Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 14:34, 19 September 2009

United States of America
Flag Great Seal
Motto: In God We Trust  (official) Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)  (Latin; traditional) (Out of Many, One)
Anthem: "The Star-Spangled Banner"
Capital	Washington, D.C.
Largest city	New York City
Official languages	None at federal level
National language	English (de facto)
Demonym(s)	American
Government	Federal constitutional republic
• President	Barack Obama (D)
• Vice President	Joe Biden (D)
• Speaker of the House	Nancy Pelosi (D)
• Chief Justice	John Roberts
Independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain
• Declared	July 4, 1776
• Recognized	September 3, 1783
• Current constitution	June 21, 1788
Area
• Total	9,826,630 km (3,794,080 sq mi) (3rd/4th)
• Water (%)	6.76
Population
• 2024 estimate	338,968,000 (3rd)
• 2000 census	281,421,906
• Density	31/km (80.3/sq mi) (180th)
GDP (PPP)	2008 estimate
• Total	$14.264 trillion (1st)
• Per capita	$46,859 (6th)
GDP (nominal)	2008 estimate
• Total	$14.264 trillion (1st)
• Per capita	$46,859 (17th)
Gini (2007)	45.0 Error: Invalid Gini value (38th)
HDI (2006)	0.950 Error: Invalid HDI value (15th)
Currency	United States dollar ($) (USD)
Time zone	UTC-5 to -10
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 to -10
Drives on	Right
Calling code	+1
ISO 3166 code	US
Internet TLD	.us .gov .mil .edu
English is the official language of at least 28 states—some sources give a higher figure, based on differing definitions of "official". English and Hawaiian are both official languages in the state of Hawaii. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 81% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language. Whether the United States or the People's Republic of China is larger is disputed. The figure given is from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's 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. The population estimate includes people whose usual residence is in the fifty states and the District of Columbia, including noncitizens. It does not include either those living in the territories, amounting to more than 4 million U.S. citizens (most in Puerto Rico), or U.S. citizens living outside the United States.

The United States of America (commonly referred to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, or America) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to its east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories, or insular areas, in the Caribbean and Pacific.

At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km) and with about 307 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by land area and population. The United States is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the largest national economy in the world, with an estimated 2008 gross domestic product (GDP) of US $14.3 trillion (23% of the world total based on nominal GDP and almost 21% at purchasing power parity).

The nation was founded by thirteen colonies of Great Britain located along the Atlantic seaboard. On July 4, 1776, they issued the Declaration of Independence, which proclaimed their independence from Great Britain and their formation of a cooperative union. The rebellious states defeated Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, the first successful colonial war of independence. The Philadelphia Convention adopted the current United States Constitution on September 17, 1787; its ratification the following year made the states part of a single republic with a strong central government. The Bill of Rights, comprising ten constitutional amendments guaranteeing many fundamental civil rights and freedoms, was ratified in 1791.

In the 19th century, the United States acquired land from France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Russia, and annexed the Republic of Texas and the Republic of Hawaii. Disputes between the agrarian South and industrial North over states' rights and the expansion of the institution of slavery provoked the American Civil War of the 1860s. The North's victory prevented a permanent split of the country and led to the end of legal slavery in the United States. By the 1870s, the national economy was the world's largest. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a military power. In 1945, the United States emerged from World War II as the first country with nuclear weapons, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and a founding member of NATO. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union left the United States as the sole superpower. The country accounts for approximately 50% of global military spending and is a leading economic, political and cultural force in the world.

Etymology

In 1507, German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere "America" after Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci. The former British colonies first used the country's modern name in the Declaration of Independence, which was the "unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America" adopted by the "Representatives of the united States of America" on July 4, 1776. The current name was finalized on November 15, 1777, when the Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, the first of which states, "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be 'The United States of America.'" 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 the States. Columbia, a once popular name for the United States, was derived from Christopher Columbus. It appears in the name "District of Columbia".

The standard way to refer to a citizen of the United States is as an American. Though United States is the formal adjective, American and U.S. are the most common adjectives used to refer to the country ("American values," "U.S. forces"). American is rarely used in English to refer to people not connected to the United States.

The phrase "the United States" was originally treated as plural—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—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."

Geography, climate, and environment

The total land area of the contiguous United States is approximately 1.9 billion acres. Alaska, separated from the contiguous United States by Canada, is the largest state at 365 million acres. Hawaii, occupying an archipelago in the central Pacific, southwest of North America, has just over 4 million acres. After Russia and Canada, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest nation by total area, ranking 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 calculated: the CIA World Factbook gives 3,794,083 sq mi (9,826,630 km), the United Nations Statistics Division gives 3,717,813 sq mi (9,629,091 km), and the Encyclopedia Britannica gives 3,676,486 sq mi (9,522,055 km). Including only land area, the United States is third in size behind Russia and China, just ahead of Canada.

The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way further inland to deciduous forests and the rolling hills of the Piedmont. The Appalachian Mountains divide the eastern seaboard from the Great Lakes and the grasslands of the Midwest. 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. 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 (4,300 m) in Colorado. Farther west are the rocky Great Basin and deserts such as the Mojave. The Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges run close to the Pacific coast. At 20,320 feet (6,194 m), Alaska's Mount McKinley is the country's tallest peak. Active volcanoes are common throughout Alaska's Alexander 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.

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. The southern tip of Florida is tropical, as is Hawaii. The Great Plains west of the 100th meridian are semi-arid. Much of the Western mountains are alpine. The climate is arid in the Great Basin, desert in the Southwest, Mediterranean in coastal California, and oceanic in coastal Oregon and Washington 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 the Midwest's Tornado Alley.

The U.S. ecology is considered "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. The United States is home to more than 400 mammal, 750 bird, and 500 reptile and amphibian species. About 91,000 insect species have been described. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 protects threatened and endangered species and their habitats, which are monitored by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. There are fifty-eight national parks and hundreds of other federally managed parks, forests, and wilderness areas. Altogether, the government owns 28.8% of the country's land area. Most of this is protected, though some is leased for oil and gas drilling, mining, logging, or cattle ranching; 2.4% is used for military purposes.

History

Native Americans and European settlers

The indigenous peoples of the U.S. mainland, including Alaska Natives, are believed to have migrated from Asia. They began arriving at least 12,000 and as many as 40,000 years ago. Some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture, developed advanced agriculture, grand architecture, and state-level societies. After Europeans began settling the Americas, many millions of indigenous Americans died from epidemics of imported diseases such as smallpox.

In 1492, Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus, under contract to the Spanish crown, reached several Caribbean islands, making first contact with the indigenous people. On April 2, 1513, Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León landed on what he called "La Florida"—the first documented European arrival on what would become the U.S. mainland. Spanish settlements in the region were followed by ones in the present-day southwestern United States that drew thousands through Mexico. French fur traders established outposts of New France around the Great Lakes; France eventually claimed much of the North American interior, down to the Gulf of Mexico. The first successful English settlements were the Virginia Colony in Jamestown in 1607 and the Pilgrims' Plymouth Colony in 1620. The 1628 chartering of the Massachusetts Bay Colony resulted in a wave of migration; by 1634, New England had been settled by some 10,000 Puritans. Between the late 1610s and the American Revolution, about 50,000 convicts were shipped to Britain's American colonies. Beginning in 1614, the Dutch settled along the lower Hudson River, including New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island.

In 1674, the Dutch ceded their American territory to England; the province of New Netherland was renamed New York. Many new immigrants, especially to the South, were indentured servants—some two-thirds of all Virginia immigrants between 1630 and 1680. By the turn of the century, African slaves were becoming the primary source of bonded labor. With the 1729 division of the Carolinas and the 1732 colonization of Georgia, the thirteen British colonies that would become the United States of America were established. 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. All legalized the African slave trade. With high birth rates, low death rates, and steady immigration, the colonial population grew rapidly. The Christian revivalist movement of the 1730s and 1740s known as the Great Awakening fueled interest in both religion and religious liberty. 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 (popularly known as "American Indians"), who were being displaced, those thirteen colonies had a population of 2.6 million in 1770, about one-third that of Britain; nearly one in five Americans were black slaves. Though subject to British taxation, the American colonials had no representation in the Parliament of Great Britain.

Independence and expansion

Tensions between American colonials and the British during the revolutionary period of the 1760s and early 1770s led to the American Revolutionary War, fought from 1775 through 1781. On June 14, 1775, the Continental Congress, convening in Philadelphia, established a Continental Army under the command of George Washington. Proclaiming that "all men are created equal" and endowed with "certain unalienable Rights," the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, drafted largely by Thomas Jefferson, on July 4, 1776. That date is now celebrated annually as America's Independence Day. In 1777, the Articles of Confederation established a weak federal government that operated until 1789.

After the British defeat by American forces assisted by the French, Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States and the states' sovereignty over American territory west to the Mississippi River. A constitutional convention was organized in 1787 by those wishing to establish a strong national government, with powers of taxation. The United States Constitution was ratified in 1788, and the new republic's first Senate, House of Representatives, and president—George Washington—took office in 1789. The Bill of Rights, forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and guaranteeing a range of legal protections, was adopted in 1791.

Attitudes toward slavery were shifting; a clause in the Constitution protected the African slave trade only until 1808. The Northern states abolished slavery between 1780 and 1804, leaving the slave states of the South as defenders of the "peculiar institution." The Second Great Awakening, beginning about 1800, made evangelicalism a force behind various social reform movements, including abolitionism.

Americans' eagerness to expand westward prompted a long series of Indian Wars and an Indian removal policy that stripped the native peoples of their land. The Louisiana Purchase of French-claimed territory under President Thomas Jefferson in 1803 almost doubled the nation's size. The War of 1812, declared against Britain over various grievances and fought to a draw, strengthened U.S. nationalism. A series of U.S. military incursions into Florida led Spain to cede it and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819. The United States annexed the Republic of Texas in 1845. The concept of Manifest Destiny was popularized during this time. The 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest. The U.S. victory in the Mexican–American War resulted in the 1848 cession of California and much of the present-day American Southwest. The California Gold Rush of 1848–49 further spurred western migration. New railways made relocation easier for settlers and increased conflicts with Native Americans. Over a half-century, up to 40 million American bison, or buffalo, were slaughtered for skins and meat and to ease the railways' spread. The loss of the buffalo, a primary resource for the plains Indians, was an existential blow to many native cultures.

Civil War and industrialization

Tensions between slave and free states mounted with arguments over the relationship between the state and federal governments, as well as violent conflicts over the spread of slavery into new states. Abraham Lincoln, candidate of the largely antislavery Republican Party, was elected president in 1860. Before he took office, seven slave states declared their secession—which the federal government maintained was illegal—and formed the Confederate States of America. With the Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter, the American Civil War began and four more slave states joined the Confederacy. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation committed the Union to ending slavery. Following the Union victory in 1865, three amendments to the U.S. Constitution ensured freedom for the nearly four million African Americans who had been slaves, made them citizens, and gave them voting rights. The war and its resolution led to a substantial increase in federal power.

