United States

Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see America (disambiguation), US (disambiguation), USA (disambiguation), The United States of America (disambiguation), and United States (disambiguation).

United States of America
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: "In God We Trust" Other traditional mottos: "E pluribus unum" (Latin) "Out of many, one" "Annuit cœptis" (Latin) "Providence favors our undertakings" "Novus ordo seclorum" (Latin) "New order of the ages"
Anthem: "The Star-Spangled Banner"
Capital	Washington, D.C. 38°53′N 77°1′W
Largest city	New York City 40°43′N 74°0′W
Official languages	None at the federal level
National language	English (de facto)
Ethnic groups (2020)	By race: 61.6% White 12.4% Black 6.0% Asian 1.1% Native American 0.2% Pacific Islander 10.2% two or more races 8.4% other By origin: 81.3% non-Hispanic or Latino 18.7% Hispanic or Latino
Religion (2021)	63% Christianity 40% Protestantism 21% Catholicism 2% other Christian 29% unaffiliated 1% Buddhism 1% Hinduism 1% Islam 1% Judaism 2% other 2% unanswered
Demonym(s)	American
Government	Federal presidential constitutional republic
• President	Joe Biden
• Vice President	Kamala Harris
• House Speaker	Mike Johnson
• Chief Justice	John Roberts
Legislature	Congress
• Upper house	Senate
• Lower house	House of Representatives
Independence  from Great Britain
• Declaration	July 4, 1776 (1776-07-04)
• Confederation	March 1, 1781 (1781-03-01)
• Recognized	September 3, 1783 (1783-09-03)
• Constitution	June 21, 1788 (1788-06-21)
• Last Amendment	May 5, 1992 (1992-05-05)
Area
• Total area	3,796,742 sq mi (9,833,520 km2) (3rd[c])
• Water (%)	4.66 (2015)
• Land area	3,531,905 sq mi (9,147,590 km2) (3rd)
Population
• 2022 estimate	333,287,557
• 2020 census	331,449,281 (3rd)
• Density	87/sq mi (33.6/km2) (185th)
GDP (PPP)	2023 estimate
• Total	$26.950 trillion (2nd)
• Per capita	$80,412 (9th)
GDP (nominal)	2023 estimate
• Total	$26.950 trillion (1st)
• Per capita	$80,412 (7th)
Gini (2020)	39.4 medium
HDI (2021)	0.921 very high · 21st
Currency	U.S. dollar ($) (USD)
Time zone	UTC−4 to −12, +10, +11
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 to −10
Date format	mm/dd/yyyy
Driving side	right
Calling code	+1
ISO 3166 code	US
Internet TLD	.us

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S.) or simply America, is a country primarily located in North America and consisting of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, and nine Minor Outlying Islands. It includes 326 Indian reservations. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 333 million, it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third-most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C., and its most populous city and principal financial center is New York City.

Indigenous peoples have inhabited the Americas for thousands of years. Beginning in 1607, British colonization led to the establishment of the Thirteen Colonies in what is now the Eastern United States. They clashed with the British Crown over taxation and political representation, which led to the American Revolution and the ensuing Revolutionary War. The United States declared independence on July 4, 1776, becoming the first nation-state founded on Enlightenment principles of unalienable natural rights, consent of the governed, and liberal democracy. The country began expanding across North America, spanning the continent by 1848. Sectional division over slavery (primarily of Africans) led to the secession of the Confederate States of America, which fought the remaining states of the Union during the American Civil War (1861–1865). With the Union's victory and preservation, slavery was abolished nationally. However, racial discrimination and inequality continued into subsequent centuries. By 1900, the United States had established itself as a great power, becoming the world's largest economy. After Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the U.S. entered World War II on the side of the Allies. The aftermath of the war left the United States and the Soviet Union as the world's two superpowers and led to the Cold War, during which both countries engaged in a struggle for ideological dominance and international influence but avoided direct military conflict. During the Space Race, the United States landed the first humans on the Moon, notably with the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. Following the Soviet Union's collapse and the end of the Cold War, the United States emerged as the world's sole superpower.

The United States government is a federal presidential constitutional republic and liberal democracy with three separate branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial. It has a bicameral national legislature composed of the House of Representatives, a lower house based on population; and the Senate, an upper house based on equal representation for each state. Many policy issues are decentralized at a state or local level, with widely differing laws by jurisdiction which may not conflict with the Constitution. The U.S. ranks very highly in international measures of quality of life, income and wealth, economic competitiveness, human rights, innovation, and education; it has low levels of perceived corruption. It has higher levels of incarceration and inequality than most other liberal democracies and is the only liberal democracy without universal healthcare. As a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities, the U.S. has been extensively shaped by the world's largest immigrant population.

Highly developed, the U.S. has by far the largest amount of wealth of any country. The American economy accounts for approximately a quarter of global GDP and is the world's largest by nominal GDP. The U.S. is the world's largest importer and second-largest exporter, as well as the largest consumer market. It is a founding member of the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization of American States, NATO and WHO, and is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. It is the world's foremost political, cultural, economic, military, and scientific power.

Etymology

Further information: Names of the United States and Demonyms for the United States

The first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" dates back to a letter from January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, a Continental Army aide to General George Washington, to Joseph Reed, Washington's aide-de-camp. Moylan expressed his desire to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the Revolutionary War effort. The first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, on April 6, 1776.

By June 1776, the name "United States of America" appeared in drafts of the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, authored by John Dickinson, a Founding Father from the Province of Pennsylvania, and in the Declaration of Independence, written primarily by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, on July 4, 1776.

History

Main article: History of the United States

For a topical guide, see Outline of United States history.

Indigenous peoples

Further information: Native Americans in the United States and Pre-Columbian era

Cliff Palace, located in present-day Colorado, was built by Ancestral Puebloans.

The first inhabitants of North America migrated from Siberia across the Bering land bridge at least 12,000 years ago; some evidence suggests an even earlier date of arrival. The Clovis culture, which appeared around 11,000BC, is believed to represent the first widespread culture in the Americas. The Clovis culture was replaced by several more localized regional societies from the Younger Dryas cold-climate period onward.

Over time, indigenous cultures in North America grew increasingly sophisticated, and some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture in the southeast, developed advanced agriculture, architecture, and complex societies. The city-state of Cahokia was the largest, most complex pre-Columbian archaeological site in present-day United States. In the Four Corners region in present-day Southwestern United States, the culture of Ancestral Puebloans developed over centuries of agricultural experimentation. The Algonquian were historically prominent along the Atlantic Coast and in the Saint Lawrence River and Great Lakes regions. Before European immigrants made contact, most of the Algonquian relied on hunting and fishing, and many supplemented their diet by cultivating corn, beans, and squash, known as the "Three Sisters". By the time of European contact in the 17th century, they practiced slash and burn agriculture, using controlled fire to extend farmlands' productivity and manage land. The Ojibwe cultivated wild rice. The Iroquois confederation Haudenosaunee, located in the southern Great Lakes region, was established between the 12th and 15th centuries. Native population estimates of what is now the United States before the arrival of European immigrants range from around 500,000 to nearly 10 million.

