United States
| United States of America | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Motto: | ||||||
 | ||||||
The United States and its territories
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| Capital | Washington, D.C. 38°53′N 77°01′W | |||||
| Largest city | New York City 40°43′N 74°00′W | |||||
| Official languages | None at federal level | |||||
| Recognised regional languages | ||||||
| National language | English[b] | |||||
| Demonym | American | |||||
| Government | Federal presidentialconstitutional republic | |||||
| - | President | Barack Obama | ||||
| - | Vice President | Joseph Biden | ||||
| - | Speaker of the House | John Boehner | ||||
| - | Chief Justice | John Roberts | ||||
| Legislature | Congress | |||||
| - | Upper house | Senate | ||||
| - | Lower house | House of Representatives | ||||
| - | Declaration | July 4, 1776 | ||||
| - | Confederation | March 1, 1781 | ||||
| - | Treaty of Paris | September 3, 1783 | ||||
| - | Constitution | June 21, 1788 | ||||
| - | Last state admission | August 21, 1959 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Land (93.02%) | 9,147,593 km2 (3rd) 3,531,905.43 sq mi | ||||
| Population | ||||||
| - | 2015 estimate | 320,206,000[5] (3rd) | ||||
| - | Density | 34.2/km2 (180th) 88.6/sq mi | ||||
| GDP (PPP) | 2013 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $16.72 trillion [6] (1st) | ||||
| - | Per capita | $52,800 [6] (10th) | ||||
| GDP (nominal) | 2013 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $16.768 trillion[7] (1st) | ||||
| - | Per capita | $53,042[8] (9th) | ||||
| Gini (2013) | 38.0[9][10][11] medium | |||||
| HDI (2013) |  0.914[12]very high · 5th | |||||
| Currency | United States dollar($) (USD) | |||||
| Time zone | (UTC−5 to −10) | |||||
| - | Summer (DST) | (UTC−4 to −10[d]) | ||||
| Drives on the | right[e] | |||||
| Calling code | +1 | |||||
| ISO 3166 code | US | |||||
| Internet TLD | .us .gov .mil .edu | |||||
| a. | ^ English is the official language of at least 28 states; some sources give higher figures, based on differing definitions of "official".[13] English and Hawaiian are both official languages in the state of Hawaii. French is a de facto language in the states of Maine andLouisiana, while New Mexico state law grants Spanisha special status.[14][15][16][17] | |||||
| b. | ^ English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80 percent of Americans aged five and older. 28 states and five territories have made English an official language. Other official languages include Hawaiian,Samoan, Chamorro, Carolinian. | |||||
| c. | ^ Whether the United States or China is larger has been disputed. The figure given is from the U.S.Central Intelligence Agency's The World Factbook. Other sources give smaller figures. All authoritative calculations of the country's size include only the 50 states and the District of Columbia, not the territories. | |||||
| d. | ^ See Time in the United States for details about laws governing time zones in the United States. | |||||
| e. | ^ Except the United States Virgin Islands. | |||||
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The United States of America (USA), commonly referred to as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a federal republic[18][19] consisting of 50 states and a federal district. The 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C., are in central North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is located in the northwestern part of North America and the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also has five populated and numerous unpopulated territories in the Pacific and the Caribbean. At 3.80 million square miles (9.85 million km2)[20] and with over 320 million people, the United States is the world's fourth-largest country by total area and third most populous. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries.[21] The geography and climate of the United States are also extremely diverse, and the country is home to a wide variety of wildlife.[22]
Paleo-Indians migrated from Eurasia to what is now the U.S. mainland around 15,000 years ago,[23] with European colonization beginning in the 16th century. The United States emerged from 13 British colonies located along the East Coast. Disputes between Great Britain and the colonies led to the American Revolution. On July 4, 1776, as the colonies were fighting Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, delegates from the 13 colonies unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence. The war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by the Kingdom of Great Britain, and was the first successful war of independence against a European colonial empire.[24] The country's constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787 and ratified by the states in 1788. The first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil rights and freedoms.
Driven by the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, the United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century.[25] This involved displacing American Indian tribes, acquiring new territories, and gradually admitting new states, until by 1848 the nation spanned the continent.[25] During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War ended legal slavery in the country.[26][27] By the end of that century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean,[28] and the economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar.[29] The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a global military power. The United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, and as apermanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union left the United States as the sole superpower.[30]
The United States is a developed country and has the world's largest national economy,[31] benefiting from an abundance of natural resources and high worker productivity.[32] While the U.S. economy is considered post-industrial, the country continues to be one of the world's largest manufacturers.[33] Accounting for 37% of global military spending[34] and 19% of world GDP (PPP),[35] it is the world's foremost economic and militarypower, a prominent political and cultural force, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations
Etymology
See also: Names for United States citizens and Names of the United States
In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere "America" after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci (Latin:Americus Vespucius).[37] The first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" is from a letter dated January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, Esq., George Washington's aide-de-camp and Muster-Master General of the Continental Army. Addressed to Lt. Col. Joseph Reed, Moylan expressed his wish to carry the "full and ample powers of the United States of America" to Spain to assist in the revolutionary war effort.[38]
The first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymously written essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1776.[39][40] In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson included the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence.[41][42] In the final Fourth of July version of the Declaration, the pertinent section of the title was changed to read, "The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America".[43] In 1777 the Articles of Confederation announced, "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be 'The United States of America'".[44]
