The United States of America (USA)



United States of America

Anthem The Star-Spangled Banner
Watch on youtube (with lyrics)
Capital Washington, D.C.
Largest city New York City
National language English (de facto)
Ethnic groups ~ 79.8% White / ~ 12.8% African American / ~ 4.5% Asian American / ~ 1.0% Native American and Alaska Native / ~ 0.2% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander / ~ 1.7% Multiracial / ~ 15.4% Hispanic (of any race)

Government Federal constitutional presidential republic
Area 9,826,675 km2, 3,794,101 sq mi
Population ~ 309,3 million
Currency United States dollar ($) (USD)
Internet TLD .us / .gov / .mil / .edu


United States
United States
The capital of the United States is Washington, D.C., commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C. The city shares its name with the U.S. state of Washington on the country's Pacific coast. The District has a resident population of 599,657; because of commuters from the surrounding suburbs, its population rises to over one million during the workweek. The most populous city in the USA is New York City. As a leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over global commerce, finance, media, culture, art, fashion, research, education, and entertainment. The city's 2008 estimated population exceeded 8.3 million. Some other large cities in the USA are Los Angeles and Chicago.

Society and culture



The United States population is projected by the U.S. Census Bureau to be 309,411,000, including an estimated 11.2 million illegal immigrants. In 2009, 1.1 million immigrants were granted legal residence. The United States has a very diverse population. White Americans are the largest racial group; German Americans, Irish Americans, and English Americans constitute three of the country's four largest ancestry groups. African Americans are the nation's largest racial minority. Asian Americans are the country's second largest racial minority; the two largest Asian American ethnic groups are Chinese American and Filipino American. There are 46.9 million Americans of Hispanic descent. Minorities (all those beside non-Hispanic, non-multiracial whites) constitute 34% of the population.


English is the national language. In 2006, about 224 million, or 80% of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home. Spanish, spoken by 12% of the population at home, is the second most common language and the most widely taught second language. In Hawaii, both Hawaiian and English are official languages. Louisiana has laws providing for the use of both English and French.


The United States is officially a secular nation; the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion. According to a 2007 survey, 78.4% of adults identified themselves as Christian. Protestant denominations accounted for 51.3%, while Roman Catholicism, at 23.9%, was the largest individual denomination. The total reporting non-Christian religions in 2007 was 4.7%. The leading non-Christian faiths were Judaism (1.7%), Buddhism (0.7%), Islam (0.6%), Hinduism (0.4%), and Unitarian Universalism (0.3%). The survey also reported that 16.1% of Americans described themselves as agnostic, atheist, or simply having no religion.

Government and politics

The United States is a constitutional republic and representative democracy. The government is regulated by a system of checks and balances defined by the U.S. Constitution, which serves as the country's supreme legal document. In the American federalist system, citizens are usually subject to three levels of government, federal, state, and local. The federal government is composed of three branches: the Legislative (the bicameral Congress, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives), the Executive (the president) and the Judicial (the Supreme Court and lower federal courts). The United States has operated under a two-party system for most of its history. The major parties are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The Democrat Barack Obama is currently the 44th U.S. president.


The United States has a mixed capitalist economy, which is fueled by abundant natural resources, a well-developed infrastructure, and high productivity. The country has the largest national GDPin the world. The United States is the largest importer of goods and third largest exporter. It is the third largest producer of oil in the world, as well as its largest importer. Also, it is the world's number one producer of electrical and nuclear energy, as well as liquid natural gas, sulfur, phosphates, salt, corn and soybeans. The New York Stock Exchange is the world's largest by dollar volume. The American brands Coca-Cola and McDonald's are the two most recognised brands in the world.

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