United States

By Prof. Raju Vatsavayi

Name

Official name	United States of America
Short forms	United States; the U.S.; the USA; America
Demonym	American
Meaning of the name	"America" from Amerigo Vespucci, on Waldseemüller's map of 1507; "United States" from the Declaration of Independence of 1776
Mottos	"In God We Trust" — the official motto since 30 July 1956; "E pluribus unum" — out of many, one — on the Great Seal since 1782

Quick facts

Capital	Washington, D.C. — the seat of government since 1800; about 700,000 in the district, 6.3 million in the metropolitan area
Largest cities	New York, about 8.5 million; Los Angeles; Chicago; Houston; Phoenix; Philadelphia; San Antonio; San Diego; Dallas; Jacksonville
Official language	None at the federal level until the executive order of 1 March 2025 declared English official; some 30 states had done so before; Spanish spoken by about 42 million
Currency	United States dollar — ISO code USD, $; 100 cents; the Federal Reserve since 1913
Time zones	Six on the mainland, Alaska and Hawaii — Eastern UTC−5, Central −6, Mountain −7, Pacific −8, Alaska −9, Hawaii −10; eleven with the territories; daylight time in all but Hawaii and most of Arizona
Calling code	+1
Internet domains	.us; .gov, .mil and .edu reserved to American institutions
ISO 3166 codes	US · USA · 840
Vehicle registration code	USA
Driving side	Right
Electricity	120 V, 60 Hz; plug types A and B
Independence	Declared 4 July 1776, from Great Britain; recognized by the Treaty of Paris, 3 September 1783
National days	4 July, Independence Day; the third Monday of January, Martin Luther King Jr. Day; the last Monday of May, Memorial Day; the fourth Thursday of November, Thanksgiving; 19 June, Juneteenth, since 2021
Constitution	17 September 1787, in force 4 March 1789 — the oldest written national constitution still in use; 27 amendments, the first ten the Bill of Rights of 1791
Population	331,449,281 at the census of 2020; 341,784,857 at 1 July 2025 (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025) — growth 0.5% in the year, the slowest since the pandemic
Area	9,833,517 km² (3,796,742 sq mi) — land 9,147,593 km², water 685,924 km²; the third- or fourth-largest country in the world
The 250th	The semiquincentennial of the Declaration of Independence, 4 July 2026 — America250

Flag & national symbols

National flag	The Stars and Stripes — thirteen stripes of red and white for the original colonies and fifty white stars on a blue canton for the states; first resolved by Congress on 14 June 1777, in its 50-star form since 4 July 1960, the longest-serving version of the flag.Flag of the United States
The Great Seal	The bald eagle with the olive branch and thirteen arrows, the shield of stripes, the constellation of thirteen stars and the motto E pluribus unum; on the reverse the unfinished pyramid and the eye — adopted 20 June 1782
National anthem	"The Star-Spangled Banner" — words by Francis Scott Key, 14 September 1814, at Fort McHenry; music by John Stafford Smith; made the anthem by Act of Congress, 3 March 1931
National motto	"In God We Trust" — by Act of Congress, 30 July 1956
National colors	Red, white and blue
National bird	The bald eagle — on the seal since 1782, declared the national bird by law on 24 December 2024
National mammal	The American bison — by the National Bison Legacy Act, 9 May 2016
National flower	The rose — proclaimed 20 November 1986
National tree	The oak — by Act of Congress, 2004
National march	"The Stars and Stripes Forever" by John Philip Sousa — by Act of Congress, 1987
National monuments and emblems	The Statue of Liberty; the Liberty Bell; Uncle Sam; the Pledge of Allegiance, 1892, with "under God" since 1954
Symbol status	The flag, seal, anthem, motto, bird, mammal, flower, tree and march are fixed by Act of Congress or presidential proclamation