The short form "United States" is also standard. Other common forms include the "U.S.", the "USA", and "America". Colloquial names include the "U.S. of A." and, internationally, the "States". "Columbia", a name popular in poetry and songs of the late 1700s, derives its origin from Christopher Columbus; it appears in the name "District of Columbia".[45] In non-English languages, the name is frequently the translation of either the "United States" or "United States of America", and colloquially as "America". In addition, an abbreviation (e.g. USA) is sometimes used.[46]
The phrase "United States" was originally treated as plural, a description of a collection of independent states—e.g., "the United States are"—including in the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1865. It became common to treat it as singular, a single unit—e.g., "the United States is"—after the end of the Civil War. The singular form is now standard; the plural form is retained in the idiom "these United States".[47] The difference has been described as more significant than one of usage, but reflecting the difference between a collection of states and a unit.[48]
The standard way to refer to a citizen of the United States is as an "American". "United States", "American" and "U.S." are used to refer to the country adjectivally ("American values", "U.S. forces"). "American" is rarely used in English to refer to subjects not connected with the United States.[49]
History
Main articles: History of the United States and Timeline of United States history
Native American and European contact
Further information: Pre-Columbian era and Colonial history of the United States
The first North American settlers migrated from Siberia by way of the Bering land bridge approximately 15,000 or more years ago.[23][50][51] Some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture, developed advanced agriculture, grand architecture, and state-level societies. After European explorers and traders made the first contacts, the native population declined for various reasons, including diseases, such as smallpox andmeasles,[52][53] and violence.[54][55][56]
In the early days of colonization many settlers were subject to food shortages, disease and attacks from Native Americans. Native Americans were also often at war with neighboring tribes and allied with Europeans in their colonial wars.[57] At the same time, however, many natives and settlers came to depend on each other. Settlers traded for food and animal pelts, natives for guns, ammunition and other European wares.[58] Natives taught many settlers where, when and how to cultivate corn, beans and squash. European missionaries and others felt it was important to "civilize" the Indians and urged them to concentrate on farming and ranching rather than depending on hunting and gathering.[59][60]
Settlements
Further information: European colonization of the Americas and Thirteen Colonies
After Columbus' first voyage to the New World in 1492, other explorers followed with settlement into the Floridas and the American Southwest.[61][62] There were also some French attempts to colonize the east coast, and later more successful settlements along the Mississippi River. Successful English settlement on the eastern coast of North America began with the Virginia Colony in 1607 at Jamestown and the Pilgrims' Plymouth Colony in 1620. Early experiments in communal living failed until the introduction of private farm holdings.[63] Many settlers were dissenting Christian groups who came seeking religious freedom. The continent's first elected legislative assembly, Virginia's House of Burgesses created in 1619, and the Mayflower Compact, signed by the Pilgrims before disembarking, established precedents for the pattern of representative self-government and constitutionalism that would develop throughout the American colonies.[64][65]
Most settlers in every colony were small farmers, but other industries developed within a few decades as varied as the settlements. Cash crops included tobacco, rice and wheat. Extraction industries grew up in furs, fishing and lumber. Manufacturers produced rum and ships, and by the late colonial period Americans were producing one-seventh of the world's iron supply.[66] Cities eventually dotted the coast to support local economies and serve as trade hubs. English colonists were supplemented by waves of Scotch-Irish and other groups. As coastal land grew more expensive freed indentured servants pushed further west.[67] Slave cultivation of cash crops began with the Spanish in the 1500s, and was adopted by the English, but life expectancy was much higher in North America because of less disease and better food and treatment, leading to a rapid increase in the numbers of slaves.[68][69][70] Colonial society was largely divided over the religious and moral implications of slavery and colonies passed acts for and against the practice.[71][72] But by the turn of the 18th century, African slaves were replacing indentured servants for cash crop labor, especially in southern regions.[73]
With the colonization of Georgia in 1732, the 13 colonies that would become the United States of America were established.[74] All had local governments with elections open to most free men, with a growing devotion to the ancient rights of Englishmen and a sense of self-government stimulating support for republicanism.[75] With extremely high birth rates, low death rates, and steady settlement, the colonial population grew rapidly. Relatively small Native American populations were eclipsed.[76] The Christian revivalist movement of the 1730s and 1740s known as the Great Awakening fueled interest in both religion and religious liberty.[77]
In the French and Indian War, British forces seized Canada from the French, but the francophone population remained politically isolated from the southern colonies. Excluding the Native Americans, who were being conquered and displaced, those 13 colonies had a population of over 2.1 million in 1770, about one-third that of Britain. Despite continuing new arrivals, the rate of natural increase was such that by the 1770s only a small minority of Americans had been born overseas.[78] The colonies' distance from Britain had allowed the development of self-government, but their success motivated monarchs to periodically seek to reassert royal authority.[79]
Independence and expansion
Further information: American Revolutionary War, United States Declaration of Independence and American Revolution
The American Revolutionary War was the first successful colonial war of independence against a European power. Americans had developed an ideology of "republicanism" asserting that government rested on the will of the people as expressed in their local legislatures. They demanded their rights as Englishmen, "no taxation without representation". The British insisted on administering the empire through Parliament, and the conflict escalated into war.[80] Following the passage of the Lee Resolution, on July 2, 1776, which was the actual vote for independence, the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, on July 4, which proclaimed, in a long preamble, that humanity is created equal in their unalienable rights and that those rights were not being protected by Great Britain, and finally declared, in the words of the resolution, that the Thirteen Colonies were independent states and had no allegiance to the British crown in the United States. July fourth is celebrated annually as Independence Day. In 1777, the Articles of Confederation established a weak government that operated until 1789.[81]
