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United States of America
Flag Great Seal
Motto:  Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (1789 to 1956) (Latin for "Out of many, one") In God We Trust (1956 to present)
Anthem: "The Star-Spangled Banner"
Capital	Washington, D.C.
Largest city	New York City
Official languages	None at federal level; English de facto
Government	Federal Republic
• President	George W. Bush (R)
• Vice President	Dick Cheney (R)
Independence
• Water (%)	4.87
Population
• 2006 estimate	298,217,215 (3rd)
• 2000 census	281,421,936
GDP (PPP)	2006 estimate
• Total	$13,049 billion (1st)
• Per capita	$43,555 (3rd)
HDI (2003)	0.944 very high (10th)
Currency	Dollar ($) (USD)
Time zone	UTC-5 to -10
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 to -10
Calling code	1
ISO 3166 code	US
Internet TLD	.us .gov .edu .mil .um
1.) Area rank is disputed with China and sometimes is ranked 3rd or 4th.

The United States of America, also known as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., and America, is a country in North America. A federal constitutional republic, the United States shares land borders with Canada and Mexico, and extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Its capital is Washington, D.C.

The present-day United States has been inhabited for at least 15,000 years by Native Americans. After 16th-century European exploration, the British established colonies in the eastern portion of the continent in the 17th century. On July 4, 1776, thirteen of these colonies declared their independence; the war over British rule, begun in 1775, ended in 1783, when Great Britain recognized the new nation. Since then, the country has expanded greatly through territorial acquisitions: it now consists of 50 states, a federal district, and a number of overseas territories.

At over 3.7 million square miles (over 9.1 million km²), the U.S. is the third largest country by area. Home to nearly 300 million people, it is the world's third most populous country.

The United States has maintained a stable liberal democratic political system since it adopted its constitution on September 17, 1787. American military and economic stature increased throughout the 20th century; with the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War, the nation emerged as the world's sole superpower.

History of name

The earliest known use of the name America is from 1507, when a globe and a large map created by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges described the combined continents of North and South America. An accompanying book, Cosmographiae Introductio, explains the name as a feminized version of the Latin name of Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci (Americus Vespucius); in Latin, the other continents' names were feminine.

America has been used as a designation for the United States since its foundation, by both Americans and others. Several patriotic songs and poems have also used this term throughout American history, including the songs "God Bless America" and "America the Beautiful".

The Americas, including the region encompassing the thirteen colonies, were originally known as Columbia, prompting the name District of Columbia for the land set aside for the nation's capital. Columbia remained a popular name for the United States until the early twentieth century, when it fell into relative disuse; but it is still used poetically and appears in various names and titles. (The South American country's name is Colombia.) A female personification of the country is also called Columbia; she is similar to Britannia.

The term "united States of America" was first used officially in the Declaration of Independence, adopted on July 4, 1776. On November 15, 1777, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, the first of which stated "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be 'The United States of America.'"

History

Before the European colonization of the Americas, a process that began at the end of the 15th century, the present-day U.S. was inhabited exclusively by Native Americans, who arrived on the continent between 50,000 and 11,000 years ago. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, followed in 1620 by the Pilgrims' landing at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Within the following two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (later New York City), were established; New Sweden was founded by the Swedes in Delaware, and extensive British settlement of the east coast continued making up the original thirteen colonies that would form the United States in 1776.

Tensions between American colonials and the British during the revolutionary period of the 1760s and 1770s led to open military conflict in 1775. George Washington commanded the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) as the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The Second Continental Congress had been formed to confront British actions, and did create the Continental Army, but did not have the authority to levy taxes or make federal laws. In 1777, the Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, uniting the states under a weak federal government, which operated from 1781 until 1788, when enough states had ratified the United States Constitution. The Constitution, which strengthened the union and the federal government, has since remained the supreme law of the land.

From 1803 to 1848, the size of the new nation nearly tripled as settlers (many entrenched with the concept of Manifest Destiny as an inevitable consequence of American exceptionalism) pushed beyond national boundaries even before the Louisiana Purchase. The expansion was tempered somewhat by the stalemate in the War of 1812, but was subsequently reinvigorated by victory in the Mexican-American War in 1848.