After the war, the assassination of Lincoln radicalized Republican Reconstruction policies aimed at reintegrating and rebuilding the Southern states while ensuring the rights of the newly freed slaves. The resolution of the disputed 1876 presidential election by the Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction; Jim Crow laws soon disenfranchised many African Americans. In the North, urbanization and an unprecedented influx of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe hastened the country's industrialization. The wave of immigration, lasting until 1929, provided labor and transformed American culture. National infrastructure development spurred economic growth. The 1867 Alaska purchase from Russia completed the country's mainland expansion. The Wounded Knee massacre in 1890 was the last major armed conflict of the Indian Wars. In 1893, the indigenous monarchy of the Pacific Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown in a coup led by American residents; the United States annexed the archipelago in 1898. Victory in the Spanish–American War the same year demonstrated that the United States was a world power and led to the annexation of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The Philippines gained independence a half-century later; Puerto Rico and Guam remain U.S. territories.

World War I, Great Depression, and World War II

At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the United States remained neutral. Most Americans sympathized with the British and French, although many opposed intervention. In 1917, the United States joined the Allies, turning the tide against the Central Powers. After the war, the Senate did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles, which established the League of Nations. The country pursued a policy of unilateralism, verging on isolationism. In 1920, the women's rights movement won passage of a constitutional amendment granting women's suffrage. The prosperity of the Roaring Twenties ended with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 that triggered the Great Depression. After his election as president in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the New Deal, a range of policies increasing government intervention in the economy. The Dust Bowl of the mid-1930s impoverished many farming communities and spurred a new wave of western migration.

The United States, effectively neutral during World War II's early stages after Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland in September 1939, began supplying materiel to the Allies in March 1941 through the Lend-Lease program. On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, prompting the United States to join the Allies against the Axis powers. Participation in the war spurred capital investment and industrial capacity. Among the major combatants, the United States was the only nation to become richer—indeed, far richer—instead of poorer because of the war. 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 victory was won in Europe, a 1945 international conference held in San Francisco produced the United Nations Charter, which became active after the war. The United States, having developed the first nuclear weapons, used them on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August. Japan surrendered on September 2, ending the war.

Cold War and protest politics

The United States and Soviet Union jockeyed for power after World War II during the Cold War, dominating the military affairs of Europe through NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The United States promoted liberal democracy and capitalism, while the Soviet Union promoted communism and a centrally planned economy. Both supported dictatorships and engaged in proxy wars. American troops fought Communist Chinese forces in the Korean War of 1950–53. The House Un-American Activities Committee pursued a series of investigations into suspected leftist subversion, while Senator Joseph McCarthy became the figurehead of anticommunist sentiment.

The 1961 Soviet launch of the first manned spaceflight prompted President John F. Kennedy's call for the United States to be first to land "a man on the moon," achieved in 1969. Kennedy also faced a tense nuclear showdown with Soviet forces in Cuba. Meanwhile, the United States experienced sustained economic expansion. A growing civil rights movement, led by African Americans such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., fought segregation and discrimination. Following Kennedy's assassination in 1963, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed under President Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson and his successor, Richard Nixon, expanded a proxy war in Southeast Asia into the unsuccessful Vietnam War. A widespread countercultural movement grew, fueled by opposition to the war, black nationalism, and the sexual revolution. Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, and others led a new wave of feminism that sought political, social, and economic equality for women.

As a result of the Watergate scandal, in 1974 Nixon became the first U.S. president to resign, to avoid being impeached on charges including obstruction of justice and abuse of power; he was succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford. The Jimmy Carter administration of the late 1970s was marked by stagflation and the Iran hostage crisis. The election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980 heralded a rightward shift in American politics, reflected in major changes in taxation and spending priorities. His second term in office brought both the Iran-Contra scandal and significant diplomatic progress with the Soviet Union. The subsequent Soviet collapse ended the Cold War.

Contemporary era

The leadership role taken by the United States and its allies in the UN–sanctioned Gulf War, under President George Herbert Walker Bush, and the Yugoslav wars, under President Bill Clinton, helped to preserve its position as a superpower. The longest economic expansion in modern U.S. history—from March 1991 to March 2001—encompassed the Clinton administration and the dot-com bubble. A civil lawsuit and sex scandal led to Clinton's impeachment in 1998, but he remained in office. The 2000 presidential election, one of the closest in U.S. history, was resolved by a U.S. Supreme Court decision—George W. Bush, son of George H. W. Bush, became president.

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 three thousand people. In response, the Bush administration launched a "War on Terrorism". In late 2001, U.S. forces led an invasion of Afghanistan, removing the Taliban government and al-Qaeda training camps. Taliban insurgents continue to fight a guerrilla war. In 2002, the Bush administration began to press for regime change in Iraq on controversial grounds. Lacking the support of NATO or an explicit UN mandate for military intervention, Bush organized a Coalition of the Willing; coalition forces preemptively invaded Iraq in 2003, removing dictator and former U.S. ally Saddam Hussein. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused severe destruction along much of the Gulf Coast, devastating New Orleans. On November 4, 2008, amid a global economic recession, Barack Obama was elected president. He is the first African American to hold the office.

Government and elections

The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation. It is a constitutional republic, "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law." It is fundamentally structured as a representative democracy, though U.S. citizens residing in the territories are excluded from voting for federal officials. 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. 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 and municipal 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. Federal and state judicial and cabinet officials are typically nominated by the executive branch and approved by the legislature, although some state judges and officials are elected by popular vote.

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, and has the power of impeachment, by which it can remove sitting members of the government.
• Executive: The president is the commander-in-chief of the military, can veto legislative bills before they become law, and appoints the Cabinet and other officers, who administer and enforce federal laws and policies.
• 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.

The House of Representatives has 435 members, each representing a congressional district for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population every tenth year. As of the 2000 census, seven states have the minimum of one representative, while California, the most populous state, has fifty-three. 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 by state. The Supreme Court, led by the Chief Justice of the United States, has nine members, who serve for life. The state governments are structured in roughly similar fashion; Nebraska uniquely has a unicameral legislature. The governor (chief executive) of each state is directly elected.

All laws and procedures of both state and federal governments are subject to review, and any law ruled in violation of the Constitution by the judiciary is voided. 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" of habeas corpus, and Article Three guarantees the right to a jury trial in all criminal cases. Amendments to the Constitution require the approval of three-fourths of the states. The Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times; the first ten amendments, which make up the Bill of Rights, and the Fourteenth Amendment form the central basis of Americans' individual rights.

Parties, ideology, and politics

The United States has operated under a two-party system for most of its history. For elective offices at all 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.

Within American political culture, the Republican Party is considered center-right or "conservative" and the Democratic Party is considered center-left or "liberal". 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 winner of the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama, is the 44th U.S. president and the first African American to hold the office. All previous presidents were men of solely European descent. The 2008 elections also saw the Democratic Party strengthen its control of both the House and the Senate. In the 111th United States Congress, the Senate comprises 57 Democrats, two independents who caucus with the Democrats, and 40 Republicans (one seat is vacant); the House comprises 256 Democrats and 178 Republicans (one seat is vacant).

Political divisions

The United States is a federal union of fifty states. The original thirteen states were the successors of the thirteen colonies that rebelled against British rule. Most of the rest have been carved from territory obtained through war or purchase by the U.S. government. One set of exceptions comprises Vermont, Texas, and Hawaii: each was an independent republic before joining the union. Another set of exceptions comprises those states created out of the territory of the original thirteen. Early in the country's history, three states were created in this manner: Kentucky from Virginia; Tennessee from North Carolina; and Maine from Massachusetts. During the American Civil War, West Virginia broke away from Virginia. The most recent state—Hawaii—achieved statehood on August 21, 1959. The states do not have the right to secede from the union.

The states compose the vast bulk of the U.S. land mass; the two other areas considered integral parts of the country are the District of Columbia, the federal district where the capital, Washington, is located; and Palmyra Atoll, an uninhabited but incorporated territory in the Pacific Ocean. 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. Those born in the territories (except for American Samoa) possess U.S. citizenship.

Foreign relations and military

The United States exercises global economic, political, and military influence. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and New York City hosts the United Nations Headquarters. 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, Sudan, and the Republic of China (Taiwan) do not have formal diplomatic relations with the United States.

The United States enjoys a special relationship with the United Kingdom and strong ties with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Israel, and fellow NATO members. It also works closely 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 2005, the United States spent $27 billion on official development assistance, the most in the world. However, as a share of gross national income (GNI), the U.S. contribution of 0.22% ranked twentieth of twenty-two donor states. Nongovernmental sources such as private foundations, corporations, and educational and religious institutions donated $96 billion. The combined total of $123 billion is also the most in the world and seventh as a percentage of GNI.

The president holds the title of commander-in-chief of the nation's armed forces and appoints its leaders, the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The United States Department of Defense administers the armed forces, including the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force. The Coast Guard is run by the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime and the Department of the Navy in time of war. In 2005, the military had 1.38 million personnel on active duty, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the National Guard for a total of 2.3 million troops. The Department of Defense also employs about 700,000 civilians, not including contractors. Military service is voluntary, though conscription may occur in wartime through the Selective Service System. American forces can be rapidly deployed by the Air Force's large fleet of transport aircraft and aerial refueling tankers, the Navy's fleet of eleven active aircraft carriers, and Marine Expeditionary Units at sea in the Navy's Atlantic and Pacific fleets. Outside of the United States, the military is deployed to 770 bases and facilities, on every continent except Antarctica. The extent of this global military presence has prompted some scholars to describe the United States as maintaining an "empire of bases."

Total U.S. military spending in 2006, over $528 billion, was 46% of global military spending and greater than the next fourteen largest national military expenditures combined. (In purchasing power parity terms, it was larger than the next six such expenditures combined.) The per capita spending of $1,756 was about ten times the world average. At 4.06% of GDP, U.S. military spending is ranked 27th out of 172 nations. The proposed base Department of Defense budget for 2009, $515.4 billion, is a 7% increase over 2008 and a nearly 74% increase over 2001. The cost of the Iraq War to the United States has been estimated to reach $2.7 trillion. As of May 3, 2009, the United States had suffered 4,284 military fatalities during the war and over 31,000 wounded.

Economy

The United States has a capitalist mixed economy, which is fueled by abundant natural resources, a well-developed infrastructure, and high productivity. According to the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. GDP of $14.3 trillion constitutes 23% of the gross world product at market exchange rates and almost 21% of the gross world product at purchasing power parity (PPP). The largest national GDP in the world, it was about 4% less than the combined GDP of the European Union at PPP in 2007. The country ranks seventeenth in the world in nominal GDP per capita and sixth in GDP per capita at PPP. The United States is the largest importer of goods and third largest exporter, though exports per capita are relatively low. Canada, China, Mexico, Japan, and Germany are its top trading partners. The leading export commodity is electrical machinery, while vehicles constitute the leading import. The United States has slipped down from previous first position of the overall ranking in the Global Competitiveness Report to second place. Switzerland now tops the list. After an expansion that lasted just over six years, the U.S. economy has been in recession since December 2007.