Geography

Location	North America — the contiguous 48 states between Canada and Mexico, from the Atlantic to the Pacific; Alaska in the northwest; Hawaii in the mid-Pacific; the territories in the Caribbean and the Pacific
Land borders	12,002 km (7,458 mi) with two countries
Border with Canada	8,891 km (5,525 mi), including 2,475 km with Alaska — the longest international border in the world
Border with Mexico	3,155 km (1,960 mi) — the most crossed border in the world
Coastline	19,924 km (12,380 mi) on the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic
Highest point	Denali, 6,190 m (20,310 ft), Alaska — the highest peak in North America; Mount Whitney, 4,421 m, the highest in the contiguous states
Lowest point	Badwater Basin, Death Valley, California — 86 m (282 ft) below sea level; the hottest air temperature ever recorded, 56.7°C, at Furnace Creek in 1913
Mean elevation	760 m (2,493 ft)
Longest rivers	The Missouri, 3,767 km, and the Mississippi, 3,734 km — together 6,275 km, the fourth-longest system in the world; the Yukon; the Rio Grande; the Colorado through the Grand Canyon; the Columbia
Largest lakes	The Great Lakes — Superior, the largest freshwater lake in the world by area, Michigan wholly American, Huron, Erie and Ontario — a fifth of the world's surface fresh water; Great Salt Lake; Lake Okeechobee; Crater Lake, the deepest, 594 m
Terrain	The Atlantic coastal plain and the Appalachians; the Great Plains; the Rocky Mountains; the Great Basin and the deserts of the Southwest; the Sierra Nevada, the Cascades and the Pacific coast; the Alaskan ranges and tundra; the volcanoes of Hawaii
Climate	Everything — arctic in Alaska, tropical in Hawaii and Florida, desert in the Southwest, Mediterranean in California, continental in the middle, temperate on the coasts
Natural hazards	Hurricanes on the Gulf and Atlantic coasts — Katrina 2005, Helene 2024; tornadoes in Tornado Alley, the most in the world; earthquakes and wildfires in the West — Los Angeles, January 2025; floods; blizzards; the volcanoes of Hawaii and the Cascades
Natural resources	Oil and gas — the largest producer of both; coal, the largest reserves; copper, gold, iron, rare earths, uranium, timber, the farmland of the Midwest
Land use	Agricultural land about 44%; forest about 33%
National parks	63 national parks and 433 units of the National Park System — Yellowstone the first in the world, 1 March 1872; Wrangell–St. Elias the largest; the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Great Smoky Mountains the most visited
UNESCO World Heritage	26 — from Mesa Verde and Yellowstone (1978) through the Grand Canyon, Independence Hall, the Statue of Liberty, Yosemite, the Everglades and Monticello to the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks (2023); 13 cultural, 12 natural, 1 mixed
Administrative divisions	50 states and the District of Columbia; five inhabited territories — Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands; some 3,100 counties

People

Population	331,449,281 (census of 2020); 341,784,857 (1 July 2025)
Population density	About 37 per km² (96 per sq mi) — from 11,000 in Manhattan to under one in Alaska
Population growth	0.5% in 2024–25, down from 1.0% the year before, as net immigration fell
Median age	About 39 years — the highest on record
Life expectancy	About 79 years — recovered to the pre-pandemic level
Fertility rate	About 1.6 births per woman
Urban population	About 83%
Adult literacy	About 99%
Race and origin	White about 58% not Hispanic; Hispanic or Latino about 20%, the largest minority; Black about 13%; Asian about 6%; American Indian and Alaska Native about 1%; two or more races about 10% (census of 2020 and estimates)
Immigrants	About 50 million foreign-born — about 15% of the population, the most of any country — from Mexico, India, China, the Philippines, El Salvador and Vietnam; immigration cut sharply since 2025
Languages	English by about 78% at home; Spanish by about 13%; Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Arabic, French; some 350 languages spoken
Religion	Christian about 62% — Protestant about 40%, Catholic about 19%; no religion about 29%; Jewish about 2%; Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu about 1% each
Human Development Index	0.938 (2023 data, 2025 report) — very high; 17th of 193
Sport	American football — the NFL and the Super Bowl; baseball, basketball, ice hockey; the most Olympic medals of any nation, above 3,000; the World Cup of 2026 co-hosted with Canada and Mexico, its final at MetLife Stadium on 19 July 2026; the Olympics of Los Angeles in 2028
Diaspora	About 9 million Americans abroad — in Mexico, Canada, Britain, Germany, Australia and Israel