As new territories were being incorporated, the nation was divided over the issue of states' rights, the role of the federal government, and, by the 1820s, the expansion of slavery. The Northern states were opposed to the expansion of slavery whereas the Southern states saw the opposition as an attack on their way of life, since their economy was dependent on slave labor. The failure to resolve these issues led to the American Civil War, following the secession of many slave states in the South to form the Confederate States of America after the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln. The 1865 Union victory in the Civil War effectively ended slavery, as well as settling the question of whether a state had the right to secede. The event was a major turning point in American history, with an increase in federal power.

After the Civil War, an unprecedented influx of immigrants, who helped to provide labor for American industry and create diverse communities in undeveloped areas together with high tariff protections, national infrastructure building, and national banking regulations, hastened the country's rise to international power. The United States subsequently gained new territories as a result of its growing power status, including the annexation of Puerto Rico after a victory in the Spanish-American War, which marked the beginning of the U.S. as a major world power.

At the start of the First World War, in 1914, the U.S. remained neutral; but, in 1917, the U.S. joined the Allied Powers, helping to turn the tide against the Central Powers. For historical reasons, American sympathies were very much in favor of the British and French, even though a sizable number of citizens, mostly Irish and German, were opposed to intervention. After the war, the Senate did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles, because of a fear that it would pull the U.S. into European affairs which President Washington had warned against. Instead, the country chose to pursue a policy of unilateralism that bordered at times on being isolationist.

During most of the 1920s, the U.S. enjoyed a period of unbalanced prosperity as farm prices fell and industrial profits grew. A rise in debt and an inflated stock market culminated in a crash in 1929, triggering the Great Depression, which with the New Deal, led to the rise of greater government intervention in the economy.

The nation did not fully recover until 1941, when the U.S. was driven to join the Allies against the Axis after a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. World War II was the costliest war in American history, but helped to pull the economy out of depression as the required production of military materiel provided much-needed jobs and women entered the workforce in large numbers for the first time.

After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union became superpowers in an era of ideological rivalry dubbed the Cold War. The U.S. represented liberal democracy and capitalism, while the USSR represented communism and a centrally planned economy. The result was a series of proxy wars, including the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the tense nuclear showdown of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The perception that the U.S. was losing the space race spurred government efforts to raise proficiency in mathematics and science in schools and lead to President Kennedy's call for the United States to land "a man on the moon" by the end of the 1960s, which was realized in 1969.

Meanwhile, American society experienced a period of sustained economic expansion. At the same time, discrimination across the U.S., especially in the South, was increasingly challenged by a growing civil-rights movement headed by prominent African Americans such as Martin Luther King, Jr., which led to the abolition of the racist Jim Crow laws in the South.

After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States continued to involve itself in military action overseas, such as the Gulf War.

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, U.S. foreign policy focused on the threat of terrorist attacks. In response, the government under George W. Bush began a series of military and legal operations termed the War on Terror, beginning with the overthrow of Afghanistan's Taliban government in October 2001. Soon after, the "War on Terror" continued with the controversial 2003 invasion of Iraq, with support from 30 governments known as 'the coalition of the willing'. This invasion resulted in a wave of anti-American sentiment abroad and an anti-war movement that has grown over time.

Government and politics

Template:Morepolitics

The United States is the longest-surviving constitutional republic with the oldest written constitution in the world. Its government operates as a representative democracy through a congressional system under a set of powers specified by its Constitution. There are three levels of government: federal, state, and local. Officials at all three levels are either elected by voters in a secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Executive and legislative offices are decided by a plurality vote of citizens in their respective districts, with judicial and cabinet-level offices nominated by the Executive and approved by the Legislature. In some states, judicial posts are filled by popular election rather than executive appointment.

The federal government comprises three branches, which are designed to check and balance one another's powers:

• Legislative: The Congress, compromising the Senate and the House of Representatives.
• Executive: The President, who appoints, with Senate approval, the Cabinet and other administrative offices to help administer federal law.
• Judiciary: The Supreme Court and lower federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the President with Senate approval.

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature. The House of Representatives has 435 members, each representing a congressional district for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states according to population every tenth year. Each state has two Senators, regardless of population, elected to six-year terms; one third the 100 Senators are elected every second year.