Colonization (1492–1763)

Main article: Colonial history of the United States

British North America in 1775 with the 13 colonies shown in red

Christopher Columbus began exploring the Caribbean in 1492, and Spain soon established Spanish Florida on the mainland. The Spanish Empire set up their first settlements in Florida and New Mexico, including in Saint Augustine (1565), which is often considered the nation's oldest city, and Santa Fe (1598). The Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, sent by France to the New World in 1525, encountered Native American inhabitants in the present-day New York Bay region. The French established their own settlements along the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico, including in New Orleans (1718) and Mobile (1702). British colonization of the East Coast began with the Virginia Colony (1607) and Plymouth Colony (1620). Many English settlers were dissenting Christians who fled England seeking religious freedom. The Mayflower Compact and the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut established precedents for representative self-government and constitutionalism that would develop throughout the American colonies.

During 17th-century European colonization, settlers experienced food shortages, disease, and conflicts with Native Americans, particularly in King Philip's War, but often came to develop a mutual dependency. Settlers traded guns, tools, and European goods for food and animal pelts. Native Americans taught settlers to cultivate local foods. Colonial authorities often pursued policies to to "civilize" the Native Americans and urge or force them to adopt European lifestyles. The native population of America declined after European arrival, primarily as a result of infectious diseases brought from Europe such as smallpox and measles, and native peoples were displaced by European expansion.

European settlers trafficked African slaves into the colonial United States via the transatlantic slave trade. By the turn of the 18th century, slavery supplanted indentured servitude as the main source of agricultural labor for the cash crops in the Southern Colonies. Southern tobacco colonies passed laws designed to keep African Americans subservient.

The original Thirteen Colonies were administered by Great Britain. All colonies had local governments with elections open to white male property owners except Jews and, in some areas, Catholics. With very high birth rates, low death rates, and steadily growing settlements, the colonial population grew rapidly, eclipsing Native American populations. By the 1770s, the natural increase of the population was such that only a small minority of Americans had been born overseas. The colonies' distance from Britain allowed for the development of self-governance, and the First Great Awakening—a series of Christian revivals—fueled colonial interest in religious liberty.

Revolution and the new nation (1763–1789)

Main article: History of the United States (1776–1789)

Further information: American Enlightenment

Declaration of Independence, a portrait by John Trumbull depicting the Committee of Five presenting the draft of the Declaration to the Continental Congress on June 28, 1776, in Philadelphia

After the British victory in the French and Indian War, won largely through the support from the colonies, the British began to assert greater control in local colonial affairs, fomenting colonial political resistance. In 1774, to demonstrate colonial dissatisfaction with the lack of representation in the British government that extracted taxes from them, the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and passed the Continental Association, which mandated a colonies-wide boycott of British goods. The British attempted to disarm the Americans, resulting in the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, igniting the American Revolutionary War. At the Second Continental Congress, the colonies appointed George Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and charged a committee led by Thomas Jefferson with writing a Declaration of Independence.

On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, which famously stated: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The adoption of the Declaration of Independence is celebrated annually on July 4 in the United States as Independence Day. After the surrender of a second British Army at the siege of Yorktown in 1781, Britain signed a peace treaty. American sovereignty gained international recognition, and the new nation took possession of substantial territory east of the Mississippi River, from what is present-day Canada in the north to Florida in the south. Washington resigned his commission, returned to private life, and the Continental Army was disbanded.

The Old Plantation, a c. 1790 painting of a plantation by a South Carolina slaveholder

Ratified by the states in 1781 and based on the concept of "consent of the governed", the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union established a decentralized government that operated until 1789. Considered one of the most important legislative acts of the Confederation Congress, the Northwest Ordinance (1787) established the precedent by which the national government would be sovereign and expand westward with the admission of new states, rather than with the expansion of existing states. The prohibition of slavery in the Northwest Territory had the practical effect of establishing the Ohio River as an extension of the Mason–Dixon line, the geographic and political divide between slave states and free states.

As it became increasingly apparent that the Confederation was insufficient to govern the new country, nationalists advocated for and led the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, where the United States Constitution was drafted. The U.S. Constitution is the oldest and longest-standing written and codified national constitution in force today. Ratified by the states, it went into effect in 1789, reorganizing the government into a federation administered by three branches (executive, judicial, and legislative), on the principle of creating salutary checks and balances. George Washington was elected the nation's first President under the new constitution and returned to public life. The Bill of Rights was adopted in 1791 to allay concerns by sceptics of the more centralized national government.

Expansion (1789–1860)

Main article: History of the United States (1789–1849)

Animated map of the territorial evolution of the United States (click to view full size image)

During the colonial period, slavery was legal in the American colonies. However, during the American Revolution, many began to question the practice. Founding Fathers in the northern United States advocated for the abolition of slavery, and slavery was abolished in Northern states. The increased profitability for southern elites after the cotton gin lowered production costs entrenched support for slavery in the southern United States.

In the late 18th century, American settlers began to expand westward, with a sense of manifest destiny. The Louisiana Purchase (1803) nearly doubled the territory of the United States, and effectively ended French opposition to America's westward expansion. Lingering issues with Britain remained, leading to the War of 1812, which was fought to a virtual draw but established the United States as capable of defending itself. Spain ceded Florida and their Gulf Coast territory in 1819. The Missouri Compromise (1820) admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, dividing the country into free states, which forbade slavery, and slave states, which protected the institution.

As Americans expanded further into land inhabited by Native Americans, the federal government often applied policies of Indian removal or assimilation. The displacement prompted a long series of American Indian Wars west of the Mississippi River. The Republic of Texas was annexed in 1845, and the 1846 Oregon Treaty led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest. Victory in the Mexican–American War resulted in the 1848 Mexican Cession of California and much of the present-day American Southwest, resulting in the U.S. stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans.

Civil War and Reconstruction (1860–1876)

Main articles: History of the United States (1849–1865) and 1865–1918

Division of the states in the American Civil War (1861–1865):

  Union states

  Border states

  Confederate states

  Territories

Sectional conflict regarding slavery culminated in the American Civil War. Eleven slave states seceded and formed the Confederate States of America, while the remaining states (the Union) maintained that secession was unconstitutional and illegitimate. On April 12, 1861, the Confederacy bombarded Fort Sumter, a federal garrison in Charleston, South Carolina. The ensuing Civil War (1861–1865) became the deadliest military conflict in American history. In 1863, the Civil War began to turn in the Union's favor following the Siege of Vicksburg led by General Ulysses S. Grant, which gave them control of the Mississippi River, and the Battle of Gettysburg, where the Union Army halted Confederate Army general Robert E. Lee's invasion of the North. In April 1865, following the Union Army's victory at the Battle of Appomattox Court House, the Confederacy surrendered.

The Reconstruction era followed the war. After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Radical Republicans passed the Reconstruction Amendments to ensure the rights of African Americans. The biracial Southern governments were opposed by terrorist and paramilitary organizations. To encourage additional westward settlement the Homestead Acts allowed an applicant to acquire ownership of government land, by residing there. More than 160 million acres (650 thousand km²; 250 thousand sq mi)—nearly 10 percent of the total area of the United States—were given away free to 1.6 million homesteaders. The Southern Homestead Act of 1866 was enacted to break a cycle of debt during Reconstruction. This act attempted to sell land at low prices so marginalized Southerners could buy it, but many were still too poor to afford the lower prices.