Government

Form of government	Federal presidential constitutional republic under the Constitution of 1787 — the president, Congress and the Supreme Court as the three branches; the fifty states with their own constitutions and governments
President	Donald Trump (Republican), the 47th, since 20 January 2025 — head of state and government; the 45th president in 2017–2021, the second to serve non-consecutive terms after Grover Cleveland; elected 5 November 2024 with 312 electoral votes to 226 and 49.8% of the popular vote; born 14 June 1946
Vice President	JD Vance (Republican), since 20 January 2025 — the 50th; senator from Ohio 2023–2025
Congress	The 119th Congress, from 3 January 2025 — the House of Representatives, 435 members elected for two years, Republican majority, Speaker Mike Johnson; the Senate, 100 members elected for six years, 53 Republicans, Majority Leader John Thune
The midterms	Due 3 November 2026 — all 435 House seats, 35 of 100 Senate seats and 39 governorships, to seat the 120th Congress on 3 January 2027; a mid-decade redistricting fight since 2025, begun in Texas and answered in California, after the Supreme Court's ruling in Louisiana v. Callais on the Voting Rights Act
The next presidential election	Due 7 November 2028; the president may not stand again under the 22nd Amendment
Supreme Court	Nine justices for life — Chief Justice John Roberts since 29 September 2005; six appointed by Republican presidents
Cabinet	Fifteen executive departments — State under Marco Rubio, Treasury under Scott Bessent, the Department of Defense — restyled the Department of War by executive order in September 2025 — under Pete Hegseth
The shutdown of 2025	The federal government shut from 1 October to 12 November 2025 — 43 days, the longest in history
Foreign operations	U.S. forces seized Venezuela's president Nicolás Maduro in Caracas on 3 January 2026 and brought him to New York for trial; the fuel cut-off to Cuba that followed
Legal system	Common law from England, with civil law in Louisiana; federal and state courts; the Bill of Rights
States	50, each with a governor and legislature — Nebraska's the only unicameral; Delaware the first, 7 December 1787; Hawaii the last, 21 August 1959
United Nations	A founding member, 24 October 1945; the host of the headquarters in New York; a permanent member of the Security Council
Memberships	NATO (a founder, 1949), the G7, the G20, the OECD, the OAS, APEC, the Quad, AUKUS, the WTO; withdrawn from the WHO and the Paris Agreement in 2025

Economy

GDP (nominal)	US$30.76 trillion (2025, Bureau of Economic Analysis) — the largest economy in the world, about a quarter of world output
GDP (PPP)	The second-largest after China — about US$30 trillion (2025)
GDP per capita	About US$90,000 (2025) — among the highest of any large country
GDP growth	About 2% a year (2024–25); unemployment 4.1% and inflation 3.4% in mid-2026
Economy by sector	Services about 80%, industry about 19%, agriculture about 1%
Currency	United States dollar (USD) — the world's reserve currency
Trade	The largest importer and the second-largest exporter in the world — aircraft, refined fuels, machinery, chips, cars, soybeans; Canada, Mexico and China the largest partners; a goods trade deficit above US$1 trillion
Tariffs	The tariffs of 2025 — the "Liberation Day" duties of 2 April 2025 and the country-by-country rates since — lifted the average tariff to its highest since the 1930s; trade deals and truces with Britain, Japan, the EU, China and others through 2025–26
Energy	The largest producer of oil, about 13.5 million barrels a day, and of natural gas; the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas since 2023
Technology and finance	The largest companies in the world — Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta; Wall Street and the dollar; the largest stock market, about US$60 trillion
Agriculture	The largest exporter of corn and soybeans; wheat, cotton, beef, dairy; California's fruit and vegetables
Public finances	A federal debt above US$38 trillion — about 120% of GDP; a deficit near 6% of GDP; the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 4 July 2025
Income classification	High income (World Bank)

Transport & infrastructure

Main airports	Atlanta Hartsfield–Jackson, the busiest in the world; Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Chicago O'Hare, Los Angeles, New York JFK
Airlines	American, Delta, United and Southwest — four of the largest in the world
Main ports	Los Angeles and Long Beach, the largest container ports; Houston, the busiest by tonnage; New York–New Jersey; Savannah; the Mississippi barges to New Orleans
Railways	About 220,000 km (137,000 mi) — the largest network in the world, almost all freight: Union Pacific, BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern; Amtrak for passengers; the Northeast Corridor the one high-speed line
Roads	About 6.6 million km (4.1 million mi) — the largest network in the world; the Interstate Highway System of 78,000 km since 1956; Route 66
Transit	The New York City Subway, 472 stations, the most in the world; the Washington Metro; the Chicago L; the San Francisco BART
Space	NASA since 1958 — Apollo 11 on the Moon, 20 July 1969; the Artemis program to return; SpaceX and the Falcon and Starship rockets; the Space Force since 2019