Under the country's federal system, the relationship between the state and national governments is complex; under U.S. law, states are considered sovereign entities. However, the American Civil War and Texas v. White established that states do not have the right to secede, and, under the Constitution, they are not allowed to conduct foreign policy. Federal law overrides state law in the areas in which the federal government is empowered to act; but the powers of the federal government are subject to limits outlined in the Constitution. All powers not granted to the federal government in the Constitution are left to the states or the people themselves. However, the "Necessary and Proper" and "Commerce" clauses of the Constitution legally allow the extension of federal powers into other affairs.

The Constitution contains a dedication to "preserve liberty" with a "Bill of Rights" and other amendments, which guarantee freedom of speech, religion, and the the press; the right to a fair trial; the right to keep and bear arms; universal suffrage; and property rights. However, although the United States is committed to the Western ideology to pursue human rights, the extent to which these rights are available in practice is debated: various forms of ethnic discrimination were not legally prohibited until the 1964 Civil Rights Act. However, discrimination is fading with a more tolerant culture and the passage of numerous anti-discrimination laws, embraced by the majority of Americans.

There are two major political parties: the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. The Republicans are generally socially conservative and economically classical-liberals with some right-center centrists. The Democrats are generally socially liberal and economically progressive with some left-center centrists. Growing numbers of Americans identify with neither party—with some claiming the title Independent and others joining the emerging Green or Reform parties. Since the 1994 congressional elections, the Republican Party has been in control of the United States Congress; since the presidential election of 2000, the president has been George W. Bush, a Republican.

Foreign relations and military

The United States has large economic, political, and military influence on a global scale, which makes its foreign policy a subject of great interest and discussion around the world. Almost all countries have embassies in Washington, D.C., and consulates around the country. However, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Sudan do not have formal diplomatic relations with the United States. The U.S. is a founding member of the United Nations (with a permanent seat on the Security Council), among many other international organizations.

In its effort to contain communism during the Cold War, the U.S. founded NATO, which compels the country to defend, against foreign invasion, any NATO state, all of which are in North America and Europe. In an example of realpolitik, the U.S. also established diplomatic relations with Communist countries that were antagonistic to the Soviet Union, like the People's Republic of China during the Sino-Soviet split. Recently, the United States has fought against not only terrorism but the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Calls by an overwhelming majority of American citizens continue for increased border security against illegal immigration and the shipment of illegal narcotics, with their primary goal the protection of American interests and the safety of U.S. citizens around the world, against such threats as terrorist infiltration at the border with Mexico.

The United States has a long-standing tradition of civilian control over military affairs. The Department of Defense administers the United States armed forces, which comprise the Army, the Air Force, and the Navy (including the Marine Corps). The Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime, but is placed under the Department of the Navy in times of war.

The military of the United States comprises 1.4 million personnel on active duty, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the National Guard. Service in the military is voluntary, though conscription may occur in times of war. The U.S. is considered to have the most powerful high-tech military in the world, because it spends a significant amount on traditional-warfare power projection capabilities; American defense expenditures are estimated to be greater than the next twenty largest national military budgets combined. However, this budget is only about 4% of the country's GDP, which is historically fairly low. As of September 2004, the U.S. maintains 737 military bases and facilities on every continent but Antarctica.

States and territories

The conterminous, or contiguous, forty-eight states—all the states but Alaska and Hawaii—are also called the continental United States. Some include Alaska in the "continental" states, because, although it is separated from the "lower forty-eight" by Canada, it is part of the North American mainland. All of these terms commonly include the District of Columbia. Hawaii, the fiftieth state, is an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean.

The United States also holds several other territories, districts, and possessions, notably the federal district of the District of Columbia—which contains the nation's capital city, Washington—and several overseas insular areas, the most significant of which are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. Palmyra Atoll is the United States' only incorporated territory; but it is unorganized and uninhabited. In addition, since 1898, the United States Navy has leased an extensive naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Geography and climate

The United States is the world's third largest country by land area, after Russia and Canada. It is bounded by the North Atlantic Ocean to the east, the North Pacific Ocean to the west, Mexico to the south, and Canada to the north. Alaska also borders Canada, with the Pacific Ocean to its south and the Arctic Ocean to its north. The island state of Hawaii is situated in the Pacific, southwest of the North American mainland.