In 2009, the private sector is estimated to constitute 55.3% of the economy, with federal government activity accounting for 24.1% and state and local government activity (including federal transfers) the remaining 20.6%. The economy is postindustrial, with the service sector contributing 67.8% of GDP. The leading business field by gross business receipts is wholesale and retail trade; by net income it is finance and insurance. The United States remains an industrial power, with chemical products the leading manufacturing field. The United States is the third largest producer of oil in the world, as well as its largest importer. It is the world's number one producer of electrical and nuclear energy, as well as liquid natural gas, sulfur, phosphates, and salt. While agriculture accounts for just under 1% of GDP, the United States is the world's top producer of corn and soybeans. The New York Stock Exchange is the world's largest by dollar volume. Coca-Cola and McDonald's are the two most recognized brands in the world.

In 2005, 155 million persons were employed with earnings, of whom 80% had full-time jobs. The majority, 79%, were employed in the service sector. With about 15.5 million people, health care and social assistance is the leading field of employment. About 12% of workers are unionized, compared to 30% in Western Europe. The World Bank ranks the United States first in the ease of hiring and firing workers. Between 1973 and 2003, a year's work for the average American grew by 199 hours. Partly as a result, the United States maintains the highest labor productivity in the world. However, it no longer leads in productivity per hour as it did from the 1950s through the early 1990s; workers in Norway, France, Belgium and Luxembourg are now more productive per hour. Compared to Europe, U.S. property and corporate income tax rates are generally higher, while labor and, particularly, consumption tax rates are lower.

Income and human development

According to the United States Census Bureau, the pretax median household income in 2007 was $50,233. The median ranged from $68,080 in Maryland to $36,338 in Mississippi. Using purchasing power parity exchange rates, the overall median is similar to the most affluent cluster of developed nations. After declining sharply during the middle of the 20th century, poverty rates have plateaued since the early 1970s, with 11–15% of Americans below the poverty line every year, and 58.5% spending at least one year in poverty between the ages of 25 and 75. In 2007, 37.3 million Americans lived in poverty. The U.S. welfare state is now among the most austere in the developed world, reducing both relative poverty and absolute poverty by considerably less than the mean for rich nations. While the American welfare state does well in reducing poverty among the elderly, the young receive relatively little assistance. A 2007 UNICEF study of children's well-being in twenty-one industrialized nations ranked the United States next to last.

Despite strong increases in productivity, low unemployment, and low inflation, income gains since 1980 have been slower than in previous decades, less widely shared, and accompanied by increased economic insecurity. Between 1947 and 1979, real median income rose by over 80% for all classes, with the incomes of poor Americans rising faster than those of the rich. Median household income has increased for all classes since 1980, largely owing to more dual-earner households, the closing of the gender gap, and longer work hours, but growth has been slower and strongly tilted toward the very top (see graph). Consequently, the share of income of the top 1%—21.8% of total reported income in 2005—has more than doubled since 1980, leaving the United States with the greatest income inequality among developed nations. The top 1% pays 27.6% of all federal taxes; the top 10% pays 54.7%. Wealth, like income, is highly concentrated: The richest 10% of the adult population possesses 69.8% of the country's household wealth, the second-highest share among developed nations. The top 1% possesses 33.4% of net wealth.

Science and technology

The United States has been a leader in scientific research and technological innovation since the late 19th century. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone. Thomas Edison's laboratory developed the phonograph, the first long-lasting light bulb, and the first viable movie camera. Nikola Tesla pioneered alternating current, the AC motor, and radio. In the early 20th century, the automobile companies of Ransom E. Olds and Henry Ford promoted the assembly line. The Wright brothers, in 1903, made the first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight. The rise of Nazism in the 1930s led many European scientists, including Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi, to immigrate to the United States. During World War II, the Manhattan Project developed nuclear weapons, ushering in the Atomic Age. The Space Race produced rapid advances in rocketry, materials science, and computers. The United States largely developed the ARPANET and its successor, the Internet. Today, the bulk of research and development funding, 64%, comes from the private sector. The United States leads the world in scientific research papers and impact factor. Americans possess high levels of technological consumer goods, and almost half of U.S. households have broadband Internet access. The country is the primary developer and grower of genetically modified food; more than half of the world's land planted with biotech crops is in the United States.

Transportation

Everyday personal transportation in America is dominated by the automobile. As of 2003, there were 759 automobiles per 1,000 Americans, compared to 472 per 1,000 inhabitants of the European Union the following year. About 40% of personal vehicles are vans, SUVs, or light trucks. The average American adult (accounting for all drivers and nondrivers) spends 55 minutes driving every day, traveling 29 miles (47 km). The civil airline industry is entirely privatized, while most major airports are publicly owned. The four largest airlines in the world by passengers carried are American; Southwest Airlines is number one. Of the world's thirty busiest passenger airports, sixteen are in the United States, including the busiest. While transport of goods by rail is extensive, relatively few people use rail to travel, within or between cities. Only 9% of total U.S. work trips use mass transit, compared to 38.8% in Europe. Bicycle usage is minimal, well below European levels.

Energy

The United States energy market is 29,000 terawatt hours per year. Energy consumption per capita is 7.8 tons of oil equivalent per year, compared to Germany's 4.2 tons and Canada's 8.3 tons. In 2005, 40% of this energy came from petroleum, 23% from coal, and 22% from natural gas. The remainder was supplied by nuclear power and renewable energy sources. The United States is the world's largest consumer of petroleum. For decades, nuclear power has played a limited role relative to many other developed countries. In 2007, several applications for new nuclear plants were filed.

Demographics

The United States population is projected by the U.S. Census Bureau to be 338,968,000, including an estimated 11.2 million illegal immigrants. The United States is the third most populous nation in the world, after China and India. Its population growth rate is 0.89%, compared to the European Union's 0.16%. The birth rate of 14.16 per 1,000, 30% below the world average, is higher than any European country's except Albania and Ireland. In fiscal year 2008, 1.1 million immigrants were granted legal residence. Mexico has been the leading source of new residents for over two decades; since 1998, China, India, and the Philippines have been in the top four sending countries every year. The United States is the only industrialized nation in which large population increases are projected.

The United States has a very diverse population—thirty-one ancestry groups have more than a million members. White Americans are the largest racial group, with German Americans, Irish Americans, and English Americans constituting three of the country's four largest ancestry groups. African Americans are the nation's largest racial minority and third largest ancestry group. Asian Americans are the country's second largest racial minority; the two largest Asian American ethnic groups are Chinese American and Filipino American. In 2008, the U.S. population included an estimated 4.9 million people with some American Indian or Alaskan native ancestry (3.1 million exclusively of such ancestry) and 1.1 million with some native Hawaiian or Pacific island ancestry (0.6 million exclusively).

The population growth of Hispanic and Latino Americans (the terms are officially interchangeable) is a major demographic trend. The 46.9 million Americans of Hispanic descent are identified as sharing a distinct "ethnicity" by the Census Bureau; 64% of Hispanic Americans are of Mexican descent. Between 2000 and 2008, the country's Hispanic population increased 32% while the non-Hispanic population rose just 4.3%. Much of this growth is from immigration; as of 2007, 12.4% of the U.S. population was foreign-born, with 54% of that figure born in Latin America. Fertility is also a factor; the average Hispanic woman gives birth to three children in her lifetime. The comparable fertility rate is 2.2 for non-Hispanic black women and 1.8 for non-Hispanic white women (below the replacement rate of 2.1). Minorities (as defined by the Census Bureau, all those beside non-Hispanic, non-multiracial whites) constitute 34% of the population; they are projected to be the majority by 2042.

About 79% of Americans live in urban areas (as defined by the Census Bureau, such areas include the suburbs); about half of those reside in cities with populations over 50,000. In 2006, 254 incorporated places had populations over 100,000, nine cities had more than 1 million residents, and four global cities had over 2 million (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston). There are fifty metropolitan areas with populations greater than 1 million. Of the fifty fastest-growing metro areas, twenty-three are in the West and twenty-five in the South. The metro areas of Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, and California's Inland Empire all grew by more than three-quarters of a million people between 2000 and 2006. Template:Largest cities of the United States

Language

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 2005, about 216 million, or 81% 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. Some Americans advocate making English the country's official language, as it is in at least twenty-eight states. Both Hawaiian and English are official languages in Hawaii by state law. 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. Other states, such as California, mandate the publication of Spanish versions of certain government documents including court forms. Several insular territories grant official recognition to their native languages, along with English: Samoan and Chamorro are recognized by American Samoa and Guam, respectively; Carolinian and Chamorro are recognized by the Northern Mariana Islands; Spanish is an official language of Puerto Rico.

Religion

The United States is officially a secular nation; the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion and forbids the establishment of any religious governance. In a 2002 study, 59% of Americans said that religion played a "very important role in their lives," a far higher figure than that of any other wealthy nation. According to a 2007 survey, 78.4% of adults identified themselves as Christian, down from 86.4% in 1990. Protestant denominations accounted for 51.3%, while Roman Catholicism, at 23.9%, was the largest individual denomination. The study categorizes white evangelicals, 26.3% of the population, as the country's largest religious cohort; another study estimates evangelicals of all races at 30–35%. The total reporting non-Christian religions in 2007 was 4.7%, up from 3.3% in 1990. The leading non-Christian faiths were Judaism (1.7%), Buddhism (0.7%), Islam (0.6%), Hinduism (0.4%), and Unitarian Universalism (0.3%). From 8.2% in 1990, 16.1% in 2007 described themselves as agnostic, atheist, or simply having no religion.

Education

American public education is operated by state and local governments, regulated by the United States Department of Education through restrictions on federal grants. Children are required in most states to attend school from the age of six or seven (generally, kindergarten or first grade) until they turn eighteen (generally bringing them through twelfth grade, the end of high school); some states allow students to leave school at sixteen or seventeen. About 12% of children are enrolled in parochial or nonsectarian private schools. Just over 2% of children are homeschooled. The United States has many competitive private and public institutions of higher education, as well as local community colleges with open admission policies. Of Americans twenty-five and older, 84.6% graduated from high school, 52.6% attended some college, 27.2% earned a bachelor's degree, and 9.6% earned graduate degrees. The basic literacy rate is approximately 99%. The United Nations assigns the United States an Education Index of 0.97, tying it for 12th in the world.

