Facts about United States

Located in the North American Continent, the United States is commonly known as the USA. It is comprised of fifty states and a federal district. It is flanked by the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans and contains the non-contiguous states of Hawaii, Alaska and the some of the islands in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific. It has a place of pride on the world map and is held in high esteem by people across the globe. Let us look at some interesting facts about the United States.

Facts about United States

The United States is almost entirely situated in the western hemisphere. Alaska is the largest state in terms of area. The United Sates is the third largest in population and the fourth largest nation by total area. Washington, D.C. is the capital of the US and the New York City is its largest city. The United States has a population of over 300 million people in an area of 3.79 million square miles. The US economy is the largest in the world.

Long years after the discovery of the United States by Christopher Columbus, thirteen colonies of Great Britain founded the US. The United States got independence from Great Britain and formed a cooperative union. They issued the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Today, the US is a federal constitutional republic. Read when was the United States founded and the founding fathers of the United States.

President George Bush is the outgoing president of United States. The results of the Presidential elections of November 4, 2008 declared Barack Obama as the new President of USA. He will be the first African-American President of the United States, when he takes oath in January 2009. Go through the list of Presidents of America in chronological order.

The United States is a member of the United Nations Security Council. The United Nations Headquarters are located in the New York City.

The United States welcome immigrants from different parts of the world. This has contributed to their cultural and ethnic diversity. English is the de facto national language of the United States. It is a secular nation. Apart from Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism prevail in the US. The United States is a multicultural country. You may like to read about the native American culture.

The New York City in the United States hosted the world’s first commercial motion picture exhibition. The film industry of the United States gets its name from Hollywood in California, which is the central location of the American movie industry.

United States has produced geniuses like Thomas Edison, Graham Bell and the Wright Brothers. The United States is world’s largest consumer of petroleum. US had a lion’s share in the development of the ARPANET and the creation of the Internet.

The US houses many of the world’s busiest airports. It owns majority of the world’s largest airlines, where American Airlines tops the list.

During the Spanish-American War and World War I, US emerged as a military power. After the Second World War, United States was the first nation to equip itself with nuclear weapons.

United States is today, a political, economic and cultural icon in the world.