The U.S. has an extremely varied geography. The eastern seaboard has a coastal plain which is widest in the south and almost nonexistent in the north. Beyond the coastal plain, the rolling hills of the piedmont region end at the Appalachian Mountains which rise above 6,000 feet (1,830 m) in North Carolina and New Hampshire. From the west slope of the Appalachians, the Midwestern prairie is relatively flat and is the location of the Great Lakes as well as the Mississippi-Missouri River, the world's fourth longest river system. West of the Mississippi River, the prairie slopes uphill and blends into the vast and oftentimes featureless Great Plains. The abrupt rise of the Rocky Mountains at the western edge of the great plains, extends the entire width of the continental U.S., reaching altitudes over 14,000 feet (4,270 m) in Colorado. Dozens of mountain ranges and valleys are found in the Great Basin region which also has deep chasms including the Snake River and Grand Canyon. At the western end of the great basin, Death Valley lies below sea level and is the lowest point in the western hemisphere. Immediately to the west, the Sierra Nevada mountain range has Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the continental U.S. Along the Pacific coast, the Coast Ranges and the volcanic Cascade Range extend across the width of the country. Alaska has numerous mountain ranges, including Mount McKinley (Denali), the highest peak in North America. Numerous volcanoes can be found throughout the Alexander and Aleutian Islands extending south and west of the Alaskan mainland. The Hawaiian islands are tropical, volcanic islands extending over 1,500 miles (2400 km), and consisting of six larger islands and another dozen smaller ones that are inhabited.

The climate of the U.S. is as varied as its landscape. In northern Alaska, tundra and arctic conditions predominate, and the temperature has fallen as low as minus 80 °F (−62 °C). On the other end of the spectrum, Death Valley, California once reached 134 °F (56.7 °C); the second-highest temperature ever recorded on Earth.

The northern states near the Canadian border receive the most snowfall, with the highest snowfall levels in the Cascade Range in Washington, in the region near the Great Lakes and on the highest peaks of the northern Rocky Mountains. Along the northwestern Pacific coast, rainfall is greater than anywhere else in the continental U.S. but Hawaii receives even more, with 250 inches (635 cm) measured annually on some islands. Some areas in the southwestern deserts receive less than 10 inches (25 cm) of rain annually.

In central portions of the U.S., tornadoes are more common than anywhere else on Earth and touch down most commonly in the spring and summer. Deadly and destructive hurricanes occur almost every year along the Atlantic seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico. The Appalachian region and the Midwest experience the worst floods, though virtually no area in the U.S. is immune to flooding.

Flora and fauna

The U.S. has over 17,000 identified native plant and tree species, including 5,000 just in California. With habitats ranging from tropical to arctic, the flora of the U.S. is the most diverse of any country; yet, thousands of non-native exotic species sometimes adversely affect indigenous plant and animal communities. Over 400 species of mammal, 700 species of bird, 500 species of reptile and amphibian, and 90,000 species of insect have been documented. Many plants and animals are very localized in their distribution, and some are in danger of extinction. The U.S. passed the Endangered Species Act in 1973, to protect native plant and animal species and their habitats.

Conservation has a long history in the U.S.; in 1872, the world's first National Park was established, at Yellowstone. Another 57 national parks and hundreds of other federally managed parks and forests have since been designated. In some parts of the country, wilderness areas have been established to ensure long-term protection of pristine habitats. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service monitors endangered and threatened species and has set aside numerous areas for species- and habitat-preservation. Altogether, the U.S. government owns 1,020,779 square miles (2,643,807 km²) which is 28.8% of the total land area of the U.S. The bulk of this land is protected park and forestland; but some is leased for oil and gas exploration, mining, and cattle ranching.

Economy

The economic history of the United States has its roots in the marginally successful colonial economies that progressed to largest industrial nation in the world by the turn of the 20th Century.

The economic system of the United States can be described as a capitalist-mixed economy, in which corporations and other private firms make the majority of microeconomic decisions, and governments prefer to take a smaller role in the domestic economy, although the combined role of all levels of government is relatively large, at 36% of the GDP. The U.S. has a small social safety net, and regulation faced by business firms in the U.S. is slightly below the average of developed countries.