Health

The United States life expectancy of 77.8 years at birth is a year shorter than the overall figure in Western Europe, and three to four years lower than that of Norway, Switzerland, and Canada. Over the past two decades, the country's rank in life expectancy has dropped from 11th to 42nd in the world. The infant mortality rate of 6.37 per thousand likewise places the United States 42nd out of 221 countries, behind all of Western Europe. U.S. cancer survival rates are the highest in the world. Approximately one-third of the adult population is obese and an additional third is overweight; the obesity rate, the highest in the industrialized world, has more than doubled in the last quarter-century. Obesity-related type 2 diabetes is considered epidemic by health care professionals. The U.S. adolescent pregnancy rate, 79.8 per 1,000 women, is nearly four times that of France and five times that of Germany. Abortion, legal on demand, is highly controversial. Many states ban public funding of the procedure and restrict late-term abortions, require parental notification for minors, and mandate a waiting period. 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.

The U.S. health care system far outspends any other nation's, measured in both per capita spending and percentage of GDP. The World Health Organization ranked the U.S. health care system in 2000 as first in responsiveness, but 37th in overall performance. The United States is a leader in medical innovation. In 2004, the nonindustrial sector spent three times as much as Europe per capita on biomedical research.

Unlike in all other developed countries, health care coverage in the United States is not universal. In 2004, private insurance paid for 36% of personal health expenditures, private out-of-pocket payments covered 15%, and federal, state, and local governments paid for 44%. In 2005, 46.6 million Americans, 15.9% of the population, were uninsured, 5.4 million more than in 2001. The main cause of this rise is the drop in the number of Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance. The subject of uninsured and underinsured Americans—estimates of which vary widely—is a major political issue. A Harvard-based study released in the American Journal of Public Health estimates that nearly 45,000 deaths a year in the United States are associated with the lack of health insurance. In 2006, Massachusetts became the first state to mandate universal health insurance.

Crime and law enforcement

Law enforcement in the United States is primarily the responsibility of local police and sheriff's departments, with state police providing broader services. Federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Marshals Service have specialized duties. At the federal level and in almost every state, jurisprudence operates on a common law system. State courts conduct most criminal trials; federal courts handle certain designated crimes as well as appeals from state systems.

Among developed nations, the United States has above-average levels of violent crime and particularly high levels of gun violence and homicide. In 2007, there were 5.6 murders per 100,000 persons, three times the rate in neighboring Canada. The U.S. homicide rate, which decreased by 42% between 1991 and 1999, has been roughly steady since. Gun ownership rights are the subject of contentious political debate.

The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate and total prison population in the world. At the start of 2008, more than 2.3 million people were incarcerated, more than one in every 100 adults. The current rate is about seven times the 1980 figure. African American males are jailed at about six times the rate of white males and three times the rate of Hispanic males. In 2006, the U.S. incarceration rate was over three times the figure in Poland, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country with the next highest rate. The country's high rate of incarceration is largely due to sentencing and drug policies. Though it has been abolished in most Western nations, capital punishment is sanctioned in the United States for certain federal and military crimes, and in thirty-six states. Since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty after a four-year moratorium, there have been more than 1,000 executions. In 2006, the country had the sixth highest number of executions in the world, following China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, and Sudan. In 2007, New Jersey became the first state to legislatively abolish the death penalty since the 1976 Supreme Court decision, followed by New Mexico in 2009.

Culture

The United States is a multicultural nation, home to a wide variety of ethnic groups, traditions, and values. Aside from the now small Native American and Native Hawaiian populations, nearly all Americans or their ancestors immigrated within the past five centuries. The culture held in common by most Americans—mainstream American culture—is a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of European immigrants with influences from many other sources, such as traditions brought by slaves from Africa. More recent immigration from Asia and especially Latin America has added to a cultural mix that has been described as both a homogenizing melting pot and a heterogeneous salad bowl in which immigrants and their descendants retain distinctive cultural characteristics.

According to Geert Hofstede's cultural dimensions analysis, the United States has the highest individualism score of any country studied. While the mainstream culture holds that the United States is a classless society, scholars identify significant differences between the country's social classes, affecting socialization, language, and values. The American middle and professional class has initiated many contemporary social trends such as modern feminism, environmentalism, and multiculturalism. Americans' self-images, social viewpoints, and cultural expectations are associated with their occupations to an unusually close degree. While Americans tend greatly to value socioeconomic achievement, being ordinary or average is generally seen as a positive attribute. Though the American Dream, or the perception that Americans enjoy high social mobility, plays a key role in attracting immigrants, some analysts find that the United States has less social mobility than Western Europe and Canada.

Women now mostly work outside the home and receive a majority of bachelor's degrees. In 2005, 28% of households were married childless couples, the most common arrangement. Same-sex marriage is contentious. Several states permit civil unions in lieu of marriage. Since 2003, four state supreme courts have ruled bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, while voters in more than a dozen states approved constitutional bans on the practice. In 2009, Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire became the first states to permit same-sex marriage through legislative action.

Popular media

The world's first commercial motion picture exhibition was given in New York City in 1894, using Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope. The next year saw the first commercial screening of a projected film, also in New York, and the United States was in the forefront of sound film's development in the following decades. Since the early 20th century, the U.S. film industry has largely been based in and around Hollywood, California. Director D. W. Griffith was central to the development of film grammar and Orson Welles's Citizen Kane (1941) is frequently cited as the greatest film of all time. American screen actors like John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe have become iconic figures, while producer/entrepreneur Walt Disney was a leader in both animated film and movie merchandising. The major film studios of Hollywood have produced the most commercially successful movies in history, such as Star Wars (1977) and Titanic (1997), and the products of Hollywood today dominate the global film industry.

Americans are the heaviest television viewers in the world, and the average viewing time continues to rise, reaching five hours a day in 2006. The four major broadcast networks are all commercial entities. Americans listen to radio programming, also largely commercialized, on average just over two-and-a-half hours a day. Aside from web portals and web search engines, the most popular websites are Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Misplaced Pages, Craigslist, and eBay.

The rhythmic and lyrical styles of African American music have deeply influenced American music at large, distinguishing it from European traditions. Elements from folk idioms such as the blues and what is now known as old-time music were adopted and transformed into popular genres with global audiences. Jazz was developed by innovators such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington early in the 20th century. Country music, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll emerged between the 1920s and 1950s. In the 1960s, Bob Dylan emerged from the folk revival to become one of America's greatest songwriters and James Brown led the development of funk. More recent American creations include hip hop and house music. American pop stars such as Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and Madonna have become global celebrities.

Literature, philosophy, and the arts

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, American art and literature took most of its cues from Europe. Writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry David Thoreau established a distinctive American literary voice by the middle of the 19th century. Mark Twain and poet Walt Whitman were major figures in the century's second half; Emily Dickinson, virtually unknown during her lifetime, is now recognized as an essential American poet. A work seen as capturing fundamental aspects of the national experience and character—such as Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925)—may be dubbed the "Great American Novel."

Eleven U.S. citizens have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, most recently Toni Morrison in 1993. Ernest Hemingway, the 1954 Nobel laureate, is often named as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Popular literary genres such as the Western and hardboiled crime fiction developed in the United States. The Beat Generation writers opened up new literary approaches, as have postmodernist authors such as John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, and Don DeLillo.

The transcendentalists, led by Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, established the first major American philosophical movement. After the Civil War, Charles Sanders Peirce and then William James and John Dewey were leaders in the development of pragmatism. In the 20th century, the work of W. V. O. Quine and Richard Rorty brought analytic philosophy to the fore of U.S. academics. John Rawls and Robert Nozick led a revival of political philosophy.

In the visual arts, the Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century movement in the tradition of European naturalism. The 1913 Armory Show in New York City, an exhibition of European modernist art, shocked the public and transformed the U.S. art scene. Georgia O'Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, and others experimented with new styles, displaying a highly individualistic sensibility. Major artistic movements such as the abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning and the pop art of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein developed largely in the United States. The tide of modernism and then postmodernism has brought fame to American architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, and Frank Gehry.

One of the first major promoters of American theater was impresario P. T. Barnum, who began operating a lower Manhattan entertainment complex in 1841. The team of Harrigan and Hart produced a series of popular musical comedies in New York starting in the late 1870s. In the 20th century, the modern musical form emerged on Broadway; the songs of musical theater composers such as Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and Stephen Sondheim have become pop standards. Playwright Eugene O'Neill won the Nobel literature prize in 1936; other acclaimed U.S. dramatists include multiple Pulitzer Prize winners Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, and August Wilson.

Though largely overlooked at the time, Charles Ives's work of the 1910s established him as the first major U.S. composer in the classical tradition; other experimentalists such as Henry Cowell and John Cage created an American approach to classical composition. Aaron Copland and George Gershwin developed a unique synthesis of popular and classical music. Choreographers Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham helped create modern dance, while George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins were leaders in 20th century ballet. Americans have long been important in the modern artistic medium of photography, with major photographers including Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, and Ansel Adams. The newspaper comic strip and the comic book are both U.S. innovations. Superman, the quintessential comic book superhero, has become an American icon.

Food

Mainstream American culinary arts are similar to those in other Western countries. Wheat is the primary cereal grain. Traditional American cuisine uses ingredients such as turkey, white-tailed deer venison, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, squash, and maple syrup, indigenous foods employed by Native Americans and early European settlers. Slow-cooked pork and beef barbecue, crab cakes, potato chips, and chocolate chip cookies are distinctively American styles. Soul food, developed by African slaves, is popular around the South and among many African Americans elsewhere. Syncretic cuisines such as Louisiana creole, Cajun, and Tex-Mex are regionally important. Characteristic dishes such as apple pie, fried chicken, pizza, hamburgers, and hot dogs derive from the recipes of various immigrants. French fries, Mexican dishes such as burritos and tacos, and pasta dishes freely adapted from Italian sources are widely consumed. Americans generally prefer coffee to tea. Marketing by U.S. industries is largely responsible for making orange juice and milk ubiquitous breakfast beverages. During the 1980s and 1990s, Americans' caloric intake rose 24%; frequent dining at fast food outlets is associated with what health officials call the American "obesity epidemic." Highly sweetened soft drinks are widely popular; sugared beverages account for 9% of the average American's caloric intake.

Sports

Since the late 19th century, baseball has been regarded as the national sport; American football, basketball, and ice hockey are the country's three other leading professional team sports. College football and basketball attract large audiences. Football is now by several measures the most popular spectator sport. Boxing and horse racing were once the most watched individual sports, but they have been eclipsed by golf and auto racing, particularly NASCAR. Soccer is played widely at the youth and amateur levels. Tennis and many outdoor sports are popular as well.

While most major U.S. sports have evolved out of European practices, basketball, volleyball, skateboarding, snowboarding, and cheerleading are American inventions. Lacrosse and surfing arose from Native American and Native Hawaiian activities that predate Western contact. Eight Olympic Games have taken place in the United States. The United States has won 2,301 medals at the Summer Olympic Games, more than any other country, and 216 in the Winter Olympic Games, the second most.