National infrastructure, including telegraph and transcontinental railroads, spurred growth in the American Old West. New transcontinental railways made relocation easier, expanded internal trade, and increased conflicts with Native Americans.

Development of the modern United States (1876–1914)

Main article: History of the United States (1865–1918)

Depiction of Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina in 1870

The Compromise of 1877 effectively ended Reconstruction and white supremacists took local control of Southern politics. African Americans endured a period of heightened, overt racism following Reconstruction, a time often called the nadir of American race relations. From 1890 to 1910, the Southern States established Jim Crow laws, disenfranchising almost all African Americans. Racial segregation was prevalent nationwide and discrimination was codified, especially in the South, while well into the 20th century lynching and other forms of unjustified vigilante violence often went unprosecuted.

Territorial expansion continued apace. Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867. Pro-American elements in Hawaii overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy; the islands were annexed in 1898. Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines were ceded by Spain following the Spanish–American War. Puerto Ricans did not gain citizenship either through the Foraker Act (1900) or the Insular Cases (1901), but through the Jones–Shafroth Act in 1917, allowing for the conscription of 20,000 Puerto Ricans, which began two months later. American Samoa was acquired by the United States in 1900 after the Second Samoan Civil War. The U.S. Virgin Islands were purchased from Denmark in 1917.

An Edison Studios film showing immigrants arriving at Ellis Island in New York Harbor, a major point of entry for European immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

From 1865 through 1918 an unprecedented stream of immigrants arrived in the United States, including 24.4 million from Europe including Great Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia, Germany, Italy, Russia, and other parts of Central and Eastern Europe. Most came through the port of New York City, and from 1892 specifically through the now iconic Ellis Island. New York and other large cities on the East Coast became home to large Jewish, Irish, and Italian populations, while many Germans and Central Europeans moved to the Midwest. At the same time, about one million French Canadians migrated from Quebec to New England. During the Great Migration, millions of African Americans left the rural South for urban areas in the North.

Rapid economic development during the late 19th and early 20th centuries fostered the rise of many prominent industrialists, largely by their formation of trusts and monopolies to prevent competition. Tycoons led the nation's expansion in the railroad, petroleum, and steel industries. Banking became a major part of the economy, and the United States emerged as a pioneer of the automotive industry. These changes were accompanied by significant increases in economic inequality, slum conditions, and social unrest, which prompted the rise of populist, socialist, and anarchist movements. This period eventually ended with the advent of the Progressive Era, which was characterized by significant reforms.

World Wars period (1914–1945)

Main article: History of the United States (1918–1945)

The Trinity nuclear test in the Jornada del Muerto desert on July 16, 1945, part of the Manhattan Project and the first detonation of a nuclear weapon

The early 20th century was a time of industrial expansion and social change in the United States. The United States entered World War I alongside the Allies of World War I, helping to turn the tide against the Central Powers. In 1920, a constitutional amendment granted nationwide women's suffrage. During the 1920s and 1930s, radio for mass communication and ultimately the invention of early television transformed communications in the United States. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 triggered the Great Depression, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded to with New Deal social and economic policies.

At first neutral during World War II, the U.S. began supplying war materiel to the Allies of World War II in March 1941 and entered the war after the Empire of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. The U.S. developed the first nuclear weapons and used them again the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, ending the war. The United States was one of the "Four Policemen" who met to plan the postwar world, alongside the United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and China. The U.S. emerged relatively unscathed from the war, with even greater economic and military influence.

Contemporary United States (1945–present)

Main articles: History of the United States (1945–1964), 1964–1980, 1980–1991, and 1991–2008

Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington on August 28, 1963.

After World War II, the United States entered the Cold War, where geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union led the two countries to dominate the affairs of other countries. The U.S. engaged in regime change against governments perceived to be aligned with the Soviet Union, and competed in the Space Race, culminating in the first crewed Moon landing in 1969. Domestically, the U.S. experienced economic growth, urbanization, and population growth following World War II.

The civil rights movement emerged, with Martin Luther King Jr. becoming a prominent leader in the early 1960s. The counterculture movement in the U.S. brought significant social changes, including the liberalization of attitudes towards what substances are acceptable for recreational drug use, sexuality and the beginning of the modern gay rights movement as well as open defiance of the military draft and opposition to intervention in Vietnam. The presidency of Richard Nixon saw the American withdrawal from Vietnam and the Watergate scandal, which led to a decline in public trust in government.

The 1970s and early 1980s saw economic stagflation and President Ronald Reagan responded with neoliberal reforms and a rollback strategy towards the Soviet Union. By 1985, the majority of women aged 16 and over were employed. The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which marked the end of the Cold War and solidified the U.S. as the world's sole superpower.

The World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, New York City, during the September 11 attacks in 2001

In the first decades of the 21st century, the U.S. faced challenges from terrorism, with the September 11 attacks in 2001 leading to the war on terror and military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. TTe U.S. housing bubble in 2006 culminated in the 2007–2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession, the largest economic contraction since the Great Depression. Amid the financial crisis, Barack Obama, the first multiracial president, was elected in 2008.

Political polarization increased as sociopolitical debates on cultural issues dominated political discussion. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in over 100 million confirmed cases and 1 million deaths, making it the most deadly pandemic in U.S. history. Attempts to overturn the 2020 U.S. presidential election culminated in the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol that attempted to prevent the peaceful transition of power.

Geography

Main article: Geography of the United States

A topographic map of the United States

The United States is the world's third-largest nation by land and total area behind Russia and Canada. The 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia occupy a combined area of 3,119,885 square miles (8,080,470 km²). The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way to inland forests and rolling hills in the Piedmont plateau region.

The Appalachian Mountains and the Adirondack massif separate the East Coast from the Great Lakes and the grasslands of the Midwest. The Mississippi River System—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, west of the Great Plains, extend north to south across the country, peaking at over 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in Colorado. Farther west are the rocky Great Basin and Chihuahua, Sonoran, and Mojave deserts. The Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges run close to the Pacific coast. The lowest and highest points in the contiguous United States are in the state of California, about 84 miles (135 km) apart. At an elevation of 20,310 feet (6,190.5 m), Alaska's Denali is the highest peak in the country and continent. 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.

Climate

The Köppen climate types of the United States

Main articles: Climate of the United States and Climate change in the United States

With its large size and geographic variety, the United States includes most climate types. East of the 100th meridian, the climate ranges from humid continental in the north to humid subtropical in the south. The western Great Plains are semi-arid. Many mountainous areas of the American West have an alpine climate. The climate is arid in the Southwest, Mediterranean in coastal California, and oceanic in coastal Oregon, Washington, and southern Alaska. Most of Alaska is subarctic or polar. Hawaii and the southern tip of Florida are tropical, as well as its territories in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

States bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and most of the world's tornadoes occur in the country, mainly in Tornado Alley. Overall, the United States receives more high-impact extreme weather incidents than any other country. Extreme weather became more frequent in the U.S. in the 21st century, with three times the number of reported heat waves as in the 1960s. In the American Southwest, droughts became more persistent and more severe.