Economic activity varies greatly across the country. For example, New York City is the center for financial, publishing, broadcasting, and advertising industries, while Los Angeles is the most important center for film and television production. The San Francisco Bay Area and the Pacific Northwest are major centers for technology. The Midwest is known for its reliance on manufacturing and heavy industry, with Detroit serving as the center of the American automotive industry. The Southeast is a major area for medical research, tourism, and the lumber industry.

The largest sector in the United States economy is service, which employs roughly three quarters of the work force. The economy is fueled by an abundance in natural resources such as coal, petroleum, and precious metals. However, the country still depends much of its energy source on foreign countries. In agriculture, the country is a top producer of corn, soy beans, rice, and wheat, with the Great Plains labeled as the "breadbasket of the world" for their tremendous agricultural output. The U.S. has a large tourist industry, ranking third in the world, and is also a major exporter in goods such as automobiles, airplanes, steel, weapons, and electronics; however, the U.S. imports such goods as toys, shoes, and textiles from the developing world. The largest trading partner of the United States is Canada (19%), followed by the People's Republic of China, Mexico, and Japan.

While the per-capita income of the United States is among the highest in the world, the wealth is comparatively concentrated, with approximately 40% of the population being worse off than most of western Europe and the top 20% being substantially richer. The social mobility of the U.S. is relatively low and has been characterized since 1975 as a "two-tier labor market," in which practically all the income gains have gone to the top 20% of households.

The United States is an influential country in scientific and technological research and the production of innovative technological products. During World War II, the U.S. was the first to develop the atomic bomb, ushering in the atomic age. Since the country was relatively undamaged by the war, it was able to revive scientific and technological progress in a short period of time. During the beginnings of the Cold War, the U.S. began successes in space science and technology, leading to a space race, which led to rapid advances in rocketry, weaponry, material science, computers, and many other areas, culminating the first visit of a man to the moon, when Neil Armstrong stepped off of Apollo 11 in July 1969.

In the sciences, the United States has a large share of Nobel Prizes, especially in the fields of physiology and medicine. The National Institutes of Health, a focal point for biomedical research in the United States, has contributed to the completion of the Human Genome Project. The main governmental organization for aviation and space research is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Major corporations, such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin, also play an important role.

The automobile industry took off early in the United States in comparison with other countries. As a result, much of the nation's transportation development has been centered on the construction of a network of high-capacity highways. From data taken in 2004, there are about 3,981,521 miles (6,407,637 km) of roadways in the U.S., the most in the world.

Despite the popularity of cars, mass transit systems are also available in large cities, such as New York, which operates one of the busiest subway systems in the world. However, in comparison to Japan and Europe, the United States has an underdeveloped rail network, lacking high-speed rail links connecting major cities.

Air travel is the preferred means of travel for long distances, the busiest airport being Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (as well as being the busiest airport in the world), followed closely by O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. There are also several major seaports in the United States, with the three busiest being the Port of Los Angeles, the Port of Long Beach, and the Port of New York and New Jersey, all three among the world's busiest ports.

Demographics

As of June 2006, there are an estimated 298,967,801 people in the United States, with a population growth rate of about 0.59%. According to Census 2000, about 79 percent of the population lives in urban areas, and the country has 31 ethnic groups with at least one million members each, with numerous others represented in smaller amounts.

The majority of Americans are descendants of European immigrants; this majority, which has been declining since 1965, is expected to be reduced to a plurality by 2050 if current immigration trends continue. The largest ethnic group of European ancestry is German at 15.2 percent, followed by Irish (10.8%), English (8.7%), Italian (5.6%) and Scandinavian (3.7%). Many immigrants also hail from Slavic countries, such as Poland and Russia, as well as from French Canada. African Americans, or Blacks, first arrived as slaves from Africa, particularly between 1690 and 1808. Indigenous peoples in the United States, such as Native Americans and Inuit, make up only a very small percentage of the total population, with about 35 percent of them living on reservations.

Current demographic trends include the immigration of Hispanics from Latin America into the Southwest, a region that is home to about 60 percent of the 35 million Hispanics in the U.S. Immigrants from Mexico make up about 66 percent of the Hispanic community, are second only to the German-descent population in the single-ethnic category. The Hispanic population, which has been growing at an annual rate of about 4.46 percent since the 1990s, is expected to increase significantly in the coming decades, due largely to illegal migration . According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the population of the United States will reach 300 million people in October 2006.

