false 913 7,698 (2000 est.) 2000 false 914 1523 1,675 July 2001 2000 false 1524 2437 164 false 2438 3047 6 including 2,477 km with Alaska false 3048 3 US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay true 913 1,001 (2000 est.) true 914 1523 2,440 true 1524 2437 1,331 Wyoming f.o.b., 2000 2000 Wisconsin true 2438 3047 220 West Virginia Washington true 3048 182 Mount McKinley 6194 Virginia Death Valley -86 Toledo Vermont Tampa Utah 1979 Seattle Texas Savannah Tennessee San Francisco 2001 South Dakota 38.0 -97.0 Prudhoe Bay South Carolina Portland Rhode Island Port Canaveral 1992 Pennsylvania Philadelphia Oregon New York 1997 Oklahoma New Orleans Ohio FY99 Los Angeles North Dakota Jacksonville 2000 5 North Carolina Houston New York 8 1989 Honolulu New Mexico 11 FY99 Hampton Roads New Jersey Duluth 11 New Hampshire 2000 Chicago District 19 Nevada 1998 including 74,091 km of expressways Charleston 2000 Nebraska Boston Montana Baltimore Missouri 4 Anchorage 2001 Mississippi 5 Minnesota 2001 Michigan 8 The United States became the world's first modern democracy after its break with Great Britain (1776) and the adoption of a constitution (1789). During the 19th century, many new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the North American continent and acquired a number of overseas possessions. The two most traumatic experiences in the nation's history were the Civil War (1861-65) and the Great Depression of the 1930s. Buoyed by victories in World Wars I and II and the end of the Cold War in 1991, the US remains the world's most powerful nation-state. The economy is marked by steady growth, low unemployment and inflation, and rapid advances in technology. North America, bordering both the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Pacific Ocean, between Canada and Mexico North America 9629091 9158960 470131 about one-half the size of Russia; about three-tenths the size of Africa; about one-half the size of South America (or slightly larger than Brazil); slightly larger than China; about two and one-half times the size of Western Europe 12248 19924 24 200 12 mostly temperate, but tropical in Hawaii and Florida, arctic in Alaska, semiarid in the great plains west of the Mississippi River, and arid in the Great Basin of the southwest; low winter temperatures in the northwest are ameliorated occasionally in January and February by warm chinook winds from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains vast central plain, mountains in west, hills and low mountains in east; rugged mountains and broad river valleys in Alaska; rugged, volcanic topography in Hawaii 19 0 25 30 26 207000 tsunamis, volcanoes, and earthquake activity around Pacific Basin hurricanes along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts tornadoes in the midwest and southeast mud slides in California forest fires in the west flooding permafrost in northern Alaska, a major impediment to development air pollution resulting in acid rain in both the US and Canada the US is the largest single emitter of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels water pollution from runoff of pesticides and fertilizers very limited natural fresh water resources in much of the western part of the country require careful management desertification 278058881 0.9 14.2 8.7 3.5 6.76 2.06 American(s) American age 15 and over can read and write 97 97 97 United States of America United States US or USA 4 July 1776 (from Great Britain) 17 September 1787, effective 4 March 1789 based on English common law; judicial review of legislative acts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations 18 years of age; universal thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white; there is a blue rectangle in the upper hoist-side corner bearing 50 small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternating with rows of five stars; the 50 stars represent the 50 states, the 13 stripes represent the 13 original colonies; known as Old Glory; the design and colors have been the basis for a number of other flags, including Chile, Liberia, Malaysia, and Puerto Rico The US has the largest and most technologically powerful economy in the world, with a per capita GDP of $36,200. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and government buys needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. US business firms enjoy considerably greater flexibility than their counterparts in Western Europe and Japan in decisions to expand capital plant, lay off surplus workers, and develop new products. At the same time, they face higher barriers to entry in their rivals' home markets than the barriers to entry of foreign firms in US markets. US firms are at or near the forefront in technological advances, especially in computers and in medical, aerospace, and military equipment, although their advantage has narrowed since the end of World War II. The onrush of technology largely explains the gradual development of a "two-tier labor market" in which those at the bottom lack the education and the professional/technical skills of those at the top and, more and more, fail to get comparable pay raises, health insurance coverage, and other benefits. Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20% of households. The years 1994-2000 witnessed solid increases in real output, low inflation rates, and a drop in unemployment to below 5%. Long-term problems include inadequate investment in economic infrastructure, rapidly rising medical costs of an aging population, sizable trade deficits, and stagnation of family income in the lower economic groups. Growth weakened in the fourth quarter of 2000; growth for the year 2001 almost certainly will be substantially lower than the strong 5% of 2000. The outlook for 2001 is further clouded by the continued economic problems of Japan, Russia, Indonesia, Brazil, and many other countries. 9963000000000 5 36200 2 18 80 12.7 1.8 30.5 3.4 4 1828000000000 1703000000000 5.6 3678000000000 69.64 8.31 19.8 2.25 3450000000000 14000000000 43000000000 776000000000 1223000000000 862000000000 US dollar (USD) USD 1 October - 30 September 194000000 69209000 a very large, technologically advanced, multipurpose communications system a large system of fiber-optic cable, microwave radio relay, coaxial cable, and domestic satellites carries every form of telephone traffic; a rapidly growing cellular system carries mobile telephone traffic throughout the country 24 ocean cable systems in use; satellite earth stations - 61 Intelsat (45 Atlantic Ocean and 16 Pacific Ocean), 5 Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region), and 4 Inmarsat (Pacific and Atlantic Ocean regions) (2000) 575000000 219000000 .us 7800 148000000 6370031 5733028 637003 41009 14720 131 18 70819436 2039414 276700000000 3.2 maritime boundary disputes with Canada US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay is leased from Cuba and only mutual agreement or US abandonment of the area can terminate the lease Haiti claims Navassa Island US has made no territorial claim in Antarctica and does not recognize the claims of any other nation Marshall Islands claims Wake Island consumer of cocaine shipped from Colombia through Mexico and the Caribbean consumer of heroin, marijuana, and increasingly methamphetamine from Mexico consumer of high-quality Southeast Asian heroin illicit producer of cannabis, marijuana, depressants, stimulants, hallucinogens, and methamphetamine money-laundering center http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/flags/us-flag.jpg http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/flags/us-lgflag.jpg http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/maps/us-map.jpg Massachusetts 14 5 Maryland 23 8 Maine 1997 3326 Louisiana 11 Kentucky 29 2000 11 Kansas 8893 19 1993 Iowa 2001 Indiana 1993 Illinois Idaho 4 Hawaii 5 2001 Georgia 2001 2000 8 Florida 2001 District of Columbia 14 1999 2000 1999 1999 Delaware 23 Connecticut 3326 Colorado 2000 California 29 Arkansas 1995 8893 Arizona Alaska Alabama 2000 Washington, DC 1999 including 2,477 km with Alaska US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay 2.5 State 10 1997 4 2001 1997 2 24.6 28 56 1997 0.8 13.5 3.3 29.2 12.4 83.5 30.2 1999 2000 0.96 65 0.71 2000 15 64 0.98 0 14 1.05 spoken by a sizable minority 0 0 1.05 1999 2000 2001 2000 1999 f.o.b., 2000