Biodiversity and conservation

Main articles: Fauna of the United States and Flora of the United States

The bald eagle, the national bird of the United States since 1782

The U.S. is one of 17 megadiverse countries containing large numbers of endemic species: about 17,000 species of vascular plants occur in the contiguous United States and Alaska, and over 1800 species of flowering plants are found in Hawaii, few of which occur on the mainland. The United States is home to 428 mammal species, 784 birds, 311 reptiles, 295 amphibians, and 91,000 insect species.

There are 63 national parks, and hundreds of other federally managed parks, forests, and wilderness areas, managed by the National Park Service and other agencies. About 28% of the country's land is publicly owned and federally managed, primarily in the western states. Most of this land is protected, though some is leased for industrial use, and less than one percent is used for military purposes.

Environmental issues in the United States include debates on non-renewable resources and nuclear energy, air and water pollution, biological diversity, logging and deforestation, and climate change. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the federal agency charged with addressing most environmental-related issues. The idea of wilderness has shaped the management of public lands since 1964, with the Wilderness Act. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 provides a way to protect threatened and endangered species and their habitats. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service implements and enforces the Act. As of 2020, the U.S. ranked 24th among 180 nations in the Environmental Performance Index. The country joined the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2016 and has many other environmental commitments.

Government and politics

Main articles: Constitution of the United States, Politics of the United States, and Government of the United States

Further information: Political parties in the United States, Elections in the United States, Political ideologies in the United States, American patriotism, and American civil religion

The Capitol and its two legislative chambers, the Senate (left) and the House of Representatives (right)

The White House, the residence and workplace of the U.S. President and the offices of the presidential staff

The Supreme Court Building, which houses the nation's highest court

The United States was founded on the principles of the American Enlightenment. It is a federal republic of 50 states, a federal district, five territories and several uninhabited island possessions. It is the world's oldest surviving federation, and, according to the World Economic Forum, the oldest democracy as well. It is a liberal representative democracy "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law." The U.S. Constitution serves as the country's supreme legal document, establishing the structure and responsibilities of the federal government and its relationship with the individual states.

The federal government comprises three branches, which are headquartered in Washington, D.C. and regulated by a system of checks and balances.

• The U.S. Congress, a bicameral legislature, 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. The Senate has 100 members (2 from each state), elected for a six-year term. The House of Representatives has 435 members from single member congressional districts allocated to each state on the basis of population, elected for a two-year term.
• The U.S. President is the commander-in-chief of the military, can veto legislative bills before they become law (subject to congressional override), and appoints the members of the Cabinet (subject to Senate approval) and other officers, who administer and enforce federal laws and policies through their respective agencies. The president and the vice president are elected together in a presidential election. It is an indirect election, with the winner being determined by votes cast by electors of the Electoral College. The President and Vice President serve a four-year term and may be elected to the office no more than twice.
• The U.S. federal judiciary, whose judges are all appointed for life by the President with Senate approval, consists primarily of the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeals, and the U.S. District Courts. The U.S. Supreme Court interprets laws and overturn those they find unconstitutional. The Supreme Court is led by the chief justice of the United States. It has nine members who serve for life. The members are appointed by the sitting president when a vacancy becomes available.

Political subdivisions

Main articles: Political divisions of the United States, State government in the United States, Local government in the United States, and U.S. state

Further information: List of states and territories of the United States, Indian reservation, and Territories of the United States

See also: Territorial evolution of the United States

In the American federal system, sovereignty is shared between two levels of government: federal and state. Each of the 50 states has territory where it shares sovereignty with the federal government. People in the states are also represented by local elected governments, which are administrative divisions of the states. States are subdivided into counties or county equivalents, and further divided into municipalities. The District of Columbia is a federal district that contains the capital of the United States, the city of Washington. The territories and the District of Columbia are administrative divisions of the federal government.

Foreign relations

Main articles: Foreign relations of the United States and Foreign policy of the United States

The United Nations headquarters has been situated along the East River in Midtown Manhattan since 1952; in 1945, the United States was a founding member of the UN.

The United States has an established structure of foreign relations, and it had the world's second-largest diplomatic corps in 2019. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and home to the United Nations headquarters. The United States is a member of the G7, G20, and OECD intergovernmental organizations. Almost all countries have embassies and many have consulates (official representatives) in the country. Likewise, nearly all nations host formal diplomatic missions with the United States, except Iran, North Korea, and Bhutan. Though Taiwan does not have formal diplomatic relations with the U.S., it maintains close unofficial relations. The United States regularly supplies Taiwan with military equipment to deter potential Chinese aggression.

The United States has a "Special Relationship" with the United Kingdom and strong ties with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Israel, and several European Union countries (France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Poland). The U.S. works closely with its NATO allies on military and national security issues, and with nations in the Americas through the Organization of American States and the United States–Mexico–Canada Free Trade Agreement. In South America, Colombia is traditionally considered to be the closest ally of the United States. The U.S. exercises full international defense authority and responsibility for Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau through the Compact of Free Association. It has increasingly conducted strategic cooperation with India, and its ties with China have steadily deteriorated. Since 2014, the U.S. has become a key ally of Ukraine.

Military

Main articles: United States Armed Forces and Military history of the United States

The U.S. Air Force's B-2 Spirit, a stealth heavy strategic bomber

The Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense

The President is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces and appoints its leaders, the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Department of Defense, which is headquartered at the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., administers five of the six service branches, which are made up of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Space Force. The Coast Guard is administered by the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime and can be transferred to the Department of the Navy in wartime.

The United States spent $877 billion on its military in 2022, which is by far the largest amount of any country, making up 39% of global military spending and accounting for 3.5% of the country's GDP. The U.S. has more than 40% of the world's nuclear weapons, the second-largest amount after Russia.

The United States has the third-largest combined armed forces in the world, behind the Chinese People's Liberation Army and Indian Armed Forces. The military operates about 800 bases and facilities abroad, and maintains deployments greater than 100 active duty personnel in 25 foreign countries.

Today, American forces can be rapidly deployed by the Air Force's large fleet of transport aircraft, the Navy's 11 active aircraft carriers, and Marine expeditionary units at sea with the Navy, and Army's XVIII Airborne Corps and 75th Ranger Regiment deployed by Air Force transport aircraft. The Air Force can strike targets across the globe through its fleet of strategic bombers, maintains the air defense across the United States, and provides close air support to Army and Marine Corps ground forces.

Law enforcement and crime

Main articles: Law enforcement in the United States, Crime in the United States, and Censorship in the United States

J. Edgar Hoover Building, the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

There are about 18,000 U.S. police agencies from local to federal level in the United States. Law in the United States is mainly enforced by local police departments and sheriff departments in their municipal or county jurisdictions. The state police departments have authority in their respective state, and federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Marshals Service have national jurisdiction and specialized duties, such as protecting civil rights, national security and enforcing U.S. federal courts' rulings and federal laws. State courts conduct most civil and criminal trials, and federal courts handle designated crimes and appeals of state court decisions.

As of January 2023, the United States has the sixth highest per-capita incarceration rate in the world, at 531 people per 100,000; and the largest prison and jail population in the world with almost 2 million people incarcerated. A cross-sectional analysis of the World Health Organization Mortality Database from 2010 showed that United States homicide rates "were 7.0 times higher than in other high-income countries, driven by a gun homicide rate that was 25.2 times higher."

Economy

Main article: Economy of the United States

Further information: Economic history of the United States and Tourism in the United States

The U.S. dollar is the currency most used in international transactions and is the world's foremost reserve currency.