The United States has dozens of major cities, which play an important role in U.S. culture, heritage, and economy. In 2004, 251 incorporated places had populations of at least 100,000 and nine had populations greater than 1,000,000, including several important global cities, such as New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. In addition, there are fifty metropolitan areas with populations over 1,000,000.

Language

Although the U.S. has no official language, it is largely monolingual with English being the national language, which is spoken by about 82 percent of the population as a native language and nearly everyone as a daily language. Even though English is not the official language, knowledge of it is required to become a naturalized citizen. There have been moves by citizens recently to make English the official language, which is the present case for many states. Twenty-seven states recognize English as an official language, and three states recognize other languages along with English - French in Louisiana, Hawaiian in Hawaii, and Spanish in New Mexico.

Religion

The United States is the largest Christian-majority nation in the world, with Protestant denominations making up the majority at 56 percent (the most populous in the world), followed by Roman Catholics (28%), Mormon (1%), Jewish (1%), Buddhist (1%), Muslim (1%), other (10%), and none (variously estimated at 10% to 15%). The country is also noteworthy for its relatively high level of religiosity among developed nations. About 46 percent of American adults attend church at least once a week (not counting weddings, funerals and christenings), compared with 14 percent of adults in Great Britain, 8 percent in France, and 7 percent in Sweden. Moreover, 58 percent of Americans say they often think about the meaning and purpose of life, compared with 25 percent of the British, 26 percent of the Japanese, and 31 percent of West Germans. However, this rate is not uniform across the country as regular attendance is more common in the Bible Belt, composed largely of Southern and Midwestern states, than in the Northeast or the West Coast.

Education

Education in the United States, has been a state or local, not federal, responsibility. However, the Department of Education of the federal government exerts some influence through its ability to control funding. Students are generally obliged to attend mandatory schooling in public schools starting with kindergarten, and ending with the 12th grade, which is normally completed at age 18, but many states may allow students to drop out at the age of 16. Besides public schools, parents may also choose to educate their own children at home or to send their children to parochial or private schools. After high school, students may choose to attend universities, either public or private. Public universities receive funding from the federal and state governments, as well as other sources, but students still have to pay student loans after graduation. Tuition at private universities is generally much higher than at public universities.

There are many competitive institutions of higher education in the United States, both private and public. The United States has 168 universities in the world's top 500, 17 of which are in the top 20. There are also many smaller universities and liberal arts colleges, and local community colleges of varying quality across the country with open admission policies.

The United States has a low literacy rate as compared to other developed countries, with a reading literacy rate at 86-98% of the population over age 15, while ranking below average in science and mathematics.

Health

Compared to other developed countries, health level in the United States is ranked low (72nd) by WHO and infant mortality rate is high (5 per 1,000); only Latvia's is higher at 6 per 1,000. Obesity is also a public health problem, which is estimated to cost tens of billions of dollars every year.

Unlike most Western governments, the U.S. government does not guarantee publicly-funded health care to its citizens, leading to a notably high number of people suffering from lack of proper healthcare. Private charities and insurance play a huge role in covering health care costs. Health insurance in the United States is traditionally a benefit of employment, which is mandated by law in many cases. Also, emergency care facilities are required to provide service regardless of the patient's ability to pay. Medical bills are overwhelmingly the most common reason for personal bankruptcy in the United States. However, the country spends a notable amount on research through such federal agencies as the National Institutes of Health.

Culture

American culture has been a melting pot of different cultures around the world, which have formed a unified culture centered on the American Dream, a faith, held by many in the United States, that, through hard work, courage, and self-determination, regardless of social class, a person can gain a better life. This belief is rooted in the belief that the country is a "city upon a hill, a light unto the nations," which were values held by many early European settlers and maintained by subsequent generations.

American cuisine, embraces Native American ingredients like turkey, potatoes, corn, and squash which have become integral parts of American culture. Such popular icons as apple pies, pizza, and hamburgers are all derived from European dishes. Burritos and tacos have their origins in Mexico. However, many of the food items now enjoyed worldwide either originated in the United States or were substantially altered by American chefs.