Britain recognized the independence of the United States following their defeat at Yorktown.[82] In the peace treaty of 1783, American sovereignty was recognized from the Atlantic coast west to the Mississippi River. Nationalists led the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 in writing the United States Constitution, ratified in state conventions in 1788. The federal government was reorganized into three branches, on the principle of creating salutary checks and balances, in 1789. George Washington, who had led the revolutionary army to victory, was the first president elected under the new constitution. The Bill of Rights, forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and guaranteeing a range of legal protections, was adopted in 1791.[83]
Although the federal government criminalized the international slave trade in 1808, after 1820 cultivation of the highly profitable cotton crop exploded in the Deep South, and along with it the slave population.[84][85][86] TheSecond Great Awakening, beginning about 1800, converted millions to evangelical Protestantism. In the North it energized multiple social reform movements, including abolitionism;[87] in the South, Methodists and Baptists proselytized among slave populations.[88]
Americans' eagerness to expand westward prompted a long series of American Indian Wars.[89] The Louisiana Purchase of French-claimed territory in 1803 almost doubled the nation's size.[90] The War of 1812, declared against Britain over various grievances and fought to a draw, strengthened U.S. nationalism.[91] A series of U.S. military incursions into Florida led Spain to cede it and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819.[92] Expansion was aided by steam power, when steamboats began traveling along America's large water systems, which were connected by new canals, such as the Erie and the I&M; then, even faster railroads began their stretch across the nation's land.[93]
From 1820 to 1850, Jacksonian democracy began a set of reforms which included wider male suffrage; it led to the rise of the Second Party System of Democrats and Whigs as the dominant parties from 1828 to 1854. The Trail of Tears in the 1830s exemplified the Indian removal policy that moved Indians into the west to their own reservations. The U.S. annexed the Republic of Texas in 1845 during a period of expansionist Manifest destiny.[94] The 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest.[95] Victory in the Mexican–American War resulted in the 1848 Mexican Cession of California and much of the present-day American Southwest.[96]
The California Gold Rush of 1848–49 spurred western migration and the creation of additional western states.[97] After the American Civil War, new transcontinental railways made relocation easier for settlers, expanded internal trade and increased conflicts with Native Americans.[98] Over a half-century, the loss of the buffalo was an existential blow to many Plains Indians cultures.[99] In 1869, a new Peace Policy sought to protect Native-Americans from abuses, avoid further warfare, and secure their eventual U.S. citizenship.[100]
Civil War and Reconstruction Era
Further information: American Civil War and Reconstruction Era
From the beginning of the United States, inherent divisions over slavery between the North and the South in American society ultimately led to the American Civil War.[101] Initially, states entering the Union alternated between slave and free states, keeping a sectional balance in the Senate, while free states outstripped slave states in population and in the House of Representatives. But with additional western territory and more free-soil states, tensions between slave and free states mounted with arguments over federalism and disposition of the territories, whether and how to expand or restrict slavery.[102]
With the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln, the first president from the largely anti-slavery Republican Party, conventions in thirteen states ultimately declared secession and formed the Confederate States of America, while the U.S. federal government maintained that secession was illegal.[102] The ensuing war was at first for Union, then after 1863 as casualties mounted and Lincoln delivered his Emancipation Proclamation, a second war aim became abolition of slavery. The war remains the deadliest military conflict in American history, resulting in the deaths of approximately 618,000 soldiers as well as many civilians.[103]
Following the Union victory in 1865, three amendments to the U.S. Constitution brought about the prohibition of slavery, gave U.S. citizenship to the nearly four million African Americans who had been slaves,[104] and promised them voting rights. The war and its resolution led to a substantial increase in federal power[105] aimed at reintegrating and rebuilding the Southern states while ensuring the rights of the newly freed slaves.[106] But following theReconstruction Era, throughout the South Jim Crow laws soon effectively disenfranchised most blacks and some poor whites. Over the subsequent decades, in both the North and the South blacks and some whites faced systemic discrimination, including racial segregation and occasional vigilante violence, sparking national movements against these abuses.[106]
Industrialization
Further information: Labor history of the United States
In the North, urbanization and an unprecedented influx of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe supplied a surplus of labor for the country's industrialization and transformed its culture.[107] National infrastructure including telegraph and transcontinental railroads spurred economic growth and greater settlement and development of the American Old West. The later invention of electric light and the telephone would also impact communication and urban life.[108] The end of the Indian Wars further expanded acreage under mechanical cultivation, increasing surpluses for international markets.[109] Mainland expansion was completed by the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867.[110] In 1898 the U.S. entered the world stage with important sugar production and strategic facilities acquired in Hawaii.[111] Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines were ceded by Spain in the same year, following the Spanish–American War.[112]
Rapid economic development at the end of the 19th century produced many prominent industrialists, and the U.S. economy became the world's largest.[113] Dramatic changes were accompanied by social unrest and the rise ofpopulist, socialist, and anarchist movements.[114] This period eventually ended with the advent of the Progressive Era, which saw significant reforms in many societal areas, including women's suffrage, alcohol prohibition, regulation of consumer goods, greater antitrust measures to ensure competition and attention to worker conditions.
