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United States of America
Motto: In God We Trust  (official) E Pluribus Unum  (traditional) (Latin: Out of Many, One)
Anthem: "The Star-Spangled Banner"
Capital		Washington, D.C. 38°53′N 77°01′W / 38.883°N 77.017°W / 38.883; -77.017
Largest city		New York City
Official language(s)		None at federal level[a]
National language		English (de facto)[b]
Demonym		American
Government		Federal presidential constitutional republic
-	President	Barack Obama (D)
-	Vice President	Joe Biden (D)
-	Speaker of the House	John Boehner (R)
-	Chief Justice	John Roberts
Legislature		Congress
-	Upper House	Senate
-	Lower House	House of Representatives
Independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain
-	Declared	July 4, 1776
-	Recognized	September 3, 1783
-	Current constitution	June 21, 1788
Area
-	Total	9,826,675 km2 [c](3rd/4th) 3,794,101 sq mi
-	Water (%)	6.76
Population
-	2010 census	308,745,538[1] (April)
-	Density	33.7/km2  87.4/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2009 estimate
-	Total	$14.256 trillion[2] (1st)
-	Per capita	$47,701[2] (6th)
GDP (nominal)		2009 estimate
-	Total	$14.256 trillion[2] (1st)
-	Per capita	$46,381[2] (9th)
Gini (2007)		45.0 (44th)
HDI (2010)		0.902[3] (very high) (4th)
Currency		United States dollar ($) (USD)
Time zone		(UTC−5 to −10)
-	Summer (DST)	(UTC−4 to −10)
Date formats		m/d/yy (AD)
Drives on the		right
Internet TLD		.us .gov .mil .edu
Calling code		+1
^ a. 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. ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language. ^ c. 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. ^ d. 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 is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight 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, and the state of Hawaii is in the mid-Pacific. The United States also possesses several territories, or insular areas, that are scattered around the Caribbean and Pacific.

At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with over 300 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and third largest by land area and by population.

Contents 1 History 2 Demographics 3 Economy 4 External Links 5 See also 6 Note

History

Main article: History of the United States

The nation was founded by thirteen colonies of Great Britain located along the Atlantic seaboard. The first American citizens were individuals of European descent: English, Scottish, German, Dutch, and Scandinavian. Proclaiming themselves "states," they issued the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The rebellious states defeated Britain in the American Revolutionary War, the first successful colonial war of independence.^[4] A federal convention adopted the current United States Constitution on September 17, 1787; its ratification the following year made the states part of a single republic. The Bill of Rights, comprising ten constitutional amendments, was ratified in 1791.

In the nineteenth century, the United States acquired land from France, Spain, 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 slavery in the United States. The Spanish-American War and World War I confirmed the nation'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 United States is the only military superpower in the post–Cold War era and the dominant economic, political, and cultural force in the world.^[5]

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of the United States

Economy

Main article: Economy of the United States

The U.S. economy is the largest national economy in the world, with a nominal 2006 gross domestic product (GDP) of more than US$13 trillion (over 19% of the world total).

External Links

• Video: The Star Spangled Banner

See also

• Timeline of Europeans in America
• List of United States cities by population
• Racial makeup of the U.S. population

Note

1. ↑ Resident Population Data – 2010. U.S. Census Bureau (2010). Retrieved on 2010-12-22.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} United States. International Monetary Fund. Retrieved on 2010-04-21.
3. ↑ Human Development Report 2010. United Nations (2010). Retrieved on 4 November 2010.^{[dead link]}
4. ↑ 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.
5. ↑ Cohen, Eliot A. (July/August 2004). History and the Hyperpower. Foreign Affairs. Retrieved on 2006-07-14.