History in dates

c. 13,000 BC	The first peoples cross from Asia
1492	Columbus reaches the Caribbean, 12 October
1607	Jamestown, Virginia — the first permanent English settlement, 14 May
1620	The Mayflower at Plymouth, November
1776	The Declaration of Independence, 4 July
1783	The Treaty of Paris, 3 September
1787	The Constitution signed, 17 September; George Washington president, 30 April 1789
1803	The Louisiana Purchase doubles the country
1861–1865	The Civil War; the Emancipation Proclamation, 1 January 1863; Lincoln assassinated, 14 April 1865
1869	The transcontinental railroad, 10 May
1917	The United States enters the First World War, 6 April
1929	The Wall Street crash, 29 October — the Great Depression
1941	Pearl Harbor, 7 December
1945	Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 6 and 9 August; the United Nations founded
1963	Kennedy assassinated, 22 November
1964	The Civil Rights Act, 2 July
1969	Apollo 11, 20 July
1991	The Cold War ends
2001	The attacks of 11 September
2008	The financial crisis; Barack Obama elected, 4 November
2020	The pandemic; Joe Biden elected, 3 November
2021	The Capitol attacked, 6 January
2025	Donald Trump's second term, 20 January; the tariffs, 2 April; the 43-day shutdown, October–November
2026	The 250th anniversary, 4 July; the World Cup, June–July; the midterms due 3 November

Records & firsts

The largest economy	About a quarter of world output
The first written constitution still in force	1787
The first national park	Yellowstone, 1872
The Moon	Twelve Americans walked on it, 1969–72 — no one else has
The most Nobel laureates	About 400
The most Olympic medals	Above 3,000
The busiest airport	Atlanta, above 100 million passengers
The longest border	With Canada, 8,891 km
The hottest place	Death Valley, 56.7°C in 1913
The tallest trees	The coast redwoods of California, above 115 m
The longest cave	Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, above 670 km
The most tornadoes	About 1,200 a year
The internet	ARPANET, 1969
Two hundred and fifty years	4 July 2026

Frequently asked questions

What is the official name of the United States?

The United States of America — the name the Declaration of Independence gave the thirteen colonies on 4 July 1776 and the Constitution kept in 1787. "America" comes from Amerigo Vespucci, the Florentine navigator whose name the mapmaker Martin Waldseemüller put on the New World in 1507; "the United States," "the U.S." and "the USA" are the everyday forms, and the country marks its 250th anniversary in 2026.

What is the capital of the United States?

Washington, in the District of Columbia — a federal district on the Potomac, chosen by George Washington in 1790 and the seat of government since 1800, with about 700,000 people in the district and some 6.3 million in its metropolitan area. New York, with about 8.5 million in the city and 20 million around it, is the largest city; Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix and Philadelphia follow.

How big is the United States, and how many people live there?

About 9,833,517 km² (3,796,742 sq mi) — the third- or fourth-largest country in the world, depending on how China's and its own waters are counted — across fifty states, the federal district and five inhabited territories, from Alaska and Hawaii to Puerto Rico and Guam. The census of 2020 counted 331,449,281 people; the Census Bureau estimated 341,784,857 at 1 July 2025, the third-largest population on earth after India and China, growing 0.5 percent in the year as immigration fell.

What are the highest and lowest points of the United States?

Denali, 6,190 m (20,310 ft), in the Alaska Range — the highest peak in North America — and Badwater Basin in Death Valley, California, 86 m (282 ft) below sea level, the lowest point in the Americas; the two lie in the same country and, in the contiguous states, the lowest and the highest, Mount Whitney at 4,421 m, are only 137 km apart. The Mississippi–Missouri system, 6,275 km, is the fourth-longest river in the world.

What currency does the United States use?

The United States dollar (ISO code USD, $), of 100 cents, issued by the Federal Reserve since 1913 — the world's reserve currency and the money of trade, in which about 60 percent of the world's reserves and most of its commodities are priced. The country keeps six time zones across the mainland, Alaska and Hawaii, from UTC−5 to UTC−10, and eleven in all with the territories; most states use daylight saving time.

Who governs the United States?

President Donald Trump, the 47th president, in office since 20 January 2025 for a second, non-consecutive term after his first as the 45th in 2017–2021 — head of state and government, elected for four years, with JD Vance as vice president. The 119th Congress has Republican majorities in both houses, the House under Speaker Mike Johnson and the Senate under Majority Leader John Thune; John Roberts has presided over the Supreme Court since 2005. The midterm elections of 3 November 2026 will fill all 435 House seats, 35 Senate seats and 39 governorships, and decide the 120th Congress; the next presidential election is due on 7 November 2028.

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