, in 1924[3] and 1936 two more Tongans emigrated to the United States, specifically to Utah, with an American Mormon who served as a missionary in Tonga (although the first of them only accompanied to mentioned Mormon, since he only migrated to the US to study there), while in 1956 the first Tongan family living in the United States was settled in Salt Lake City.

In the last decade, over 1,900 Tongans have emigrated to the United States due to limited land availability and a scarcity of jobs in their home country.

[5] California has 26,000 Tongan Americans including those of mixed ethnicity, comprising 0.06% of the state's population.

[7] The San Francisco Bay Area has the largest Tongan population in California and amongst the largest nationwide along with the Salt Lake City, Utah area, with an estimated population of 5,000 in San Mateo County alone (0.6%), concentrated especially in the city of East Palo Alto (8.3%).

Other cities with significant but small Tongan American communities exist within Southern California.

The Greater Los Angeles Area city of Inglewood (0.4% or less), Hawthorne (0.4% or less), and the Inland Empire sub-region.

The state of Utah has a large presence of Tongan Americans, and a significant Pacific Islander population in general.

There are over 18,330 Tongan Americans in Utah, including those of mixed ethnicity, making up 0.6% of the state population.

[7] Tongans first started immigrating to Utah because of their attraction to the abundant amount of LDS congregations in the state.

Euless, Texas, in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, has a sizable Tongan community.