See also

• Outline of the United States
• Index of United States–related articles

References

1. ^ "United States". The World Factbook. CIA. 2007-05-31. Retrieved 2008-10-14.
2. ^ "U.S. POPClock Projection". U.S. Census Bureau. Figure updated automatically.
3. "Population Finder: United States". U.S. Census Bureau. 2000. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
4. ^ "United States". International Monetary Fund. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
5. ^ "World Economic Outlook Database". International Monetary Fund. 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-27. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
6. HDI of the US The United Nations. Retrieved 10 July 2009.
7. ^ Feder, Jody (2007-01-25). "English as the Official Language of the United States—Legal Background and Analysis of Legislation in the 110th Congress" (PDF). ILW.COM (Congressional Research Service). Retrieved 2007-06-19.
8. ^ Adams, J.Q., and Pearlie Strother-Adams (2001). Dealing with Diversity. Chicago: Kendall/Hunt. ISBN 078728145X.
9. The European Union has a larger collective economy, but is not a single nation.
10. Dull, Jonathan R. (2003). "Diplomacy of the Revolution, to 1783," p. 352, chap. in A Companion to the American Revolution, ed. Jack P. Greene and J. R. Pole. Maiden, Mass.: Blackwell, pp. 352–361. ISBN 1405116749.
11. Maddison, Angus (2006). "Historical Statistics for the World Economy". Retrieved 2008-11-06.
12. Cohen, Eliot A. (July/August 2004). "History and the Hyperpower". Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 2006-07-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) "Country Profile: United States of America". BBC News. 2008-04-22. Retrieved 2008-05-18.
13. "Cartographer Put 'America' on the Map 500 years Ago". USA Today. 2007-04-24. Retrieved 2008-11-30.
14. "The Charters of Freedom". National Archives. Retrieved 2007-06-20.
15. Wilson, Kenneth G. (1993). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 27–28. ISBN 0231069898.
16. Zimmer, Benjamin (2005-11-24). "Life in These, Uh, This United States". University of Pennsylvania—Language Log. Retrieved 2008-02-22.
17. Lubowski, Ruben, Marlow Vesterby, and Shawn Bucholtz (2006-07-21). "AREI Chapter 1.1: Land Use". Economic Research Service. Retrieved 2009-03-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
18. "Population by Sex, Rate of Population Increase, Surface Area and Density" (PDF). Demographic Yearbook 2005. UN Statistics Division. Retrieved 2008-03-25.
19. "United States". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2008-03-25.
20. "World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table". Yahoo Education. Retrieved 2007-02-28.
21. O'Hanlon, Larry. "Supervolcano: What's Under Yellowstone?". Discovery Channel. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
22. Perkins, Sid (2002-05-11). "Tornado Alley, USA". Science News. Archived from the original on 2007-07-01. Retrieved 2006-09-20.
23. Morin, Nancy. "Vascular Plants of the United States" (PDF). Plants. National Biological Service. Retrieved 2008-10-27.
24. "Global Significance of Selected U.S. Native Plant and Animal Species". SDI Group. 2001-02-09. Retrieved 2009-01-20.
25. "Numbers of Insects (Species and Individuals)". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2009-01-20.
26. "National Park Service Announces Addition of Two New Units". National Park Service. 2006-02-28. Retrieved 2006-06-13.
27. ^ "Federal Land and Buildings Ownership" (PDF). Republican Study Committee. 2005-05-19. Retrieved 2009-03-09.
28. "Peopling of Americas". Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History. 2004. Retrieved 2007-06-19. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
29. Meltzer, D.J. (1992). "How Columbus Sickened the New World: Why Were Native Americans So Vulnerable to the Diseases European Settlers Brought With Them?". New Scientist: 38.
30. "British Convicts Shipped to American Colonies". American Historical Review 2. Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History. 1896. Retrieved 2007-06-21. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
31. Russell, David Lee (2005). The American Revolution in the Southern Colonies. Jefferson, N.C., and London: McFarland, p. 12. ISBN 0786407832.
32. Blackburn, Robin (1998). The Making of New World Slavery: From the Baroque to the Modern, 1492–1800. London and New York: Verso, p. 460. ISBN 1859841953.
33. Morrison, Michael A. (1999). Slavery and the American West: The Eclipse of Manifest Destiny and the Coming of the Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, pp. 13–21. ISBN 0807847968.
34. "1860 Census" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2007-06-10. Page 7 lists a total slave population of 3,953,760.
35. De Rosa, Marshall L. (1997). The Politics of Dissolution: The Quest for a National Identity and the American Civil War. Edison, NJ: Transaction, p. 266. ISBN 1560003499.
36. Gates, John M. (August 1984). "War-Related Deaths in the Philippines". Pacific Historical Review. College of Wooster. Retrieved 2007-09-27.
37. Foner, Eric, and John A. Garraty (1991). The Reader's Companion to American History. New York: Houghton Mifflin, p. 576. ISBN 0395513723.
38. McDuffie, Jerome, Gary Wayne Piggrem, and Steven E. Woodworth (2005). U.S. History Super Review. Piscataway, NJ: Research & Education Association, p. 418. ISBN 0738600709.
39. Kennedy, Paul (1989). The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. New York: Vintage, p. 358. ISBN 0670728197.
40. "The United States and the Founding of the United Nations, August 1941–October 1945". U.S. Dept. of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, Office of the Historian. 2005. Retrieved 2007-06-11. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
41. Pacific War Research Society (2006). Japan's Longest Day. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 4770028873.
42. Voyce, Bill (2006-08-21). "Why the Expansion of the 1990s Lasted So Long". Iowa Workforce Information Network. Retrieved 2007-08-16.
43. "Many Europeans Oppose War in Iraq". USA Today. 2003-02-14. Retrieved 2008-09-01.Springford, John (2003). "'Old' and 'New' Europeans United: Public Attitudes Towards the Iraq War and US Foreign Policy" (PDF). Centre for European Reform. Retrieved 2008-09-01. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
44. Scheb, John M., and John M. Scheb II (2002). An Introduction to the American Legal System. Florence, KY: Delmar, p. 6. ISBN 0766827593.
45. Raskin, James B. (2003). Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court Vs. the American People. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 36–38. ISBN 0415934397.
46. "Americans Favor Private Giving, People-to-People Contacts". U.S. Dept. of State, International Information Programs. 2007-05-24. Retrieved 2007-06-17.
47. "Department of Defense Active Duty Military Personnel Strengths by Regional Area and by Country (309A)" (PDF). Global Policy Forum. 2005-12-31. Retrieved 2007-06-21.
48. "Department of Defense Base Structure Report, Fiscal Year 2005 Baseline" (PDF). Global Policy Forum. Retrieved 2007-06-21.
49. Ikenberry, G. John (March/April 2004). "Illusions of Empire: Defining the New American Order". Foreign Affairs. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) Kreisler, Harry, and Chalmers Johnson (2004-01-29). "Conversations with History". University of California at Berkeley. Retrieved 2007-06-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
50. "The Fifteen Major Spender Countries in 2006". Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-20.
51. "Rank Order—Military Expenditures—Percent of GDP". The World Factbook. CIA. 2007-05-31. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
52. "Department of Defense". Budget of the United States Government, FY 2009. Office of Management and Budget. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
53. Goldman, David (2008-06-12). "Iraq War Could Cost Taxpayers $2.7 Trillion". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2009-03-10.
54. "Iraq Coalition Casualties". Iraq Coalition Casualty Count. 2009-05-03. Retrieved 2009-05-03.
55. "Employment Situation Summary". U.S. Dept. of Labor. 2009-08-07. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
56. "Gross Domestic Product". Bureau of Economic Analysis. 2009-07-31. Retrieved 2009-08-06. Change is based on chained 2005 dollars. Quarterly growth is expressed as an annualized rate.
57. "Consumer Price Index: July 2009". Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2009-08-14. Retrieved 2009-08-23.
58. "Debt Statistics". U.S. Dept. of the Treasury. Retrieved 2009-09-15.
59. ^ "Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2008" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. 2009-09-10. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
60. Lederman, Daniel, and William Maloney (2007). Natural Resources: Neither Curse Nor Destiny. World Bank. p. 185. ISBN 0821365452.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
61. "Rank Order—GDP (Purchasing Power Parity)". World Factbook. CIA. 2008-10-09. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
62. "U.S. Top Trading Partners, 2006". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2007-03-26.
63. "Table 1289. U.S. Exports and General Imports by Selected SITC Commodity Groups: 2002 to 2005" (PDF). Statistical Abstract of the United States 2007. U.S. Census Bureau. 2006. Retrieved 2007-08-26. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
64. World Economic Forum. "Table 4: The Global Competitiveness Index 2009–2010 rankings and 2008–2009 comparisons" (PDF). Retrieved 2009-09-09.
65. Grynbaum, Michael A. (2008-12-01). "Dow Plunges 680 Points as Recession Is Declared". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-12-01.
66. "Government Spending Overview". usgovernmentspending.com. Retrieved 2009-05-09.
67. ^ "USA Economy in Brief". U.S. Dept. of State, International Information Programs. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
68. "Table 726. Number of Returns, Receipts, and Net Income by Type of Business and Industry: 2003" (PDF). Statistical Abstract of the United States 2007. U.S. Census Bureau. 2006. Retrieved 2007-08-26. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
69. "Table 971. Gross Domestic Product in Manufacturing in Current and Real (2000) Dollars by Industry: 2000 to 2005 (2004)" (PDF). Statistical Abstract of the United States 2007. U.S. Census Bureau. 2006. Retrieved 2007-08-26. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
70. "Rank Order—Oil (Production)". The World Factbook. CIA. 2007-09-06. Retrieved 2007-09-14."Rank Order—Oil (Consumption)". The World Factbook. CIA. 2007-09-06. Retrieved 2007-09-14."Crude Oil and Total Petroleum Imports Top 15 Countries". U.S. Energy Information Administration. 2008-08-26. Retrieved 2008-09-10.
71. "Corn". U.S. Grains Council. Archived from the original on 2008-01-12. Retrieved 2008-03-13.
72. "Soybean Demand Continues to Drive Production". Worldwatch Institute. 2007-11-06. Retrieved 2008-03-13.
73. "New Release/Ultra Petroleum Corp.,". NYSE Euronext. 2007-07-03. Retrieved 2007-08-03.
74. "Sony, LG, Wal-Mart among Most Extendible Brands". Cheskin. 2005-06-06. Retrieved 2007-06-19.
75. "Labor Force and Earnings, 2005". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2007-05-29.
76. "Table 739. Establishments, Employees, and Payroll by Employment-Size Class and Industry: 2000 to 2003" (PDF). Statistical Abstract of the United States 2007. U.S. Census Bureau. 2006. Retrieved 2007-08-26. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
