United States of America

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United States of America
Motto: "In God We Trust"
Anthem: "The Star-Spangled Banner"
CapitalWashington, D.C.
38°53′N 77°01′W / 38.883°N 77.017°W / 38.883; -77.017
Largest city New York City
40°43′N 74°00′W / 40.717°N 74°W / 40.717; -74
National language English
Ethnic groups 58% European
Demonym American
Government Federal presidential constitutional republic
 -  President Joe Biden (D)
 -  Vice President Kamala Harris (D)
 -  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D)
Legislature Congress
 -  Upper house Senate
 -  Lower house House of Representatives
Independence from Great Britain
 -  Declaration July 4, 1776 
 -  Confederation March 1, 1781 
 -  Treaty of Paris September 3, 1783 
 -  Constitution June 21, 1788 
 -  Last state admitted August 21, 1959 
 -  Water (%) 4.66[1]
 -  Total land area 3,531,905 sqmi
Population
 -  2021 estimate 331,893,745[2]
GDP (PPP) 2022 estimate
 -  Total increase $24.8 trillion[3] (2nd)
 -  Per capita increase $74,725[3] (8th)
GDP (nominal) 2022 estimate
 -  Total increase $24.8 trillion[3] (1st)
 -  Per capita increase $74,725[3] (5th)
HDI (2019)increase 0.926[4]
very high · 17th
Currency U.S. dollar ($) (USD)
Time zone (UTC−4 to −12, +10, +11)
 -  Summer (DST)  (UTC−4 to −10)
Date format mm/dd/yyyy
Drives on the right
Calling code +1
ISO 3166 code US

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 an archipelago in the middle of the northern Pacific Ocean. The United States also possesses several territories, or insular areas, that are scattered around the Caribbean and Pacific.

At 9.3 million km² and with over 300 million people, the United States is the third largest country by contiguous land in America (after Brazil and Canada), and third largest by land area and by population.

History

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.[5] 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.

Demographics

Whites account for under half the births in the USA.[6] and in a few years will no longer be the majority.[7] By 2043, it's expected that whites throughout the USA will be a minority.[8]

In many large cities in the USA, whites already have become minorities such as Tucson, Denver, Phoenix, and so on.[9]

Because of illegal immigration, whites are no longer the majority in California. Hispanics became the majority in 2014.[10][11][12][13] The U.S. government will not control its own borders.

The USA today is called a "nation of immigrants." This a phrase was popularized by John F. Kennedy who wrote the 1958 book “A Nation of Immigrants” at the request of the Anti-Defamation League.[14] The phrase “melting pot” was coined by the Jew Israel Zangwill in a 1905 play, The Melting Pot. The poem The New Colossus on the Statue of Liberty with, "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" was written by the Jewess Emma Lazarus back in 1883.

Since 2014, based on a nationwide average of all schools together, white students are now a minority in US schools.[15]

Language

The English language 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 80% 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.

See also

Further reading

External links

Encyclopedias

References

  1. ↑ Surface water and surface water change. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2015).
  2. ↑ Bureau, US Census. New Vintage 2021 Population Estimates Available for the Nation, States and Puerto Rico.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 World Economic Outlook Database, October 2021. International Monetary Fund.
  4. ↑ Human Development Report 2020: The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene (en). United Nations Development Programme (December 15, 2020).
  5. ↑ 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.
  6. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/us/whites-account-for-under-half-of-births-in-us.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
  7. ↑ http://money.cnn.com/2013/05/15/news/economy/minority-majority/index.html
  8. ↑ http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57558742/census-whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-u.s-by-2043/
  9. ↑ http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Latinos-are-flocking-to-biggest-cities-Whites-2490442.php
  10. ↑ http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57566998/hispanics-predicted-to-become-majority-in-california-in-2014/
  11. ↑ http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2013/01/californias-hispanics-to-outnumber-whites-by-the-end-of-the-year-2542380.html
  12. ↑ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/whites-no-longer-the-majority-in-california-754328.html
  13. ↑ http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/33-871-648-Hispanics-Now-Make-Up-Third-Of-2936788.php
  14. ↑ http://archive.adl.org/immigrants/guide.html "In the Foreword, [ADL Director Abraham] Foxman shares that Kennedy, who was a junior Senator of Massachusetts, accepted ADL’s request to write this essay, and A Nation of Immigrants was published in 1958."
  15. ↑ http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BACK_TO_SCHOOL_MAJORITY_MINORITY_ABRIDGED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-08-09-13-51-17
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