What is the difference between an American national and an American citizen?
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This is explained reasonably well by this Wikipedia article.
All US citizens are US nationals. There are a relatively small number of people from American Samoa (and Swains Island, with its population of 17 who harvest coconuts) and some from the Northern Mariana Islands who specifically elect to be non-citizen nationals who are US nationals but not US citizens. It's an even smaller number than you think, because even those born on American Samoa to a US citizen parent will receive US citizenship at birth. These non-citizen nationals receive US passports with a special annotation stating "THE BEARER IS A UNITED STATES NATIONAL AND NOT A UNITED STATES CITIZEN," cannot vote, may not be able to hold certain government jobs that are only for citizens, and there are special rules for the transmission of US nationality to children that are a bit different than for US citizenship.
In general, there's no choice in the matter. Those born on US soil (and "subject to the jurisdiction thereof") get US citizenship at birth and US citizens pass on their citizenship to their children through the usual rules. Non-citizen nationals pass on that status to their children through somewhat different rules. There are two ways in which a choice is possible. Those born in the Northern Mariana Islands can, within six months after turning 18, go to court and make a declaration (scroll to the bottom of the page) that they wish to be a non-citizen national. To go the other way, US nationals are allowed to live and work in the US, so they can do that until they meet the residency requirement, pay the fees and jump through the bureaucratic hoops, and become a naturalized US citizen.
This exact variation is unique to the US and its territories, but, as Calchas notes in comments, the system of British nationality is incredibly complex, with various active and historical categories and types of passports, all conferring somewhat different rights and statues.
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Source: stackoverflow.com
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