77. Fuller, Thomas (2005-06-15). "In the East, Many EU Work Rules Don't Apply". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 2007-06-28.
78. "Doing Business in the United States (2006)". World Bank. Retrieved 2007-06-28.
79. Dobbs, Lou (2003-11-02). "The Perils of Productivity". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved 2007-06-30.
80. "Highlights of Current Labour Market trends" (PDF). Key Indicators of the Labour Market Programme. International Labour Organization. 2005-12-09. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
81. Gumbel, Peter (2004-07-11). "Escape from Tax Hell". Time. Retrieved 2007-06-28.
82. Sherman, Arloc, and Aviva Aron-Dine (2007-01-23). "New CBO Data Show Income Inequality Continues to Widen". Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Retrieved 2007-11-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
83. DeNavas-Walt, Carmen, Bernadette D. Proctor, and Jessica Smith (2008). "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2007" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2008-11-13. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
84. Hacker, Jacob S. (2006). The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195335341.
85. ^ Smeeding, T. M. (2005). "Public Policy: Economic Inequality and Poverty: The United States in Comparative Perspective." Social Science Quarterly 86, 955–983.
86. Kenworthy, L. (1999). "Do Social-Welfare Policies Reduce Poverty? A Cross-National Assessment" Social Forces 77(3), 1119–1139. Bradley, D., E. Huber, S. Moller, F. Nielsen, and J. D. Stephens (2003). "Determinants of Relative Poverty in Advanced Capitalist Democracies" American Sociological Review 68(1), 22–51.
87. Orr, D. (November–December, 2004). "Social Security Isn't Broken: So Why the Rush to 'Fix' It?" In C. Sturr and R. Vasudevan, eds. (2007). Current Economic Issues. Boston: Economic Affairs Bureau.
88. Starr, Paul (2008-02-25). "A New Deal of Their Own". American Prospect. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
89. UNICEF (2007). "Child Poverty in Perspective: An Overview of Child Well-Being in Rich Countries" (PDF). BBC. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
90. ^ Bartels, L. M. (2008). Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
91. Hartman, C. (2008). "By the Numbers: Income". Retrieved 2008-07-24.
92. Henderson, David R. (1998). "The Rich—and Poor—Are Getting Richer". Hoover Digest. Retrieved 2007-06-19.
93. Yellen, J. (2006). "Speech to the Center for the Study of Democracy 2006–2007 Economics of Governance Lecture University of California, Irvine". San Francisco: Federal Reserve Board. Retrieved 2008-07-24.Shapiro, Isaac (2005-10-17). "New IRS Data Show Income Inequality Is Again on the Rise". Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Retrieved 2007-05-16. Gilbert, D. (1998). The American Class Structure. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. ISBN 0534505201.
94. Johnston, David Cay (2007-03-29). "Income Gap Is Widening, Data Shows". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-05-16.
95. Saez, E. (2007). "Table A1: Top Fractiles Income Shares (Excluding Capital Gains) in the U.S., 1913–2005". UC Berkeley. Retrieved 2008-07-24. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)"Field Listing—Distribution of Family Income—Gini Index". The World Factbook. CIA. 2007-06-14. Retrieved 2007-06-17.
96. "Shares of Federal Tax Liabilities, 2004 and 2005". Congressional Budget Office. Retrieved 2008-11-02.
97. Domhoff, G. William (2006). "Table 4: Percentage of Wealth Held by the Top 10% of the Adult Population in Various Western Countries". Power in America. University of California at Santa Cruz, Sociology Dept. Retrieved 2006-08-21. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
98. Kennickell, Arthur B. (2006-08-02). "Table11a: Amounts (Billions of 2004 Dollars) and Shares of Net Worth and Components Distributed by Net Worth Groups, 2004" (PDF). Currents and Undercurrents: Changes in the Distribution of Wealth, 1989–2004. Federal Reserve Board. Retrieved 2007-06-24.
99. Benedetti, François (2003-12-17). "100 Years Ago, the Dream of Icarus Became Reality". Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI). Retrieved 2007-08-15.
100. "Research and Development (R&D) Expenditures by Source and Objective: 1970 to 2004". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2007-06-19.
101. MacLeod, Donald (2006-03-21). "Britain Second in World Research Rankings". Guardian. Retrieved 2006-05-14.
102. "Media Statistics > Televisions (per capita) by Country". NationMaster. 2003. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) "Media Statistics > Personal Computers (per capita) by Country". NationMaster. 2003. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) "Media Statistics > Radios (per capita) by Country". NationMaster. 2003. Retrieved 2007-06-03. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
103. "Download 2007 Digital Fact Pack". Advertising Age. 2007-04-23. Retrieved 2007-06-10.
104. "ISAAA Brief 35-2006: Executive Summary—Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2006". International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications. Retrieved 2007-06-19.
105. "Interstate FAQ (Question #3)". Federal Highway Administration. 2006. Retrieved 2009-03-04.
106. "Car Free Day 2006: Nearly One Car per Two Inhabitants in the EU25 in 2004". Europa, Eurostat Press Office. 2006-09-19. Retrieved 2007-08-15.
107. "Household, Individual, and Vehicle Characteristics". 2001 National Household Travel Survey. U.S. Dept. of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Retrieved 2007-08-15.
108. "Daily Passenger Travel". 2001 National Household Travel Survey. U.S. Dept. of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Retrieved 2007-08-15.
109. "Scheduled Passengers Carried (2008 data)". International Air Transport Association (IATA). Retrieved 2009-06-27.
110. "Passenger Traffic 2006 Final". Airports Council International. 2007-07-18. Retrieved 2007-08-15.
111. "Intercity Passenger Rail: National Policy and Strategies Needed to Maximize Public Benefits from Federal Expenditures". U.S. Government Accountability Office. 2006-11-13. Retrieved 2007-06-20.
112. Renne, John L., and Jan S. Wells (2003). "Emerging European-Style Planning in the United States: Transit-Oriented Development (p. 2)" (PDF). Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Retrieved 2007-06-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
113. Pucher, John, and Lewis Dijkstra (2000). "Making Walking and Cycling Safer: Lessons from Europe" (PDF). Transportation Quarterly. Transportation Alternatives. Retrieved 2007-08-15. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
114. "Diagram 1: Energy Flow, 2007" (PDF). EIA Annual Energy Review 2007. U.S. Dept. of Energy, Energy Information Administration. Retrieved 2008-06-25.
115. "Rank Order—Oil (Consumption)". The World Factbook. CIA. 2007-09-06. Retrieved 2007-09-14.
116. "Atomic Renaissance". Economist. Retrieved 2007-09-06.
117. Camarota, Steven A., and Karen Jensenius (2008). "Homeward Bound: Recent Immigration Enforcement and the Decline in the Illegal Alien Population" (PDF). Center for Immigration Studies. Retrieved 2008-08-06. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
118. "European Union". The World Factbook. CIA. 2007-05-31. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
119. "Rank Order—Birth Rate". The World Factbook. CIA. 2007-05-31. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
120. “U.S. Legal Permanent Residents: 2008”. Office of Immigration Statistics Annual Flow Report.
121. "Persons Obtaining Legal Permanent Resident Status by Region and Country of Birth: Fiscal Years 1998 to 2007 (Table 3)". U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security. Retrieved 2008-09-06.
122. ^ "Executive Summary: A Population Perspective of the United States". Population Resource Center. 2000. Archived from the original on 2007-06-04. Retrieved 2007-12-20. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
123. ^ "Ancestry 2000" (PDF). U.S.Census Bureau. 2004. Retrieved 2007-06-13. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
124. ^ "Annual Estimates of the Population by Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin for the United States: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2008 (NC-EST2008-03)". U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division. 2009-05-01. Retrieved 2009-07-23.
125. "B03001. Hispanic or Latino Origin by Specific Origin". 2007 American Community Survey. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2008-09-26.
126. "Population: Native and Foreign-born Populations (Tables 42 and 43)". 2009 Statistical Abstract. U.S. Census Bureau. 2008-12-23. Archived from the original on 2007-12-25. Retrieved 2009-01-21.
127. "An Older and More Diverse Nation by Midcentury". U.S. Census Bureau. 2008-08-14. Retrieved 2008-09-06.
128. "United States—Urban/Rural and Inside/Outside Metropolitan Area (GCT-P1. Population, Housing Units, Area, and Density: 2000)". U.S. Census Bureau. 2000-04-01. Retrieved 2008-09-23.
129. "Table 1: Population Estimates for the 25 Largest U.S. Cities Based on July 1, 2006, Population Estimates: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2006" (PDF). 2006 Population Estimates. U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division. 2007-06-28. Retrieved 2007-09-08.
130. "Table 2. Population Estimates for the 100 Most Populous Metropolitan Statistical Areas Based on July 1, 2006, Population Estimates" (PDF). 2006 Population Estimates. U.S. Census Bureau. 2007-04-05. Retrieved 2007-06-17.
131. "50 Fastest-Growing Metro Areas Concentrated in West and South". U.S. Census Bureau. 2007-04-05. Retrieved 2007-01-26.
132. ^ "Table 52—Languages Spoken at Home by Language: 2005" (PDF). Statistical Abstract of the United States 2006. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2008-10-18.
133. "Foreign Language Enrollments in United States Institutions of Higher Learning" (PDF). MLA. fall 2002. Retrieved 2006-10-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
134. "The Constitution of the State of Hawaii, Article XV, Section 4". Hawaii Legislative Reference Bureau. 1978-11-07. Retrieved 2007-06-19.
135. Dicker, Susan J. (2003). Languages in America: A Pluralist View. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. pp. 216, 220–25. ISBN 1853596515.
136. "California Code of Civil Procedure, Section 412.20(6)". Legislative Counsel, State of California. Retrieved 2007-12-17. "California Judicial Council Forms". Judicial Council, State of California. Retrieved 2007-12-17.
137. "Among Wealthy Nations…U.S. Stands Alone in its Embrace of Religion". Pew Global Attitudes Project. Pew Research Center. 2002-12-19. Retrieved 2008-10-23.
138. ^ "Religious Composition of the U.S." (PDF). U.S. Religious Landscape Survey. Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. 2007. Retrieved 2008-10-23.
139. ^ "American Religious Identification Survey". CUNY Graduate Center. 2001. Retrieved 2007-06-17.
140. Green, John C. "The American Religious Landscape and Political Attitudes: A Baseline for 2004" (PDF). University of Akron. Retrieved 2007-06-18. {{cite web}}: Text "Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics" ignored (help)
141. Rosenstone, Steven J. (2009-12-17). "Public Education for the Common Good". University of Minnesota. Retrieved 2009-03-06.
142. "Ages for Compulsory School Attendance..." U.S. Dept. of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved 2007-06-10.
143. "Statistics About Non-Public Education in the United States". U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Non-Public Education. Retrieved 2007-06-05.