The New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street, the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization

Apple Park, in Cupertino, California, within Silicon Valley, is the headquarters of Apple Inc., the world's biggest company by market capitalization.

According to the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) is $25.5 trillion, the largest of any country in the world, constituting over 25% of the gross world product at market exchange rates and over 15% of the gross world product at purchasing power parity (PPP). From 1983 to 2008, U.S. real compounded annual GDP growth was 3.3%, compared to a 2.3% weighted average for the rest of the Group of Seven. The country ranks first in the world by disposable income per capita, nominal GDP, second by GDP (PPP), seventh by nominal GDP per capita, and eighth by GDP (PPP) per capita.

The U.S. has been the world's largest economy since at least 1900. Anchored by Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, the U.S. is the world's leading financial and fintech center. Many of the world's largest companies, such as Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Coca-Cola, Disney, General Motors, McDonald's, Meta, Microsoft, Nike, Pepsi, and Walmart, were founded and are headquartered in the United States. Of the world's 500 largest companies, 136 are headquartered in the U.S. The U.S. dollar is the currency most used in international transactions and is the world's foremost reserve currency, backed by the country's dominant economy, its military, the petrodollar system, and its linked eurodollar and large U.S. treasuries market. Several countries use it as their official currency and in others it is the de facto currency. It has free trade agreements with several countries, including the USMCA. The U.S. ranked second in the Global Competitiveness Report in 2019, after Singapore.

New York City is the world's principal financial center, with the largest economic output, and the epicenter of the principal American metropolitan economy. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, both located in New York City, are the world's two largest stock exchanges by market capitalization and trade volume. The United States is at or near the forefront of technological advancement and innovation in many economic fields, especially in artificial intelligence; computers; pharmaceuticals; and medical, aerospace and military equipment. The nation's economy is fueled by abundant natural resources, a well-developed infrastructure, and high productivity. It has the second-highest total-estimated value of natural resources after Russia. The largest U.S. trading partners are the European Union, Mexico, Canada, China, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Vietnam, India, and Taiwan. The United States is the world's largest importer and the second-largest exporter after China. It is by far the world's largest exporter of services.

While its economy has reached a post-industrial level of development, the United States remains an industrial power. As of 2018, the U.S. is the second-largest manufacturing nation after China. In 2021, the U.S. was both the world's largest exporter and importer of engines. Despite the fact that the U.S. only accounted for 4.24% of the global population, residents of the U.S. collectively possessed 31.5% of the world's total wealth as of 2021, the largest percentage of any country. The U.S. ranks first in the number of dollar billionaires and millionaires, with 724 billionaires and nearly 22 million millionaires (as of 2021).

Americans have the highest average household and employee income among OECD member states, and the fourth-highest median household income, up from sixth-highest in 2013. Wealth in the United States is highly concentrated; the richest 10% of the adult population own 72% of the country's household wealth, while the bottom 50% own just 2%. Income inequality in the U.S. remains at record highs, with the top fifth of earners taking home more than half of all income and giving the U.S. one of the widest income distributions among OECD members. There were about 582,500 sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons in the U.S. in 2022, with 60% staying in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program. In 2018 six million children experience food insecurity. Feeding America estimates that around one in seven, or approximately 11 million, children experience hunger and do not know where they will get their next meal or when. As of June 2018, 40 million people, roughly 12.7% of the U.S. population, were living in poverty, including 13.3 million children.

The United States has a smaller welfare state and redistributes less income through government action than most other high-income countries. It is the only advanced economy that does not guarantee its workers paid vacation nationally and is one of a few countries in the world without federal paid family leave as a legal right. The United States has a higher percentage of low-income workers than almost any other developed nation, largely because of a weak collective bargaining system and lack of government support for at-risk workers.

Science, technology, and energy

Main articles: Science and technology in the United States, Science policy of the United States, Telecommunications in the United States, and Energy in the United States

U.S. astronaut Buzz Aldrin saluting the flag on the Moon during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission. The United States is the only country that has sent crewed missions to the lunar surface.

The United States has been a leader in technological innovation since the late 19th century and scientific research since the mid-20th century. Methods for producing interchangeable parts and the establishment of a machine tool industry enabled the U.S. to have large-scale manufacturing of sewing machines, bicycles, and other items in the late 19th century. In the early 20th century, factory electrification, the introduction of the assembly line, and other labor-saving techniques created the system of mass production. In the 21st century, approximately two-thirds of research and development funding comes from the private sector. In 2022, the United States was the country with the second-highest number of published scientific papers. As of 2021, the U.S. ranked second by the number of patent applications, and third by trademark and industrial design applications. The U.S. had 2,944 active satellites in space in December 2021, the highest number of any country. In 2022, the United States ranked 3rd in the Global Innovation Index.

As of 2021, the United States receives approximately 79.1% of its energy from fossil fuels. In 2021, the largest source of the country's energy came from petroleum (36.1%), followed by natural gas (32.2%), coal (10.8%), renewable sources (12.5%), and nuclear power (8.4%). The United States constitutes less than 5% of the world's population, but consumes 17% of the world's energy. It accounts for about 20% of both the world's annual petroleum consumption and petroleum supply. The U.S. ranks as second-highest emitter of greenhouse gases, exceeded only by China.

Transportation

Main article: Transportation in the United States

Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, serving the Atlanta metropolitan area, is the world's busiest airport by passenger traffic with over 93 million passengers annually in 2022.

The United States's rail network, nearly all standard gauge, is the longest in the world, and exceeds 293,564 km (182,400 mi). It handles mostly freight, with intercity passenger service primarily provided by Amtrak, a government-managed company that took over services previously run by private companies, to all but four states.

Personal transportation in the United States is dominated by automobiles, which operate on a network of 4 million miles (6.4 million kilometers) of public roads, making it the longest network in the world. The Oldsmobile Curved Dash and the Ford Model T, both American cars, are considered the first mass-produced and mass-affordable cars, respectively. As of 2022, the United States is the second-largest manufacturer of motor vehicles and is home to Tesla, the world's most valuable car company. American automotive company General Motors held the title of the world's best-selling automaker from 1931 to 2008. Currently, the American automotive industry is the world's second-largest automobile market by sales, and the U.S. has the highest vehicle ownership per capita in the world, with 816.4 vehicles per 1000 Americans (2014). In 2017, there were 255 million non-two wheel motor vehicles, or about 910 vehicles per 1000 people.

The American civil airline industry is entirely privately owned and has been largely deregulated since 1978, while most major airports are publicly owned. The three largest airlines in the world by passengers carried are U.S.-based; American Airlines is number one after its 2013 acquisition by US Airways. Of the world's 50 busiest passenger airports, 16 are in the United States, including the top five and the busiest, Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport. As of 2020, there are 19,919 airports in the United States, of which 5,217 are designated as "public use", including for general aviation and other activities.

Of the fifty busiest container ports, four are located in the United States, of which the busiest is the Port of Los Angeles. The country's inland waterways are the world's fifth-longest, and total 41,009 km (25,482 mi).