World War I, Great Depression, and World War II
The United States remained neutral at the outbreak of World War I in 1914, though by 1917, it joined the Allies, helping to turn the tide against the Central Powers. In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson took a leading diplomatic role at the Paris Peace Conference and advocated strongly for the U.S. to join the League of Nations. However, the Senate refused to approve this, and did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles that established the League of Nations.[115]
In 1920, the women's rights movement won passage of a constitutional amendment granting women's suffrage.[116] The 1920s and 1930s saw the rise of radio for mass communication and the invention of early television.[117]The prosperity of the Roaring Twenties ended with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the onset of the Great Depression. After his election as president in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the New Deal, which included the establishment of the Social Security system.[118] The Great Migration of millions of African Americans out of the American South began around WWI and extended through the 1960s;[119] whereas the Dust Bowl of the mid-1930s impoverished many farming communities and spurred a new wave of western migration.[120]
The United States was at first effectively neutral during World War II's early stages but began supplying material to the Allies in March 1941 through the Lend-Lease program. On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japanlaunched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, prompting the United States to join the Allies against the Axis powers.[121] Though the nation lost more than 400,000 soldiers,[122] it emerged relatively undamaged from the war with even greater economic and military influence.[123] Allied conferences at Bretton Woods and Yalta outlined a new system of international organizations that placed the United States and Soviet Union at the center of world affairs. As an Allied victory was won in Europe, a 1945 international conference held in San Francisco produced the United Nations Charter, which became active after the war.[124] The United States developed the first nuclear weapons and used them on Japan; the Japanese surrendered on September 2, ending World War II.[125]
Cold War and civil rights era
Main articles: History of the United States (1945–64), History of the United States (1964–80) and History of the United States (1980–91)
After World War II the United States and the Soviet Union jockeyed for power during what is known as the Cold War, driven by an ideological divide between capitalism and communism.[126] They dominated the military affairs ofEurope, with the U.S. and its NATO allies on one side and the USSR and its Warsaw Pact allies on the other. The U.S. developed a policy of "containment" toward Soviet bloc expansion. While they engaged in proxy wars and developed powerful nuclear arsenals, the two countries avoided direct military conflict. The U.S. often opposed Third World left-wing movements that it viewed as Soviet-sponsored. American troops fought communist Chineseand North Korean forces in the Korean War of 1950–53. The Soviet Union's 1957 launch of the first artificial satellite and its 1961 launch of the first manned spaceflight initiated a "Space Race" in which the United States became the first to land a man on the moon in 1969.[127] A proxy war was expanded in Southeast Asia with the Vietnam War.[fn 1]
At home, the U.S. experienced sustained economic expansion and a rapid growth of its population and middle class. Construction of an Interstate Highway System transformed the nation's infrastructure over the following decades. Millions moved from farms and inner cities to large suburban housing developments.[134][135] A growing civil rights movement used nonviolence to confront segregation and discrimination, with Martin Luther King, Jr.becoming a prominent leader and figurehead. A combination of court decisions and legislation, culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, sought to end racial discrimination.[136][137][138] Meanwhile, a counterculture movementgrew which was fueled by opposition to the Vietnam war, black nationalism, and the sexual revolution. The launch of a "War on Poverty" expanded entitlement and welfare spending.[139]
The 1970s and early 1980s saw the onset of stagflation. After his election in 1980, President Ronald Reagan responded to economic stagnation with free-market oriented reforms. Following the collapse of détente, he abandoned "containment" and initiated the more aggressive "rollback" strategy towards the USSR.[140][141][142][143][144] After a surge in female labor participation over the previous decade, by 1985 the majority of women aged 16 and over were employed.[145] The late 1980s brought a "thaw" in relations with the USSR, and its collapse in 1991 finally ended the Cold War.[146][147][148][149]
Contemporary history
Main article: History of the United States (1991–present)
After the Cold War, the 1990s saw the longest economic expansion in modern U.S. history, ending in 2001.[150] Originating in U.S. defense networks, the Internet spread to international academic networks, and then to the public in the 1990s, greatly impacting the global economy, society, and culture.[151] On September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda terrorists struck the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., killing nearly 3,000 people.[152] In response the United States launched the War on Terror, which includes the ongoing war in Afghanistan and the 2003–11 Iraq War.[153][154]
Beginning in 1994, the U.S. participates in the world's largest trade bloc in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), linking 450 million people producing $17 trillion worth of goods and services. The goal of the agreement among the U.S., Canada and Mexico was met to eliminate trade and investment barriers among them by January 1, 2008; trade among the partners has soared since the agreement went into force.[155]
Barack Obama, the first African American,[156] and multiracial[157] president, was elected in 2008 amid the Great Recession,[158] which began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009.[159]
Geography, climate, and environment
Main articles: Geography of the United States, Climate of the United States and Environment of the United States
The land area of the contiguous United States is 2,959,064 square miles (7.7 Mm2). Alaska, separated from the contiguous United States by Canada, is the largest state at 663,268 square miles (1.7 Mm2). Hawaii, occupying an archipelago in the central Pacific, southwest of North America, is 10,931 square miles (28,311 km2) in area.[160]
The United States is the world's third or fourth largest nation by total area (land and water), ranking behind Russia and Canada and just above or below China. The ranking varies depending on how two territories disputed by China and India are counted and how the total size of the United States is measured: calculations range from 3,676,486 square miles (9.5 Mm2)[161] to 3,717,813 square miles (9.6 Mm2)[162] to 3,794,101 square miles (9.8 Mm2).[6] to 3,805,927 square miles (9.9 Mm2).[20] Measured by only land area, the United States is third in size behind Russia and China, just ahead of Canada.[163]
The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way further inland to deciduous forests and the rolling hills of the Piedmont.[164] The Appalachian Mountains divide the eastern seaboard from the Great Lakes and the grasslands of the Midwest.[165] The Mississippi–Missouri River, the world's fourth longest river system, runs mainly north–south through the heart of the country. The flat, fertile prairie of the Great Plains stretches to the west, interrupted by a highland region in the southeast.[165]