Music in the United States also traces to the country's melting-pot population through a diverse array of styles. Rock and roll, hip hop, country, blues, and jazz are among the country's most internationally renowned genres. Since the late 19th century, popular recorded music from the United States has become increasingly known across the world, such that some forms of American popular music are heard almost everywhere.

However, not all American culture is derived from some other form found elsewhere in the world. For example, the birth of cinema, as well as its radical development, can largely be traced back to the United States. In 1878, the first recorded instance of sequential photographs capturing and reproducing motion was Eadweard Muybridge's series of a running horse, which the British-born photographer produced in Palo Alto, California, using a row of still cameras. Since then, the American film industry, centered in Hollywood, California, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world. Other areas of development include the comic book and Disney's animated cartoons, which saw widespread popularity and influence, especially in Japanese anime and manga and Chinese animation and manhua.

Watching sports is a national pastime, and playing sports, especially American football, baseball, and basketball, is very popular at the high-school level. Professional sports in the U.S. is big business, with most of the world's most highly paid athletes. The "Big Four" sports are baseball, football, ice hockey, and basketball. Another popular sport is auto racing, especially NASCAR. Lacrosse, originally played by some of the indigenous tribes, is a visible sport and growing. Soccer (called football elsewhere) is a popular participatory sport, especially among children; but it does not have a large following as a spectator sport, in contrast to its much greater popularity in other countries. The United States is among the most influential regions in shaping three popular board-based recreational sports—surfboarding, skateboarding, and snowboarding—which have many competitions and a large, dedicated subculture. Eight Olympiads have taken place in the United States. The country generally fares very well in them, especially the Summer Olympics: for instance, in the 2004 Olympics, the U.S. topped the medals table, with a record 103 medals (35 gold, 39 silver, and 29 bronze). Baseball is popularly termed "the national pastime"; since the early 1990s, American Football has largely been considered the most popular sport in America.

See also

• International rankings of the United States
• Historical Columbia

Notes

1. Americas (terminology)
2. History and the Hyperpower by Eliot A. Cohen. July/August 2004. Council on Foreign Relations. URL accessed May 3, 2006.
3. http://www.nasa.gov/columbia/home/index.html
4. http://www.columbiarecords.com/
5. http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/C/htmlC/columbiabroa/columbiabroa.htm
6. http://www.reelclassics.com/Studios/Columbia/columbia.htm
7. http://memory.loc.gov/cocoon/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200000004/default.html
8. "Paleoamerican Origins". 1999. Smithsonian Institution. Accessed May 2, 2006.
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Further reading

• Johnson, Paul M. A History of the American People. 1104 pages. Harper Perennial: March 1, 1999. ISBN 0060930349.
• Litwak, Robert S. Rogue States and U.S. Foreign Policy : Containment after the Cold War. 300 pages. Woodrow Wilson Center Press: February 1, 2000. ISBN 0943875978.
• Nye, Joseph S. The Paradox of American Power : Why the World's Only Superpower Can't Go It Alone. 240 pages. Oxford University Press, USA; New Ed edition: May 1, 2003. ISBN 0195161106.
• Susser, Ida (Editor), and Patterson, Thomas C. (Editor). Cultural Diversity in the United States: A Critical Reader. 476 pages. Blackwell Publishers: December 2000. ISBN 0631222138.
• Whalen, Edward. The United States Of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy. 320 pages. The Penguin Press HC: November 4, 2004. ISBN 1594200335.
• Pierson, Paul. Politics in Time : History, Institutions, and Social Analysis. 208 pages. Princeton University Press: August 9, 2004. ISBN 0691117152.

External links

Government

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

Overviews

• U.S. Census Housing and Economic Statistics Updated regularly by U.S. Bureau of the Census.
• Portrait of the United States - Published by the United States Information Agency, September 1997.
• CIA World Factbook Entry for United States
• Info links for each state

History

• Historical Documents
• National Motto: History and Constitutionality
• Historicalstatistics.org - Links to historical statistics of USA

Maps

• WikiSatellite view of United States at WikiMapia
• The National Atlas of the United States.
• United States map

Immigration

• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services USCIS.gov.
• U.S. citizenship sample civics questions for naturalization interview Immihelp.com - from an immigrant to future immigrants.
• Civic Orientation - Sample Questions for Naturalization

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