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of the United States

Population

Main articles: Americans and Race and ethnicity in the United States

See also: List of U.S. states by population

United States population density map based on Census 2010 data

The U.S. Census Bureau reported 331,449,281 residents as of April 1, 2020, making the United States the third-most populous nation in the world, after China and India. According to the Bureau's U.S. Population Clock, on January 28, 2021, the U.S. population had a net gain of one person every 100 seconds, or about 864 people per day. In 2018, 52% of Americans age 15 and over were married, 6% were widowed, 10% were divorced, and 32% had never been married. In 2021, the total fertility rate for the U.S. stood at 1.7 children per woman, and it had the world's highest rate of children (23%) living in single-parent households in 2019.

The United States has a diverse population; 37 ancestry groups have more than one million members. White Americans with ancestry from Europe, the Middle East or North Africa, form the largest racial and ethnic group at 57.8% of the United States population. Hispanic and Latino Americans form the second-largest group and are 18.7% of the United States population. African Americans constitute the nation's third-largest ancestry group and are 12.1% of the total United States population. Asian Americans are the country's fourth-largest group, composing 5.9% of the United States population, while the country's 3.7 million Native Americans account for about 1%. In 2020, the median age of the United States population was 38.5 years.

Language

Main article: Languages of the United States

Most spoken languages in USA

While many languages are spoken in the United States, English is overwhelmingly the most commonly spoken in a majority of the country. Although there is no official language at the federal level, some laws—such as U.S. naturalization requirements—standardize English, and most states have declared English as the official language. Three states and four U.S. territories have recognized local or indigenous languages in addition to English, including Hawaii (Hawaiian), Alaska (twenty Native languages), South Dakota (Sioux), American Samoa (Samoan), Puerto Rico (Spanish), Guam (Chamorro), and the Northern Mariana Islands (Carolinian and Chamorro). In Puerto Rico, Spanish is more widely spoken than English.

According to the American Community Survey, in 2010 some 229 million people (out of the total U.S. population of 308 million) spoke only English at home. More than 37 million spoke Spanish at home, making it the second most commonly used language. Other languages spoken at home by one million people or more include Chinese (2.8 million), Tagalog (1.6 million), Vietnamese (1.4 million), French (1.3 million), Korean (1.1 million), and German (1 million).

Religion

Main articles: Religion in the United States and Irreligion in the United States

See also: List of religious movements that began in the United States

Religious affiliation in the United States, per Gallup, Inc. (2022)

  Protestantism (34%)

  Catholicism (23%)

  Non-specific Christian (11%)

  Mormonism (2%)

  Judaism (2%)

  Other religions (6%)

  Unaffiliated with organized religion, including those who are spiritual but not religious (21%)

  No answer (1%)

The First Amendment guarantees the free exercise of religion and forbids Congress from passing laws respecting its establishment. Religious practice is widespread, among the most diverse in the world, and vibrant, with the country being far more religious than other wealthy Western nations. An overwhelming majority of Americans believe in a higher power, engage in spiritual practices such as prayer, and consider themselves religious or spiritual. The country has the world's largest Christian population. A majority of the global Jewish population lives in the United States, as measured by the Law of Return.

A 2022 Gallup poll found that 31% reported "attending a church, synagogue, mosque or temple weekly or nearly weekly". Religious practice varies significantly by region. In the "Bible Belt", located within the Southern United States, evangelical Protestantism plays a significant role culturally. New England and the Western United States tend to be less religious, although Mormonism—a Restorationist Christian movement started in New York in the 19th century—is the predominant religious affiliation in Utah. Around 6% of Americans claim a non-Christian faith. the largest of which are Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. "Ceremonial deism" is common in American culture. Religious belief and interest has remained relatively stable in recent years; organizational participation, in contrast, has decreased.

Other notable faiths include Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, many New Age movements, and a large variety of Native American religions.

Immigration

Main article: Immigration to the United States

America's immigrant population, numbering more than 50 million, is by far the world's largest in absolute terms. In 2022, there were 87.7 million immigrants and U.S.-born children of immigrants in the United States, accounting for nearly 27% of the overall U.S. population. In 2017, out of the U.S. foreign-born population, some 45% (20.7 million) were naturalized citizens, 27% (12.3 million) were lawful permanent residents, 6% (2.2 million) were temporary lawful residents, and 23% (10.5 million) were unauthorized immigrants. In 2019, the top countries of origin for immigrants were Mexico (24% of immigrants), India (6%), China (5%), the Philippines (4.5%), and El Salvador (3%). The United States has led the world in refugee resettlement for decades, admitting more refugees than the rest of the world combined.

Urbanization

Main articles: Urbanization in the United States and List of United States cities by population

About 82% of Americans live in urban areas, including suburbs; about half of those reside in cities with populations over 50,000. In 2008, 273 incorporated municipalities had populations over 100,000, nine cities had more than one million residents, and four cities (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston) had populations exceeding two million. Many U.S. metropolitan populations are growing rapidly, particularly in the South and West.

Largest metropolitan areas in the United States 2021 MSA population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau
	Rank	Name	Region	Pop.	Rank	Name	Region	Pop.
New York Los Angeles	1	New York	Northeast	19,768,458	11	Boston	Northeast	4,899,932	Chicago Dallas–Fort Worth
	2	Los Angeles	West	12,997,353	12	Riverside–San Bernardino	West	4,653,105
	3	Chicago	Midwest	9,509,934	13	San Francisco	West	4,623,264
	4	Dallas–Fort Worth	South	7,759,615	14	Detroit	Midwest	4,365,205
	5	Houston	South	7,206,841	15	Seattle	West	4,011,553
	6	Washington, D.C.	South	6,356,434	16	Minneapolis–Saint Paul	Midwest	3,690,512
	7	Philadelphia	Northeast	6,228,601	17	San Diego	West	3,286,069
	8	Atlanta	South	6,144,050	18	Tampa–St. Petersburg	South	3,219,514
	9	Miami	South	6,091,747	19	Denver	West	2,972,566
	10	Phoenix	West	4,946,145	20	Baltimore	South	2,838,327

Education

Main articles: Education in the United States and Higher education in the United States

The University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819, is one of many public colleges and universities in the United States.

American public education is operated by state and local governments and regulated by the United States Department of Education through restrictions on federal grants. In most states, children are required to attend school from the age of five or six (beginning with kindergarten or first grade) until they turn 18 (generally bringing them through twelfth grade, the end of high school); some states allow students to leave school at 16 or 17. Of Americans 25 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 near-universal. The country has the most Nobel Prize winners in history, with 403 (having won 406 awards).

The United States has many private and public institutions of higher education including many of the world's top universities, as listed by various ranking organizations, are in the United States, including 19 of the top 25. There are local community colleges with generally more open admission policies, shorter academic programs, and lower tuition. The U.S. spends more on education per student than any nation in the world, spending an average of $12,794 per year on public elementary and secondary school students in the 2016–2017 school year.

As for public expenditures on higher education, the U.S. spends more per student than the OECD average, and more than all nations in combined public and private spending. Despite some student loan forgiveness programs in place, student loan debt has increased by 102% in the last decade, and exceeded 1.7 trillion dollars as of 2022.

Health

See also: Healthcare in the United States, Healthcare reform in the United States, and Health insurance in the United States

Texas Medical Center in Houston is the largest medical complex in the world, employing 106,000 people and treating 10 million patients annually as of 2016.