The Rocky Mountains, at the western edge of the Great Plains, extend north to south across the country, reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet (4.3 km) in Colorado.[166] Farther west are the rocky Great Basin and deserts such as the Chihuahua and Mojave.[167] The Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges run close to the Pacific coast, both ranges reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet (4.3 km). The lowest and highest points in thecontinental United States are in the state of California,[168] and only about 84 miles (135 km) apart.[169] At 20,320 feet (6.2 km), Alaska's Mount McKinley is the tallest peak in the country and in North America.[170] Active volcanoes are common throughout Alaska'sAlexander and Aleutian Islands, and Hawaii consists of volcanic islands. The supervolcano underlying Yellowstone National Park in the Rockies is the continent's largest volcanic feature.[171]
The United States, with its large size and geographic variety, includes most climate types. To the east of the 100th meridian, the climate ranges from humid continental in the north to humid subtropical in the south.[172] The southern tip of Florida is tropical, as is Hawaii.[173] The Great Plains west of the 100th meridian are semi-arid. Much of the Western mountains have an alpine climate. The climate is arid in the Great Basin, desert in the Southwest, Mediterranean in coastal California, and oceanic in coastal Oregon andWashington and southern Alaska. Most of Alaska is subarctic or polar. Extreme weather is not uncommon—the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and most of the world's tornadoes occur within the country, mainly in Tornado Alley areas in the Midwest.[174]
Wildlife
Main articles: Fauna of the United States and Flora of the United States
The U.S. ecology is megadiverse: about 17,000 species of vascular plants occur in the contiguous United States and Alaska, and over 1,800 species of flowering plants are found in Hawaii, few of which occur on the mainland.[175] The United States is home to 428 mammal species, 784 bird species, 311 reptile species, and 295 amphibian species.[176] About 91,000 insect species have been described.[177] The bald eagle is both the national bird and national animalof the United States, and is an enduring symbol of the country itself.[178]
There are 58 national parks and hundreds of other federally managed parks, forests, and wilderness areas.[179] Altogether, the government owns about 28% of the country's land area.[180] Most of this is protected, though some is leased for oil and gas drilling, mining, logging, or cattle ranching; about .86% is used for military purposes.[181][182]
Environmental issues have been on the national agenda since 1970. Environmental controversies include debates on oil and nuclear energy, dealing with air and water pollution, the economic costs of protecting wildlife, logging anddeforestation,[183][184] and international responses to global warming.[185][186] Many federal and state agencies are involved. The most prominent is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), created by presidential order in 1970.[187]The idea of wilderness has shaped the management of public lands since 1964, with the Wilderness Act.[188] The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is intended to protect threatened and endangered species and their habitats, which are monitored by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.[189]
Demographics
Main articles: Demographics of the United States, Americans, List of U.S. states by population density and List of United States cities by population
Population
| Race/Ethnicity (2013) | |
|---|---|
| By race:[190] | |
| White | 77.7% |
| African American | 13.2% |
| Asian | 5.3% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 1.2% |
| Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander | 0.2% |
| Multiracial (2 or more) | 2.4% |
| By ethnicity:[190] | |
| Hispanic/Latino (of any race) | 17.1% |
| Non-Hispanic/Latino (of any race) | 82.9% |
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the country's population now to be 320,670,000,[5] The U.S. population almost quadrupled during the 20th century, from about 76 million in 1900.[192] The third most populous nation in the world, after China and India, the United States is the only major industrialized nation in which large population increases are projected.[193]
The United States has a very diverse population; 37 ancestry groups have more than one million members.[194] German Americans are the largest ethnic group (more than 50 million) - followed byIrish Americans (circa 37 million), Mexican Americans (circa 31 million) and English Americans (circa 28 million).[195][196]
White Americans are the largest racial group; Black Americans are the nation's largest racial minority and third largest ancestry group.[194] Asian Americans are the country's second largest racial minority; the three largest Asian American ethnic groups are Chinese Americans, Filipino Americans, and Indian Americans.[194]
The United States has a birth rate of 13 per 1,000, which is 5 births below the world average.[197] Its population growth rate is positive at 0.7%, higher than that of many developed nations.[198] In fiscal year 2012, over one million immigrants (most of whom entered through family reunification) were granted legal residence.[199] Mexico has been the leading source of new residents since the1965 Immigration Act. China, India, and the Philippines have been in the top four sending countries every year since the 1990s.[200] As of 2012, approximately 11.4 million residents are illegal immigrants.[201]
According to a survey conducted by the Williams Institute, nine million Americans, or roughly 3.4% of the adult population identify themselves as homosexual, bisexual, or transgender.[202][203] A 2012 Gallup poll also concluded that 3.5% of adult Americans identified as LGBT. The highest percentage came from the District of Columbia (10%), while the lowest state was North Dakota at 1.7%.[204] In a 2013 survey, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 96.6% of Americans identify as straight, while 1.6% identify as gay or lesbian, and 0.7% identify as being bisexual.[205]
In 2010, the U.S. population included an estimated 5.2 million people with some American Indian or Alaska Native ancestry (2.9 million exclusively of such ancestry) and 1.2 million with some native Hawaiian or Pacific island ancestry (0.5 million exclusively).[206] The census counted more than 19 million people of "Some Other Race" who were "unable to identify with any" of its five official race categories in 2010.[206]
The population growth of Hispanic and Latino Americans (the terms are officially interchangeable) is a major demographic trend. The 50.5 million Americans of Hispanic descent[206] are identified as sharing a distinct "ethnicity" by the Census Bureau; 64% of Hispanic Americans are of Mexican descent.[207] Between 2000 and 2010, the country's Hispanic population increased 43% while the non-Hispanic population rose just 4.9%.[208] Much of this growth is from immigration; in 2007, 12.6% of the U.S. population was foreign-born, with 54% of that figure born in Latin America.[209]
Fertility is also a factor; in 2010 the average Hispanic (of any race) woman gave birth to 2.35 children in her lifetime, compared to 1.97 for non-Hispanic black women and 1.79 for non-Hispanic white women (both below thereplacement rate of 2.1).[210] Minorities (as defined by the Census Bureau as all those beside non-Hispanic, non-multiracial whites) constituted 36.3% of the population in 2010,[211] and over 50% of children under age one,[212]and are projected to constitute the majority by 2042.[213] This contradicts the report by the National Vital Statistics Reports, based on the U.S. census data, which concludes that 54% (2,162,406 out of 3,999,386 in 2010) of births were non-Hispanic white.[210]