144. "Educational Attainment in the United States: 2003" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2006-08-01.
145. For more detail on U.S. literacy, see A First Look at the Literacy of America’s Adults in the 21st century, U.S. Department of Education (2003).
146. "Human Development Indicators" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Reports. 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-06-20. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
147. "Health, United States, 2006" (PDF). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. 2006. Retrieved 2007-08-15. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
148. Eberstadt, Nicholas, and Hans Groth (2007-04-19). "Healthy Old Europe". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 2007-06-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
149. MacAskill, Ewen (2007-08-13). "US Tumbles Down the World Ratings List for Life Expectancy". Guardian. Retrieved 2007-08-15.
150. "Rank Order—Infant Mortality Rate". The World Factbook. CIA. 2007-06-14. Retrieved 2007-06-19.
151. Martin, Nicole (2007-08-24). "UK Cancer Survival Rate Lowest in Europe". The Daily Telegraph. Gatta, Gemma (2006). "Survival from Rare Cancer in Adults: A Population-Based Study". The Lancet Oncology. 7 (2): 132–140. doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(05)70471-X. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
152. "Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity Among Adults: United States, 2003–2004". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Retrieved 2007-06-05.
153. Schlosser, Eric (2002). Fast Food Nation. New York: Perennial. p. 240. ISBN 0060938455.
154. "Fast Food, Central Nervous System Insulin Resistance, and Obesity". Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. American Heart Association. 2005. Retrieved 2007-06-17.
155. "Adolescent Sexual Health in Europe and the U.S.—Why the Difference?". Advocates for Youth. 2001. Retrieved 2007-06-17. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
156. Strauss, Lilo T.; et al. (2006-11-24). "Abortion Surveillance—United States, 2003". MMWR. Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Reproductive Health. Retrieved 2007-06-17. {{cite web}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help)
157. "2007 Facts & Figures". Texas Medical Center. Retrieved 2008-11-07.
158. OECD Health Data 2000: A Comparative Analysis of 29 Countries (OECD: Paris, 2000). See also "The U.S. Healthcare System: The Best in the World or Just the Most Expensive?" (PDF). University of Maine. 2001. Retrieved 2006-11-29.
159. Groves, Trish, T (2008). "Stronger European Medical Research". British Medical Journal. 336 (7640): 341–342. doi:10.1136/bmj.39489.505208.80. ISSN 0959-8138. PMID 18276671. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
160. "Health, United States, 2006" (PDF). Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Health Statistics. Retrieved 2006-11-24.
161. "Poverty Remains Higher, and Median Income for Non-Elderly Is Lower, Than When Recession Hit Bottom: Poor Performance Unprecedented for Four-Year Recovery Period". Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. 2006-09-01. Retrieved 2007-06-24.
162. Abelson, Reed (2008-06-10). "Ranks of Underinsured Are Rising, Study Finds". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-10-25. Blewett, Lynn A., LA; et al. (2006). "How Much Health Insurance Is Enough? Revisiting the Concept of Underinsurance". Medical Care Research and Review. 63 (6): 663–700. doi:10.1177/1077558706293634. ISSN 1077-5587. PMID 17099121. {{cite journal}}: |first2= missing |last2= (help); |first3= missing |last3= (help); Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help); More than one of |work= and |journal= specified (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
163. 45,000 American deaths associated with lack of insurance. CNN.com. September 18, 2009.
164. Fahrenthold, David A. (2006-04-05). "Mass. Bill Requires Health Coverage". Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-06-19.
165. "Eighth United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (2001–2002)" (PDF). United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). 2005-03-31. Retrieved 2008-05-18. Krug, E.G, K.E. Powell, and L.L. Dahlberg, EG (1998). "Firearm-Related Deaths in the United States and 35 Other High- and Upper-Middle Income Countries". International Journal of Epidemiology. 7 (2): 214–221. doi:10.1093/ije/27.2.214. ISSN 0300-5771. PMID 9602401. {{cite journal}}: |first2= missing |last2= (help); |first3= missing |last3= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
166. ^ "Crime in the United States by Volume and Rate per 100,000 Inhabitants, 1988–2007". Crime in the United States 2007. FBI. 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-26. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
167. "Crimes by Type of Offence". Statistics Canada. 2008-07-17. Retrieved 2008-10-26.
168. ^ "New Incarceration Figures: Thirty-Three Consecutive Years of Growth" (PDF). Sentencing Project. 2006. Retrieved 2007-06-10. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
169. Walmsley, Roy (2005). "World Prison Population List" (PDF). King's College London, International Centre for Prison Studies. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-06-28. Retrieved 2007-10-19. For the latest data, see "Prison Brief for United States of America". King's College London, International Centre for Prison Studies. 2006-06-21. Archived from the original on 2007-08-04. Retrieved 2007-10-19. For other estimates of the incarceration rate in China and North Korea see Adams, Cecil (2004-02-06). "Does the United States Lead the World in Prison Population?". The Straight Dope. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
170. "Pew Report Finds More than One in 100 Adults are Behind Bars". Pew Center on the States. 2008-02-28. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
171. "Incarceration Rate, 1980–2005". U.S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2006. Retrieved 2007-06-10.
172. "Entire World—Prison Population Rates per 100,000 of the National Population". King's College London, International Centre for Prison Studies. 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-08-24. Retrieved 2007-10-19.
173. "The Impact of the War on Drugs on U.S. Incarceration". Human Rights Watch. 2000. Retrieved 2007-06-10. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
174. "Executions in the United States in 2007". Death Penalty Information Center. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
175. "Executions Around the World". Death Penalty Information Center. 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
176. Thompson, William, and Joseph Hickey (2005). Society in Focus. Boston: Pearson. ISBN 020541365X.
177. Fiorina, Morris P., and Paul E. Peterson (2000). The New American Democracy. London: Longman, p. 97. ISBN 0321070585.
178. Holloway, Joseph E. (2005). Africanisms in American Culture, 2d ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 18–38. ISBN 0253344794. Johnson, Fern L. (1999). Speaking Culturally: Language Diversity in the United States. Thousand Oaks, Calif., London, and New Delhi: Sage, p. 116. ISBN 0803959125.
179. "Individualism". Clearly Cultural. Retrieved 2009-02-28.
180. Gutfield, Amon (2002). American Exceptionalism: The Effects of Plenty on the American Experience. Brighton and Portland: Sussex Academic Press. p. 65. ISBN 1903900085.
181. Zweig, Michael (2004). What's Class Got To Do With It, American Society in the Twenty-First Century. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0801488990. "Effects of Social Class and Interactive Setting on Maternal Speech". Education Resource Information Center. Retrieved 2007-01-27.
182. Ehrenreich, Barbara (1989). Fear of Falling, The Inner Life of the Middle Class. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0060973331.
183. Eichar, Douglas (1989). Occupation and Class Consciousness in America. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313261113.
184. O'Keefe, Kevin (2005). The Average American. New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN 158648270X. ISBN 158648270X.
185. "Ever Higher Society, Ever Harder to Ascend: Whatever Happened to the Belief That Any American Could Get to the Top". Economist. 2004-12-29. Retrieved 2006-08-21. Blanden, Jo, Paul Gregg, and Stephen Malchin (2005). "Intergenerational Mobility in Europe and North America" (PDF). Centre for Economic Performance. Retrieved 2006-08-21. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
186. "Women's Advances in Education". Columbia University, Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy. 2006. Retrieved 2007-06-06.
187. Williams, Brian, Stacey C. Sawyer, and Carl M. Wahlstrom (2005). Marriages, Families and Intimate Relationships. Boston: Pearson. ISBN 0205366740.
188. Village Voice: 100 Best Films of the 20th century (2001). Filmsite.org; Sight and Sound Top Ten Poll 2002. BFI. Retrieved on 2007-06-19.
189. "World Culture Report 2000 Calls for Preservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage". UNESCO. 2000-11-17. Retrieved 2007-09-14. "Summary: Does Globalization Thwart Cultural Diversity?". World Bank Group. Retrieved 2007-09-14.
190. "Media Statistics > Television Viewing by Country". NationMaster. Retrieved 2007-06-03.
191. "Broadband and Media Consumption". eMarketer. 2007-06-07. Retrieved 2007-06-10.
192. "TV Fans Spill into Web Sites". eMarketer. 2007-06-07. Retrieved 2007-06-10.
193. "Top Sites in United States". Alexa. 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
194. Biddle, Julian (2001). What Was Hot!: Five Decades of Pop Culture in America. New York: Citadel, p. ix. ISBN 0806523115.
195. Bloom, Harold. 1999. Emily Dickinson. Broomall, PA: Chelsea House Publishers. p. 9. ISBN 0791051064.
196. Meyers, Jeffrey (1999). Hemingway: A Biography. New York: Da Capo, p. 139. ISBN 0306808900.
197. Brown, Milton W. (1988 1963). The Story of the Armory Show. New York: Abbeville. ISBN 0896597954.
198. Daniels, Les (1998). Superman: The Complete History (1st ed.). Titan Books. p. 11. ISBN 1-85286-988-7.
199. ^ Klapthor, James N. (2003-08-23). "What, When, and Where Americans Eat in 2003". Institute of Food Technologists. Retrieved 2007-06-19.
200. Smith, Andrew F. (2004). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 131–32. ISBN 0195154371. Levenstein, Harvey (2003). Revolution at the Table: The Transformation of the American Diet. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, pp. 154–55. ISBN 0520234391.
201. "Fast Food, Central Nervous System Insulin Resistance, and Obesity". Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. American Heart Association. 2005. Retrieved 2007-06-09. "Let's Eat Out: Americans Weigh Taste, Convenience, and Nutrition" (PDF). U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Retrieved 2007-06-09.
202. Krane, David K. (2002-10-30). "Professional Football Widens Its Lead Over Baseball as Nation's Favorite Sport". Harris Interactive. Retrieved 2007-09-14. Maccambridge, Michael (2004). America's Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation. New York: Random House. ISBN 0375504540.
203. "All-Time Medal Standings, 1896–2004". Information Please. Retrieved 2007-06-14. "Distribution of Medals—2008 Summer Games". Fact Monster. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
204. "All-Time Medal Standings, 1924–2006". Information Please. Retrieved 2007-06-14. Norway is first; the Soviet Union is third, and would be second if its medal count was combined with Russia's.