In a preliminary report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that U.S. life expectancy at birth was 76.4 years in 2021 (73.2 years for men and 79.1 years for women), down 0.9 years from 2020. The chief causes listed were the COVID-19 pandemic, accidents, drug overdoses, heart and liver disease, and suicides. Life expectancy was highest among Asians and Hispanics and lowest among Black and American Indian–Alaskan Native (AIAN) peoples. Starting in 1998, the life expectancy in the U.S. fell behind that of other wealthy industrialized countries, and Americans' "health disadvantage" gap has been increasing ever since. The U.S. has one of the highest suicide rates among high-income countries. Approximately one-third of the U.S. adult population is obese and another third is overweight. Poverty is the 4th leading risk factor for premature death in the United States annually, according to a 2023 study published in JAMA.

The U.S. healthcare system far outspends that of any other nation, measured both in per capita spending and as a percentage of GDP, but attains worse healthcare outcomes when compared to peer nations. The United States is the only developed nation without a system of universal healthcare, and a significant proportion of the population that does not carry health insurance.

Government-funded healthcare coverage for the poor (Medicaid) and for those age 65 and older (Medicare) is available to Americans who meet the programs' income or age qualifications. In 2010, former President Obama passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or ACA, with the law roughly halving the uninsured share of the population according to the CDC. Its legacy remains controversial.

Culture and society

Main articles: Culture of the United States and Society of the United States

The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World) on Liberty Island in New York Harbor was an 1866 gift from France that has become an iconic symbol of the American Dream.

Americans have traditionally been characterized by a unifying political belief in an "American creed" emphasizing liberty, equality under the law, democracy, social equality, property rights, and a preference for limited government. Culturally, the country has been described as having the values of individualism and personal autonomy, having a strong work ethic, competitiveness, and voluntary altruism towards others. According to a 2016 study by the Charities Aid Foundation, Americans donated 1.44% of total GDP to charity, the highest in the world by a large margin. Part of both the Anglosphere and Western World, the United States is home to a wide variety of ethnic groups, traditions, and values, and exerts major cultural influence on a global scale, with the phenomenon being termed Americanization. As such, the U.S. is considered a cultural superpower.

Nearly all present Americans or their ancestors came from Eurafrasia ("the Old World") within the past five centuries. 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 a homogenizing melting pot, and a heterogeneous salad bowl, with immigrants contributing to, and often assimilating into, mainstream American culture. The American Dream, or the perception that Americans enjoy high social mobility, plays a key role in attracting immigrants. Whether this perception is accurate has been a topic of debate. While 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. Americans tend to greatly value socioeconomic achievement, but being ordinary or average is promoted by some as a noble condition as well.

The United States is considered to have the strongest protections of free speech of any country under the First Amendment, which protects flag desecration, hate speech, blasphemy, and lese-majesty as forms of protected expression. A 2016 Pew Research Center poll found that Americans were the most supportive of free expression of any polity measured. They are the "most supportive of freedom of the press and the right to use the Internet without government censorship." It is a socially progressive country with permissive attitudes surrounding human sexuality. LGBT rights in the United States are among the most advanced in the world.

Mass media

Further information: Mass media in the United States

See also: Newspapers in the United States, Television in the United States, Internet in the United States, Radio in the United States, and Video games in the United States

Comcast Center in Philadelphia, headquarters of Comcast, the world's largest telecommunications and media conglomerate

The four major broadcasters in the U.S. are the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), American Broadcasting Company (ABC), and Fox Broadcasting Company (FOX). The four major broadcast television networks are all commercial entities. Cable television offers hundreds of channels catering to a variety of niches. As of 2021, about 83% of Americans over age 12 listen to broadcast radio, while about 41% listen to podcasts. As of September 30, 2014, there are 15,433 licensed full-power radio stations in the U.S. according to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Much of the public radio broadcasting is supplied by NPR, incorporated in February 1970 under the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.

Globally-recognized newspapers in the United States include The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today. More than 800 publications are produced in Spanish, the second most commonly used language in the United States behind English. With very few exceptions, all the newspapers in the U.S. are privately owned, either by large chains such as Gannett or McClatchy, which own dozens or even hundreds of newspapers; by small chains that own a handful of papers; or, in a situation that is increasingly rare, by individuals or families. Major cities often have alternative newspapers to complement the mainstream daily papers, such as The Village Voice in New York City and LA Weekly in Los Angeles. The five most popular websites used in the U.S. are Google, YouTube, Amazon, Yahoo, and Facebook, with all of them being American companies.

As of 2022, the video game market of the United States is the world's largest by revenue. Major video game publishers and developers headquartered in the United States are Sony Interactive Entertainment, Take-Two, Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda Softworks, Epic Games, Valve, Warner Bros., Riot Games, and others. There are 444 publishers, developers, and hardware companies in California alone.

Literature and visual arts

Main articles: American literature, American philosophy, Architecture of the United States, and Visual art of the United States

American author and humorist Mark Twain, who William Faulkner called "the father of American literature"

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, American art and literature took most of their cues from Europe. Writers such as Washington Irving, 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 recognized as an essential American poet.

Almost until the 20th century pervasive anti-literacy laws prevented most people of color from learning to read or write. In the 1920s, the New Negro Movement coalesced in Harlem, where many writers had migrated from the Southern United States and West Indies. Its pan-African perspective was a significant cultural export during the Jazz Age in Paris and as such was a key early influence on the négritude philosophy.

Since its first use in the 19th century, the term "Great American Novel" has been applied to many books, including Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925), John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (1939), Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987), and David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest (1996).

Thirteen U.S. citizens have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, most recently Louise Glück, Bob Dylan, and Toni Morrison. Earlier laureates William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck have been recognized as influential 20th century writers.

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, individualistic styles, which would become known as American modernism.

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. Major photographers include Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, James Van Der Zee, Ansel Adams, and Gordon Parks.

The uniquely American "Chicago School" refers to two architectural styles derived from the architecture of Chicago. In the history of architecture, the first Chicago School was a school of architects active in Chicago in the late 19th, and at the turn of the 20th century. They were among the first to promote the new technologies of steel-frame construction in commercial buildings, and developed a spatial aesthetic which co-evolved with, and then came to influence, parallel developments in European modernism. Much of its early work is known as "Commercial Style". A "Second Chicago School" with a modernist aesthetic emerged in the 1940s through 1970s, which pioneered new building technologies and structural systems, such as the tube-frame structure. The tide of modernism and then postmodernism has brought global fame to American architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, and Frank Gehry.

Cinema and theater

Main articles: Cinema of the United States and Theater in the United States

The United States is well known for its cinema and theater. Mainstream theater in the United States derives from the old European theatrical tradition and has been heavily influenced by the British theater. In the 19th century, America had created new dramatic forms in the Tom Shows, the showboat theater and the minstrel show. The central hub of the American theater scene is Manhattan, with its divisions of Broadway, off-Broadway, and off-off-Broadway. Many movie and television stars have gotten their big break working in New York productions. Outside New York City, many cities have professional regional or resident theater companies that produce their own seasons. The biggest-budget theatrical productions are musicals. U.S. theater has an active community theater culture.

The U.S. film industry has a worldwide influence and following. Hollywood, a district in northern Los Angeles, the nation's second-most populous city, is the leader in motion picture production and the most recognizable movie industry in the world. The major film studios of the United States are the primary source of the most commercially successful and most ticket-selling movies in the world.