About 82% of Americans live in urban areas (including suburbs);[6] about half of those reside in cities with populations over 50,000.[214] In 2008, 273 incorporated places had populations over 100,000, nine cities had more than one million residents, and four global cities had over two million (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston).[215] There are 52 metropolitan areas with populations greater than one million.[216] Of the 50 fastest-growing metro areas, 47 are in the West or South.[217] The metro areas of San Bernardino, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, and Phoenix all grew by more than a million people between 2000 and 2008.[216]
Language
| Language | Percent of population | Number of speakers |
|---|---|---|
| English (only) | 80% | 233,780,338 |
| Combined total of all languages other than English | 20% | 57,048,617 |
| Spanish (excluding Puerto Rico and Spanish Creole) | 12% | 35,437,985 |
| Chinese (including Cantonese and Mandarin) | 0.9% | 2,567,779 |
| Tagalog | 0.5% | 1,542,118 |
| Vietnamese | 0.4% | 1,292,448 |
| French | 0.4% | 1,288,833 |
| Korean | 0.4% | 1,108,408 |
| German | 0.4% | 1,107,869 |
Main article: Languages of the United States
See also: Language Spoken at Home in the United States of America and List of endangered languages in the United States
English (American English) is the de facto national language. Although there is no official language at the federal level, some laws—such as U.S. naturalization requirements—standardize English. In 2010, about 230 million, or 80% of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home. Spanish, spoken by 12% of the population at home, is the second most common language and the most widely taught second language.[219][220] Some Americans advocate making English the country's official language, as it is in 28 states.[13]
Both Hawaiian and English are official languages in Hawaii, by state law.[221] Alaska recognizes many Native languages.[222] While neither has an official language, New Mexico has laws providing for the use of both English and Spanish, as Louisiana does for English and French.[223] Other states, such as California, mandate the publication of Spanish versions of certain government documents including court forms.[224] Many jurisdictions with large numbers of non-English speakers produce government materials, especially voting information, in the most commonly spoken languages in those jurisdictions.
Several insular territories grant official recognition to their native languages, along with English: Samoan[225] and Chamorro[226] are recognized by American Samoa and Guam, respectively;Carolinian and Chamorro are recognized by the Northern Mariana Islands;[227] Cherokee is officially recognized by the Cherokee Nation within the Cherokee tribal jurisdiction area in eastern Oklahoma;[228] Spanish is an official language of Puerto Rico and is more widely spoken than English there.[229]
Religion
Main article: Religion in the United States
See also: History of religion in the United States, Freedom of religion in the United States, Separation of church and state in the United States and List of religious movements that began in the United States
| Affiliation | % of U.S. population | |
|---|---|---|
| Christian | 79 | |
| Evangelical Protestant | 26 | |
| Catholic | 24 | |
| Mainline Protestant | 18 | |
| Black Protestant | 7 | |
| Mormon | 1.7 | |
| Other Christian | 1.6 | |
| Judaism | 1.7 | |
| Buddhism | 0.7 | |
| Islam | 0.6 | |
| Hinduism | 0.4 | |
| Other faith | 1.2 | |
| Unaffiliated | 16 | |
| Don't know/refused answer | 0.8 | |
| Total | 100 | |
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion and forbids Congress from passing laws respecting its establishment. Christianity is by far the most common religion practiced in the U.S., but other religions are followed, too. In a 2013 survey, 56% of Americans said that religion played a "very important role in their lives", a far higher figure than that of any other wealthy nation.[231] In a 2009 Gallup poll 42% of Americans said that they attended church weekly or almost weekly; the figures ranged from a low of 23% in Vermont to a high of 63% in Mississippi.[232] As with other Western countries, the U.S. is becoming less religious. Irreligion is growing rapidly among Americans under 30.[233] Polls show that overall American confidence in organized religion is declining,[234] and that younger Americans in particular are becoming increasingly irreligious.[235]
According to a 2014 survey, 78.5% of adults identified themselves as Christian,[236] Protestant denominations accounted for 51.3%, while Roman Catholicism, at 23.9%, was the largest individual denomination.[237] The total reporting non-Christian religions in 2012 was 4.9%, up from 4% in 2007.[237] Other religions include Judaism (1.7%), Buddhism (0.7%), Islam(0.6%), Hinduism (0.4%), and Unitarian Universalism (0.3%).[237] The survey also reported that 16.1% of Americans described themselves as agnostic, atheist or simply having no religion, up from 8.2% in 1990.[237][238][239] There are alsoBaha'i, Sikh, Jain, Shinto, Confucian, Taoist, Druid, Native American, Wiccan, humanist and deist communities.[240]
Protestantism is the largest Christian religious grouping in the United States. Baptists collectively form the largest branch of Protestantism, and the Southern Baptist Convention is the largest individual Protestant denomination. About 26 percent of Americans identify as Evangelical Protestants, while 18 percent are Mainline and 7 percent belong to a traditionally Black church. Roman Catholicism in the United States has its origin in the Spanish and French colonization of the Americas, and later grew due to Irish, Italian, Polish, German and Hispanic immigration. Rhode Island is the only state where a majority of the population is Catholic. Lutheranism in the U.S. has its origin in immigration from Northern Europe. North and South Dakota are the only states in which a plurality of the population is Lutheran. Utah is the only state where Mormonism is the religion of the majority of the population. The Mormon Corridor also extends to parts of Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming.[241]
The Bible Belt is an informal term for a region in the Southern United States in which socially conservative Evangelical Protestantism is a significant part of the culture and Christian church attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation's average. By contrast, religion plays the least important role in New England and in the Western United States.[232]
Family structure
Main article: Family structure in the United States
See also: Anti-miscegenation laws in the United States, Same-sex marriage in the United States and Cousin marriage law in the United States by state
In 2007, 58% of Americans age 18 and over were married, 6% were widowed, 10% were divorced, and 25% had never been married.[242] Women now work mostly outside the home and receive a majority of bachelor's degrees.[243]
The U.S. teenage pregnancy rate, 79.8 per 1,000 women, is the highest among OECD nations.[244] Between 2007 and 2010, the highest teenage birth rate was in Mississippi, and the lowest in New Hampshire.[245] Abortion is legal throughout the U.S., owing to Roe v. Wade, a 1973 landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States. While the abortion rate is falling, the abortion ratio of 241 per 1,000 live births and abortion rate of 15 per 1,000 women aged 15–44 remain higher than those of most Western nations.[246] In 2011, the average age at first birth was 25.6 and 40.7% of births were to unmarried women.[247] The total fertility rate (TFR) was estimated for 2013 at 1.86 births per woman.[248] Adoption in the United States is common and relatively easy from a legal point of view (compared to other Western countries).[249] In 2001, with over 127,000 adoptions, the U.S. accounted for nearly half of the total number of adoptions worldwide.[250] The legal status of same-sex couples adopting varies by jurisdiction. Polygamy is illegal throughout the U.S.[251]
