THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Popularly

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the

United

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America,

the United States of America is a federal republic on the continent of North America, consisting of 48 contiguous states and the noncontiguous states of Alaska and Hawaii. The United States motto is E Pluribus Unum, appearing on the nations coins and paper money, and on many of its public monuments. It means From many, one. First used to unify the 13 British colonies in North America during the American Revolution (1775-1783), this phrase acquired new meaning when the United States received wave after wave of immigrants from many lands. These immigrants had to find ways to reconcile their varied backgrounds and fit together under a constitution and a set of laws. That process of creating one society out of many different backgrounds is one of the biggest stories of the American experience. The United States began as an immigrant society, and it has continued to be a mingling of immigrants ever since. Even Native Americans, the first people to live in North America, descended from people who arrived from Asia many thousands of years ago. Since 1820, 70 million immigrants have arrived in the United States. How could a nation of such diversity meld together so many different humans? One of the answers is that this is due to the American political system that had developed by the 1830s - a politics of participation based on the notion that to be legitimate and lasting, a government had to derive its power from the people. These principles were part of the political system created by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, a system aimed to create one federated whole. GEOGRAPHY The United States of America is a federal republic with an area of 9,826,630 sq km (3,794,083 sq mi); it is the third largest country in the world after Russia and Canada. The estimated U.S. population for the year 2011 is 311,591,917, third in the world behind China and India. 1

The United States consists of 48 contiguous states and the noncontiguous states of Alaska and Hawaii. In addition, the United States includes a number of outlying areas, such as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands of the United States, which are located on the Caribbean Sea, and the islands of American Samoa and Guam, located in the Pacific Ocean. The national capital is Washington, D.C., located along the banks of the Potomac River between the states of Maryland and Virginia. The 50 U.S. states vary widely in size and population. The largest states in area are Alaska at 1,717,854 sq km (663,267 sq mi), followed by Texas, and California. The smallest state is Rhode Island, with an area of 4,002 sq km (1,545 sq mi). The state with the largest population is California (35,893,799, 2004 estimate), followed by Texas, and New York. Only 506,529 people (2004 estimate) live on the plateaus and rugged mountains of Wyoming, the least populous state. Each state is subdivided into counties, with the exception of Louisiana, where comparable political units are called parishes. Within these counties and parishes, there are communities that range in size from small villages to towns to cities. Extensive areas of urban sprawl exist in larger metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; and New York City. PEOPLE According to the 2000 census, the United States was a nation of 281,421,906 people. In 2005, the United States was estimated to have 296 million people. This population count makes the United States the third most populous country in the world, after China and India. Nearly 5 percent of the earths inhabitants live in the United States. Historically, this nation has attracted vast numbers of immigrants from around the globe. Yet, the United States remains less densely populated than other large countries or other industrialized nations - in 2005 there were 32 persons per sq km (84 per sq mi). The population of the United States has grown continuously, from 4 million at the first national census in 1790, to 76 million in 1900, to 281 million in 2000. For a large country, the United States is also remarkably uniform linguistically and culturally. Only 6 percent of Americans in the 1990 census reported they spoke little or no English. This is very different from many other countries. In Canada, 68 percent of

the population speaks only English, 13 percent speaks only French. India has 14 major languages and China 7 major dialects. The linguistic uniformity in the United States results from early British dominance and from widespread literacy. Advertising, movies, television, magazines, and newspapers that are distributed across the nation also promote a common language and common experiences. Cultural differences among parts of the United States - north and south, east and west, island and mainland - are also disappearing. In the second half of the 20th century, Americans were more likely than ever before to travel or move to other parts of the country. The national media and large corporations promote the same fashions in dress, entertainment, and sometimes in behavior throughout the states and regions. Newer suburbs, apartments, offices, shops, factories, highways, hotels, gas stations, and schools tend to look much the same across the nation. The uniformity of the American media and the dominance of the English language not only characterize the United States, but increasingly influence cultures around the globe. E-mail and the Internet are the latest technologies that are spreading American English. Although Americas culture is becoming more uniform, its society remains a diverse mix of ethnic, racial, and religious groups. The United States is a pluralistic society, meaning it is composed of many nationalities, races, religions, and creeds. Some of the people who immigrated to America embraced the opportunity to leave old cultures behind and to remake themselves unencumbered by past traditions and loyalties. Others found that the liberties promised under the Bill of Rights allowed for distinctiveness rather than uniformity, and they have taken pride in preserving and celebrating their origins. Many Americans find that pluralism adds to the richness and strength of the nations culture. The diversity of the U.S. populace has been a source of friction, as well. Throughout the nations history, some segments of American society have sought to exclude people who differ from themselves in income, race, gender, religion, political beliefs, or sexual orientation. Even today, some citizens argue that recent arrivals to the United States are radically different from previous immigrants, can never be assimilated, and therefore should be barred from entry. There are very different understandings of what makes a person an American. The nations motto, E pluribus unum (From many,

one), describes the linguistic and cultural similarities of the American people, but it falls short as a description of the diversities among and within the major groups - Native Americans, those whose families have been Americans for generations, and more recent immigrants. This diversity is one of Americas distinguishing characteristics. RELIGION IN THE UNITED STATES The variety of religious beliefs in the United States surpasses the nations multitude of ethnicities, nationalities, and races, making religion another source of diversity rather than a unifying force. This is true even though the vast majority of Americans - 83 percent - identify themselves as Christian. One-third of these selfidentified Christians are unaffiliated with any church. Moreover, practicing Christians belong to a wide variety of churches that differ on theology, organization, programs, and policies. The largest number of Christians in the United States belong to one of the many Protestant denominations - groups that vary widely in their beliefs and practices. Roman Catholics constitute the next largest group of American Christians, followed by the Eastern Orthodox. Most Christians in America are Protestant, but hundreds of Protestant denominations and independent congregations exist. Many of the major denominations, such as Baptists, Lutherans, and Methodists, are splintered into separate groups that have different ideas about theology or church organization. Some Protestant religious movements, including Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism, cut across many different Protestant organizations. Roman Catholics, the next largest religious group in the United States, are far more unified than Protestants. This is due in part to Roman Catholicisms hierarchical structure and willingness to allow a degree of debate within its ranks, even while insisting on certain core beliefs. The Eastern Orthodox Church, the third major group of Christian churches, is divided by national origin, with the Greek Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church being the largest of the branches in the United States. Judaism (also divided into branches) is the next largest religion in the United States, with about 2 percent of the population in 2001. Other religions practiced in

America include Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. Islam is among the fastest-growing religious groups; its members were just about 1 percent of the U.S. population in 2001. Large numbers of Americans do not have a religious view of the world - some 8 percent are nonreligious, secular, or are atheists; that is, they do not believe in a god or gods. Adding these to the nonpracticing Christian population means that slightly more than a quarter of the American population is unaffiliated with any church or denomination. This mixture of multiple religious and secular points of view existed from the beginning of European colonization.