The iconic Hollywood Sign, in the Hollywood Hills, often regarded as the symbol of the American film industry

Since the early 20th century, the U.S. film industry has largely been based in and around Hollywood, although in the 21st century an increasing number of films are not made there, and film companies have been subject to the forces of globalization. The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, have been held annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1929, and the Golden Globe Awards have been held annually since January 1944.

Director D. W. Griffith's film adaptation of The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan was the first American blockbuster, earning the equivalent of $1.8 billion in current dollars. The technical achievements of the film revolutionized film grammar, while its subject matter caused both strident protest and a revitalization of the Klan. Producer and entrepreneur Walt Disney was a leader in both animated film and movie merchandising. Directors such as John Ford redefined the image of the American Old West, and, like others such as John Huston, broadened the possibilities of cinema with location shooting. The industry enjoyed its golden years, in what is commonly referred to as the "Golden Age of Hollywood", from the early sound period until the early 1960s, with screen actors such as John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe becoming iconic figures. In the 1970s, "New Hollywood" or the "Hollywood Renaissance" was defined by grittier films influenced by French and Italian realist pictures of the post-war period.

The 21st century has been marked by the rise of American streaming platforms, such as Netflix, Disney+, Paramount+, and Apple TV+, which came to rival traditional cinema.

Music

Main article: Music of the United States

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee

American folk music encompasses numerous music genres, variously known as traditional music, traditional folk music, contemporary folk music, or roots music. Many traditional songs have been sung within the same family or folk group for generations, and sometimes trace back to such origins as the British Isles, Mainland Europe, or Africa.

The rhythmic and lyrical styles of African-American music have significantly influenced American music at large. The Smithsonian Institution states, "African-American influences are so fundamental to American music that there would be no American music without them." One instrument first mass-produced in the United States was the banjo, which had originally been crafted from gourds covered by animal skins by African slaves. Banjos became widely popular in the 19th century due to their use in minstrel shows. Country music developed in the 1920s, and rhythm and blues in the 1940s. Elements from folk idioms such as the blues and what is 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.

Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry were among the pioneers of rock and roll in the mid-1950s. Rock bands such as Metallica, the Eagles, and Aerosmith are among the highest grossing musical acts in worldwide sales. In the 1960s, Bob Dylan emerged from the folk revival to become one of the country's most celebrated songwriters. Mid-20th-century American pop stars such as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Elvis Presley became global celebrities, as have artists of the late 20th century such as Prince, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey. The musical forms of punk and hip hop both originated in the United States. American professional opera singers have reached the highest level of success in that form, including Renée Fleming, Leontyne Price, Beverly Sills, Nelson Eddy, and many others.

American popular music, as part of the wider U.S. pop culture, has a worldwide influence and following. Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and many other contemporary artists dominate global streaming rankings. The United States has the world's largest music market with a total retail value of $4.9 billion in 2014. Most of the world's major record companies are based in the U.S.; they are represented by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Cuisine

Main article: American cuisine

Further information: List of American regional and fusion cuisines

A bacon cheeseburger served with french fries, fried onions and ketchup

Early settlers were introduced by Native Americans to such indigenous, non-European foods as turkey, sweet potatoes, corn, squash, and maple syrup. Of the most enduring and pervasive examples are variations of the native dish called succotash. Early settlers and later immigrants combined these with foods they had known, such as wheat flour, beef, and milk to create a distinctive American cuisine. New World crops, especially corn and potatoes, and the native turkey as the main course are part of a shared national menu on one of America's most popular holidays, Thanksgiving, when many Americans make or purchase traditional dishes to celebrate the occasion.

Characteristic American dishes such as apple pie, fried chicken, doughnuts, french fries, macaroni and cheese, ice cream, pizza, hamburgers, and hot dogs derive from the recipes of various immigrant groups. Mexican dishes such as burritos and tacos preexisted the United States in areas later annexed from Mexico, and pasta dishes freely adapted from Italian sources are all widely consumed.

The American fast food industry, the world's first and largest, pioneered the drive-through format in the 1940s and is often viewed as being a symbol of U.S. marketing dominance. Companies such as McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Domino's Pizza, among others, have numerous outlets around the world,

Sports

Main article: Sports in the United States

See also: Professional sports leagues in the United States, National Collegiate Athletic Association, and United States at the Olympics

American football is the most popular sport in the United States; in this September 2022 National Football League game, the Jacksonville Jaguars play the Washington Commanders at FedExField.

The most popular spectator sports in the U.S. are American football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and ice hockey, according to a 2017 Gallup poll. While most major U.S. sports such as baseball and American football have evolved out of European practices, basketball, volleyball, skateboarding, and snowboarding are American inventions, some of which have become popular worldwide. Lacrosse and surfing arose from Native American and Native Hawaiian activities that predate European contact. The market for professional sports in the United States was approximately $69 billion in July 2013, roughly 50% larger than that of all of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa combined.

American football is by several measures the most popular spectator sport in the United States; the National Football League (NFL) has the highest average attendance of any sports league in the world, and the Super Bowl is watched by tens of millions globally. Baseball has been regarded as the U.S. national sport since the late 19th century, with Major League Baseball being the top league. Basketball, soccer and ice hockey are the country's next three most popular professional team sports, with the top leagues being the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League, which are the premier leagues worldwide for these sports. The most-watched individual sports in the U.S. are golf and auto racing, particularly NASCAR and IndyCar.

On the collegiate level, earnings for the member institutions exceed $1 billion annually, and college football and basketball attract large audiences, as the NCAA Final Four is one of the most watched national sporting events. In many respects, the intercollegiate sports level serves as a feeder system to the professional level, as the elite college athletes are chosen to compete at the next level. This system differs greatly from nearly all other countries in the world, which generally have government-funded sports organizations that serve as a feeder system for professional competition.

Eight Olympic Games have taken place in the United States. The 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, were the first-ever Olympic Games held outside of Europe. The Olympic Games will be held in the U.S. for a ninth time when Los Angeles hosts the 2028 Summer Olympics. U.S. athletes have won a total of 2,959 medals (1,173 gold) at the Olympic Games, by far the most of any country.

In international soccer, the men's national soccer team qualified for eleven World Cups, and the women's national team has won the FIFA Women's World Cup and Olympic soccer tournament four times each. The United States hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup and will co-host, along with Canada and Mexico, the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

See also

• Lists of U.S. state topics
• Outline of the United States

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External links

• Key Development Forecasts for the United States from International Futures

Government

• Official U.S. Government web portal – gateway to government sites
• House – official website of the United States House of Representatives
• Senate – official website of the United States Senate
• White House – official website of the President of the United States
• Supreme Court – official website of the Supreme Court of the United States

History

• "Historical Documents" – website from the National Center for Public Policy Research
• "U.S. National Mottos: History and Constitutionality". Religious Tolerance. Analysis by the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance.
• "Historical Statistics" – links to US historical data

Maps

• "National Atlas of the United States" – official maps from the U.S. Department of the Interior
• Wikimedia Atlas of the United States
• Geographic data related to United States at OpenStreetMap
• "Measure of America" – a variety of mapped information relating to health, education, income, safety and demographics in the United States