Government and politics
Main articles: Federal government of the United States, State governments of the United States, Local government in the United States and Elections in the United States
The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation. It is a constitutional republic and representative democracy, "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected bylaw".[252] The government is regulated by a system of checks and balances defined by the U.S. Constitution, which serves as the country's supreme legal document.[253] For 2013, the U.S. ranked 19th on the Democracy Index[254] and 17th on the Corruption Perceptions Index.[255]
In the American federalist system, citizens are usually subject to three levels of government: federal, state, and local. The local government's duties are commonly split between county andmunicipal governments. In almost all cases, executive and legislative officials are elected by a plurality vote of citizens by district. There is no proportional representation at the federal level, and it is very rare at lower levels.[256]
The federal government is composed of three branches:
- Legislative: The bicameral Congress, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, makes federal law, declares war, approves treaties, has the power of the purse,[257] and has the power of impeachment, by which it can remove sitting members of the government.[258]
- Executive: The President is the commander-in-chief of the military, can veto legislative bills before they become law (subject to Congressional override), and appoints the members of the Cabinet(subject to Senate approval) and other officers, who administer and enforce federal laws and policies.[259]
- Judicial: The Supreme Court and lower federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the President with Senate approval, interpret laws and overturn those they find unconstitutional.[260]
The House of Representatives has 435 voting members, each representing a congressional district for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population every tenth year. At the2010 census, seven states had the minimum of one representative, while California, the most populous state, had 53.[261]
The Senate has 100 members with each state having two senators, elected at-large to six-year terms; one third of Senate seats are up for election every other year. The President serves a four-year term and may be elected to the office no more than twice. The President is not elected by direct vote, but by an indirect electoral college system in which the determining votes are apportioned to the states and the District of Columbia.[262] The Supreme Court, led by the Chief Justice of the United States, has nine members, who serve for life.[263]
The state governments are structured in roughly similar fashion; Nebraska uniquely has a unicameral legislature.[264] The governor (chief executive) of each state is directly elected. Some state judges and cabinet officers are appointed by the governors of the respective states, while others are elected by popular vote.
The original text of the Constitution establishes the structure and responsibilities of the federal government and its relationship with the individual states. Article One protects the right to the "great writ" ofhabeas corpus. The Constitution has been amended 27 times;[265] the first ten amendments, which make up the Bill of Rights, and the Fourteenth Amendment form the central basis of Americans' individual rights. All laws and governmental procedures are subject to judicial review and any law ruled by the courts to be in violation of the Constitution is voided. The principle of judicial review, not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, was established by the Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison (1803)[266] in a decision handed down by Chief Justice John Marshall.[267]
Political divisions
Main articles: Political divisions of the United States, U.S. state, Territories of the United States and List of states and territories of the United States
Further information: Territorial evolution of the United States and United States territorial acquisitions
The United States is a federal union of 50 states. The original 13 states were the successors of the 13 colonies that rebelled against British rule. Early in the country's history, three new states were organized on territory separated from the claims of the existing states: Kentucky from Virginia; Tennessee from North Carolina; and Maine from Massachusetts. Most of the other states have been carved from territories obtained through war or purchase by the U.S. government. One set of exceptions includes Vermont, Texas, and Hawaii: each was a well-established independent republic before joining the union. During the American Civil War, West Virginia broke away from Virginia. The most recent state—Hawaii—achieved statehood on August 21, 1959.[268] The states do not have the right to unilaterally secede from the union.[269]
The states compose the vast bulk of the U.S. land mass. The District of Columbia is a federal district which contains the capital of the United States, Washington, D.C. The United States also possesses five major overseas territories: Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands in the Caribbean; and American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific.[270] Those born in the major territories are birthright U.S. citizens except Samoans. Samoans born in American Samoa are born U.S. nationals, and may become naturalized citizens.[271] American citizens residing in the territories have fundamental constitutional protections and elective self-government, with a territorial Member of Congress, but they do not vote for president as states. Territories have personal and business tax regimes different from that of states.[272]
The United States also observes tribal sovereignty of the Native Nations. Though reservations are within state borders, the reservation is a sovereign entity. While the United States recognizes this sovereignty, other countries may not.
Within American political culture, the Republican Party is considered center-right or conservative and the Democratic Party is considered center-left or liberal.[276] The states of the Northeast and West Coast and some of the Great Lakes states, known as "blue states", are relatively liberal. The "red states" of the South and parts of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains are relatively conservative.The United States has operated under a two-party system for most of its history.[274] For elective offices at most levels, state-administered primary elections choose the major party nominees for subsequent general elections. Since the general election of 1856, the major parties have been the Democratic Party, founded in 1824, and the Republican Party, founded in 1854. Since the Civil War, only one third-party presidential candidate—former president Theodore Roosevelt, running as a Progressive in 1912—has won as much as 20% of the popular vote. The third-largest political party is the Libertarian Party. The President and Vice-president are elected through theElectoral College system.[275]
The winner of the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, Democrat Barack Obama, is the 44th, and current, U.S. president.