External links

Template:Misplaced Pages-Books

Government

• Official U.S. Government Web Portal Gateway to government sites
• House Official site of the United States House of Representatives
• Senate Official site of the United States Senate
• White House Official site of the President of the United States
• Supreme Court Official site of the Supreme Court of the United States

Overviews and Data

• "United States". The World Factbook (2024 ed.). Central Intelligence Agency.
• InfoUSA Portal to U.S. Information Agency resources
• Library of Congress Official site of the U.S. Library of Congress
• Demographic Highlights Statistics from the Population Reference Bureau
• The 50 States of the U.S.A. Collected informational links for each state
• United States travel guide from Wikitravel
• United States Encyclopaedia Britannica entry
• Template:Dmoz
• U.S. Census Housing and Economic Statistics Wide-ranging data from the U.S. Census Bureau
• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Official government site
• State Fact Sheets Population, employment, income, and farm data from the U.S. Economic Research Service
• State Energy Profiles Economic, environmental, and energy data for each state from the U.S. Energy Information Administration

History

• Historical Documents Collected by the National Center for Public Policy Research
• U.S. National Mottos: History and Constitutionality Analysis by the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
• USA Collected links to historical data

Maps

• National Atlas of the United States Official maps from the U.S. Department of the Interior
• United States Satellite view at WikiMapia (not affiliated with Misplaced Pages/Wikimedia Foundation)
• Wikimedia Atlas of the United States

Articles Related to the United States of America

Template:United States Template Group v t e English-speaking world Further links Articles English-speaking world History of the English language British Empire English in the Commonwealth of Nations Anglosphere Lists List of countries by English-speaking population List of countries where English is an official language   Countries and territories where English is the national language or the native language of the majority Africa Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Americas Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda The Bahamas Barbados Belize Bermuda British Virgin Islands Canada Cayman Islands Dominica Falkland Islands Grenada Guyana Jamaica Montserrat Saba Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Sint Eustatius Sint Maarten South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos Islands United States United States Virgin Islands Europe Guernsey Ireland Isle of Man Jersey United Kingdom Oceania Australia New Zealand Norfolk Island Pitcairn Islands   Countries and territories where English is an official language, but not the majority first language Africa Botswana Cameroon Eswatini The Gambia Ghana Kenya Lesotho Liberia Malawi Mauritius Namibia Nigeria Rwanda Sierra Leone Somaliland South Africa South Sudan Sudan Tanzania Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe Americas Puerto Rico Asia Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Hong Kong India Pakistan Philippines Singapore Europe Gibraltar Akrotiri and Dhekelia Malta Oceania American Samoa Cook Islands Fiji Guam Kiribati Marshall Islands Micronesia Nauru Niue Northern Mariana Islands Palau Papua New Guinea Samoa Solomon Islands Tokelau Tuvalu Vanuatu Dependencies shown in italics. v t e English-speaking world Further links Articles English-speaking world History of the English language British Empire English in the Commonwealth of Nations Anglosphere Lists List of countries by English-speaking population List of countries where English is an official language   Countries and territories where English is the national language or the native language of the majority Africa Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Americas Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda The Bahamas Barbados Belize Bermuda British Virgin Islands Canada Cayman Islands Dominica Falkland Islands Grenada Guyana Jamaica Montserrat Saba Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Sint Eustatius Sint Maarten South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos Islands United States United States Virgin Islands Europe Guernsey Ireland Isle of Man Jersey United Kingdom Oceania Australia New Zealand Norfolk Island Pitcairn Islands   Countries and territories where English is an official language, but not the majority first language Africa Botswana Cameroon Eswatini The Gambia Ghana Kenya Lesotho Liberia Malawi Mauritius Namibia Nigeria Rwanda Sierra Leone Somaliland South Africa South Sudan Sudan Tanzania Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe Americas Puerto Rico Asia Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Hong Kong India Pakistan Philippines Singapore Europe Gibraltar Akrotiri and Dhekelia Malta Oceania American Samoa Cook Islands Fiji Guam Kiribati Marshall Islands Micronesia Nauru Niue Northern Mariana Islands Palau Papua New Guinea Samoa Solomon Islands Tokelau Tuvalu Vanuatu Dependencies shown in italics. v t e United States articles History By period 1776–1789 1789–1815 1815–1849 1849–1865 1865–1917 1917–1945 1945–1964 1964–1980 1980–1991 1991–2008 2008–present By event Pre-colonial era Colonial era Stamp Act Congress Thirteen Colonies Continental Congress Continental Association United Colonies military history Founding Fathers Halifax Resolves Lee Resolution Declaration of Independence American Revolution War Treaty of Paris Articles of Confederation Perpetual Union Confederation period American frontier Constitution drafting and ratification Bill of Rights Federalist Era War of 1812 Territorial evolution Mexican–American War Civil War Reconstruction era Indian Wars Native genocide Gilded Age Progressive Era Women's suffrage Civil rights movement 1865–1896 1896–1954 1954–1968 Spanish–American War Imperialism World War I Roaring Twenties Great Depression World War II home front American Century Cold War Korean War Space Race Feminist Movement LGBT Movement Vietnam War Post-Cold War (1991–2008) September 11 attacks War on Terror War in Afghanistan Iraq War Great Recession COVID-19 pandemic By topic Outline of U.S. history Demographic Discoveries Economic Inventions Military Postal Technological and industrial Geography Territory Contiguous United States counties federal district federal enclaves Indian reservations insular zones minor outlying islands populated places states Earthquakes Extreme points Islands Mountains peaks ranges Appalachian Rocky Sierra Nevada National Park Service National Parks Regions East Coast West Coast Great Plains Gulf Mid-Atlantic Midwestern New England Pacific Central Eastern Northern Northeastern Northwestern Southern Southeastern Southwestern Western Longest rivers Arkansas Colorado Columbia Mississippi Missouri Red (South) Rio Grande Yukon Time Water supply and sanitation World Heritage Sites Politics Federal Executive President of the United States powers Executive Office Vice President Cabinet Executive departments Independent agencies Intelligence Community Director of National Intelligence Central Intelligence Agency National Security Agency National Reconnaissance Office Law enforcement ATF CBP Diplomatic Security DEA FBI ICE Marshals Secret Service TSA Inspector generals Civil service Public policy Legislative House of Representatives current members Speaker Senate current members President pro tempore President Capitol Police Library of Congress Congressional Budget Office Government Accountability Office Government Publishing Office Judicial Supreme Court Chief Justice Associate Justices list Courts of appeals list of judges District courts/Territorial courts list of courts list of judges Other tribunals U.S. attorney Law Bill of Rights civil liberties Code of Federal Regulations Constitution federalism preemption separation of powers civil rights United States Code Uniformed Armed Forces Army Marine Corps Navy Air Force Space Force Coast Guard National Guard NOAA Corps Public Health Service Corps State, Federal District, and Territorial Executive Governor list Lieutenant governor list Secretary of state Attorney general Treasurer Auditor/Comptroller Agriculture commissioner Insurance commissioner Public utilities commission State police list Legislative List of legislatures List of legislators Judicial Supreme courts Chief justices District attorney list Law State constitutions Statutory codes Uniform act Comparison of governments Tribal Tribal sovereignty Native American recognition in the United States Federally recognized tribes Federally recognized Alaska Native tribes State-recognized tribes Indian reservation list Hawaiian home land Local County List of counties and county equivalents County executive Sheriff Clerk Cities Consolidated city-county Independent city Coterminous municipality Charter Mayor–council government Council–manager government City commission government Mayor City manager City council Minor divisions Township Town meeting Special district School district list Corruption Elections Electoral College Red states and blue states Foreign relations foreign policy Imperial presidency Ideologies Anti-Americanism exceptionalism nationalism Parties Democratic Republican Third parties Scandals Economy By sector Agriculture Banking Communications Companies Energy Insurance Manufacturing Mining Science and technology Tourism Trade by state Currency Exports Federal budget Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States Federal Reserve System Financial position Labor unions Public debt Social welfare programs Taxation Unemployment Wall Street Transport Aviation Driving Public transportation Rail transportation Transportation policy Transportation safety Trucking industry Society Culture Americana Architecture Cinema Crime Cuisine Dance Demographics Economic issues affluence eviction homeownership household income income inequality middle class personal income poverty standard of living wealth working class Education attainment literacy Family Fashion Flag list Folklore Holidays Federal holidays Homelessness Housing Human rights Languages American English Indigenous languages ASL Literature Media journalism internet newspapers radio television Music Names National anthem National symbols Columbia Mount Rushmore Statue of Liberty Uncle Sam People Philosophy Political ideologies Race Religion Sexuality Social class Society Sports Theater Transportation Video games Visual art Social class Affluence American Dream Educational attainment Homelessness Homeownership Household income Income inequality Middle class Personal income Poverty Standard of living Health Aging Healthcare Abortion Birth control Prenatal care Hospice care Immigrant health care Rationing Health care finance Health insurance costs Health care prices Prescription drug prices Disability Health insurance Food safety Physician shortage Poverty and health Race and health Obesity Medical deserts Women's reproductive health Life expectancy Issues Capital punishment Crime incarceration Criticism of government Discrimination affirmative action antisemitism intersex rights Islamophobia LGBT rights racism Native American African American Energy policy Environmental issues Environmental movement Climate change Gun politics Mass shootings Hunger Smoking Human rights Immigration illegal National security Terrorism Opioid epidemic Separation of church and state Xenophobia Outline Index Category Portal v t e National personifications Afghanistan, Iran and Tajikistan Rostam Albania Mother Albania Americas Personification of the Americas Argentina Effigies of Argentina Armenia Mother Armenia Australia Little Boy from Manly Bangladesh Bangamata Belgium Leo Belgicus Brazil Efígie da República Cambodia Preah Thong and Neang Neak Canada Johnny Canuck Chile Huaso Roto China Panda Chinese dragon Jade Emperor Croatia Mother Croatia Czech Republic Čechie Czech Vašek Švejk Denmark Holger Danske Mother Denmark Europe Europa Europa regina Finland Finnish Maiden France Marianne Gallic rooster Georgia Kartvlis Deda Germany Deutscher Michel Germania Greece Hellas Haiti Ezili Dantor Catherine Flon Hungary Lady of Hungaria Iceland Lady of the Mountain India Bharat Mata Indian Elephant Indonesia Ibu Pertiwi Ireland Ériu Hibernia Kathleen Ni Houlihan Israel Srulik Italy Italia turrita Roma Japan Amaterasu Kenya Wanjiku Korea Dangun Ungnyeo Kyrgyzstan Manas Lebanon Abu Abed Malaysia Hang Tuah Malta Melita Netherlands Dutch Maiden New Zealand Southern man Zealandia Norway Ola Nordmann Pakistan Shaheen Māder-e Millat Palestine Handala Peru Madre Patria Philippines Juan dela Cruz Maria Clara Poland Polonia Portugal Efígie da República Zé Povinho Russia Mother Russia Russian Bear Russian Winter Serbia Kosovo Maiden Mother Serbia Singapore Merlion Spain Hispania Sweden Mother Svea Switzerland Helvetia Thailand Siam Devadhiraj Ukraine Cossack Mamay United Kingdom Britannia John Bull Dame Wales Welsh Dragon United States Brother Jonathan Columbia Lady Liberty Lady Justice Uncle Sam Billy Yank Northern states Johnny Reb Southern states Countryballs Other symbols of Liberty

Template:Link FA Template:Link FA Template:Link FA Template:Link FA Template:Link FA Template:Link FA Template:Link FA Template:Link FA Template:Link FA Template:Link FA

• Articles containing potentially dated statements from June
• United States
• Northern American countries
• Countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean
• Countries bordering the Pacific Ocean
• Countries bordering the Arctic Ocean
• English-speaking countries and territories
• Federal countries
• Former British colonies
• G8 nations
• G20 nations
• Liberal democracies
• States and territories established in 1776
• Federal republics
• Federal constitutional republics
• Constitutional republics
• Republics