In the 114th United States Congress, both the House of Representatives and the Senate are controlled by the Republican Party. The Senate currently consists of 54 Republicans, and 44 Democrats with two independents who caucus with the Democrats; the House consists of 246 Republicans and 188 Democrats, with one vacancy.[277] In state governorships, there are 31 Republicans, 18 Democrats and one independent.[278] Among the DC mayor and the 5 territorial governors, there are 2 Republicans, 2 Democrats (one is also in the PPD), and 2 Independents.[279]
Since the founding of the United States until the 2000s, the country's governance has been primarily dominated by White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs). However, the situation has changed recently and of the top 17 positions (four national candidates of the two major party in the 2012 presidential election, four leaders in 112th United States Congress, and nine Supreme Court Justices) there is only one WASP.[280][281][282]
Foreign relations
Main articles: Foreign relations of the United States and Foreign policy of the United States
The United States has an established structure of foreign relations. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and New York City is home to the United Nations Headquarters. It is a member of theG7,[283] G20, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Almost all countries have embassies in Washington, D.C., and many have consulates around the country. Likewise, nearly all nations host American diplomatic missions. However, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Bhutan, and the Republic of China (Taiwan) do not have formal diplomatic relations with the United States (although the U.S. still supplies Taiwan with military equipment).[284]
The United States has a "special relationship" with the United Kingdom[285] and strong ties with Canada,[286] Australia,[287] New Zealand,[288] the Philippines,[289] Japan,[290] South Korea,[291] Israel,[292] and several European Union countries, including France, Italy, Germany, and Spain. It works closely with fellow NATO members on military and security issues and with its neighbors through the Organization of American States and free trade agreements such as the trilateral North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. In 2008, the United States spent a net $25.4 billion on official development assistance, the most in the world. As a share of America's large gross national income (GNI), however, the U.S. contribution of 0.18% ranked last among 22 donor states. By contrast, private overseas giving by Americans is relatively generous.[293]
The U.S. exercises full international defense authority and responsibility for three sovereign nations through Compact of Free Association with Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau, all of which are Pacific island nations which were part of the U.S.-administered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands beginning after World War II, and gained independence in subsequent years.[294]
Government finance
See also: Taxation in the United States and United States federal budget
Taxes are levied in the United States at the federal, state and local government level. These include taxes on income, payroll, property, sales, imports, estates and gifts, as well as various fees. In 2010 taxes collected by federal, state and municipal governments amounted to 24.8% of GDP.[295] During FY2012, the federal government collected approximately $2.45 trillion in tax revenue, up $147 billion or 6% versus FY2011 revenues of $2.30 trillion. Primary receipt categories included individual income taxes ($1,132B or 47%), Social Security/Social Insurance taxes ($845B or 35%), and corporate taxes ($242B or 10%).[296]
U.S. taxation is generally progressive, especially the federal income taxes, and is among the most progressive in the developed world,[297] but the incidence of corporate income tax has been a matter of considerable ongoing controversy for decades.[298][299] In 2009 the top 10% of earners, with 36% of the nation's income, paid 78.2% of the federal personal income tax burden, while the bottom 40% had a negative liability.[300] However, payroll taxes for Social Security are a flat regressive tax, with no tax charged on income above $113,700 and no tax at all paid on unearned income from things such as stocks and capital gains.[301][302] The historic reasoning for the regressive nature of the payroll tax is that entitlement programs have not been viewed as welfare transfers.[303][304] The top 10% paid 51.8% of total federal taxes in 2009, and the top 1%, with 13.4% of pre-tax national income, paid 22.3% of federal taxes.[300] In 2013 the Tax Policy Center projected total federal effective tax rates of 35.5% for the top 1%, 27.2% for the top quintile, 13.8% for the middle quintile, and −2.7% for the bottom quintile.[305][306] State and local taxes vary widely, but are generally less progressive than federal taxes as they rely heavily on broadly borne regressive sales and property taxes that yield less volatile revenue streams, though their consideration does not eliminate the progressive nature of overall taxation.[299][307]
During FY 2012, the federal government spent $3.54 trillion on a budget or cash basis, down $60 billion or 1.7% vs. FY 2011 spending of $3.60 trillion. Major categories of FY 2012 spending included: Medicare & Medicaid ($802B or 23% of spending), Social Security ($768B or 22%), Defense Department ($670B or 19%), non-defense discretionary ($615B or 17%), other mandatory ($461B or 13%) and interest ($223B or 6%).[296]
National debt
Main article: National debt of the United States
The total national debt in the United States was $18.527 trillion (106% of the GDP), according to an estimate for 2014 by the International Monetary Fund.[308] In January 2015, U.S. federal government debt held by the public was approximately $13 trillion, or about 72% of U.S. GDP. Intra-governmental holdings stood at $5 trillion, giving a combined total debt of $18.080 trillion.[309][310] By 2012, total federal debt had surpassed 100% of U.S. GDP.[311] The U.S. has a credit rating of AA+ from Standard & Poor's, AAA from Fitch, and Aaa from Moody's.[312]
Historically, the U.S. public debt as a share of GDP increased during wars and recessions, and subsequently declined. For example, debt held by the public as a share of GDP peaked just after World War II (113% of GDP in 1945), but then fell over the following 30 years. In recent decades, large budget deficits and the resulting increases in debt have led to concern about the long-term sustainability of the federal government's fiscal policies.[313] However, these concerns are not universally shared.
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