The term "United States" and its initialism "U.S.", used as nouns or as adjectives in English, are common short names for the country. The initialism "USA", a noun, is also common.[25] "United States" and "U.S." are the established terms throughout theU.S. federal government, with prescribed rules.[l] "The States" is an established colloquial shortening of the name, used particularly from abroad;[27] "stateside" is the corresponding adjective or adverb.[28]
"America" is the feminine form of the first word ofAmericus Vesputius, the Latinized name of Italian explorerAmerigo Vespucci (1454–1512);[m] it was first used as a place name by the German cartographersMartin Waldseemüller andMatthias Ringmann in 1507.[29][n] Vespucci first proposed that theWest Indies discovered byChristopher Columbus in 1492 were part of a previously unknown landmass and not among the Indies at the eastern limit of Asia.[30][31][32] In English,the term "America" usually does not refer to topics unrelated to the United States, despite the usage of "theAmericas" to describe the totality of the continents ofNorth andSouth America.[33]
TheMayflower Compact in Massachusetts and theFundamental Orders of Connecticut established precedents for local representativeself-governance andconstitutionalism that would develop throughout the American colonies.[53][54] While European settlers in what is now the United States experienced conflicts with Native Americans, they also engaged in trade, exchanging European tools for food and animal pelts.[55][o] Relations ranged from close cooperation to warfare and massacres. The colonial authorities often pursued policies that forced Native Americans to adopt European lifestyles, including conversion to Christianity.[59][60] Along the eastern seaboard, settlerstrafficked Africans through theAtlantic slave trade, largely to providemanual labor on plantations.[61]
Though in practical effect since its drafting in 1777, theArticles of Confederation was ratified in 1781 and formally established a decentralized government that operated until 1789.[69] After the British surrender at thesiege of Yorktown in 1781, American sovereignty was internationally recognized by theTreaty of Paris (1783), through which the U.S. gained territory stretching west to the Mississippi River, north to present-day Canada, and south toSpanish Florida.[74] TheNorthwest Ordinance (1787) established the precedent by which the country's territory would expand with theadmission of new states, rather than the expansion of existing states.[75]
TheMissouri Compromise of 1820, which admittedMissouri as aslave state andMaine as a free state, attempted to balance the desire of northern states to prevent the expansion of slavery into new territories with that of southern states to extend it there. Primarily, the compromise prohibited slavery in all other lands of the Louisiana Purchase north of the36°30′ parallel.[85]
Throughout the 1850s, thesectional conflict regarding slavery was further inflamed by national legislation in the U.S. Congress and decisions of the Supreme Court. In Congress, theFugitive Slave Act of 1850 mandated the forcible return to their owners in the South of slaves taking refuge in non-slave states, while theKansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 effectively gutted the anti-slavery requirements of the Missouri Compromise.[101] In itsDred Scott decision of 1857, the Supreme Court ruled against a slave brought into non-slave territory, simultaneously declaring the entire Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional. These and otherevents exacerbated tensions between North and South that would culminate in theAmerican Civil War (1861–1865).[102][103]
Efforts towardreconstruction in the secessionist South had begun as early as 1862,[112] but it was only afterPresident Lincoln's assassination that the threeReconstruction Amendments to the Constitution were ratifiedto protect civil rights. The amendments codified nationally the abolition of slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for crimes, promised equal protection under the law for all persons, and prohibited discrimination on the basis of race or previous enslavement.[113][114][115] As a result, African Americans took an active political role in ex-Confederate states in the decade following the Civil War.[116][117] The former Confederate states were readmitted to the Union, beginning with Tennessee in 1866 and ending with Georgia in 1870.[118][119]
In addition to its total land area, the United States has one of the world's largest marineexclusive economic zones spanning approximately 4.5 million square miles (11.7 million km2) of ocean.[200][201]
The United States receives more high-impactextreme weather incidents than any other country.[205][206] States bordering theGulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and most of the world's tornadoesoccur in the country, mainly inTornado Alley.[207] Due toclimate change in the country, extreme weather has become more frequent in the U.S. in the 21st century, with three times the number of reportedheat waves compared to the 1960s.[208][209][210] Since the 1990s, droughts in theAmerican Southwest have become more persistent and more severe.[211] The regions considered as the most attractive to the population are the most vulnerable.[212]
The U.S. is one of 17megadiverse countries containing large numbers ofendemic species: about 17,000 species ofvascular plants occur in the contiguous United States and Alaska, and over 1,800 species offlowering plants are found in Hawaii, few of which occur on the mainland.[214] The United States is home to 428mammal species, 784 birds, 311 reptiles, 295amphibians,[215] and around 91,000 insect species.[216]
Composed of three branches, all headquartered in Washington, D.C., the federal government is the national government of the United States. TheU.S. Constitution establishes aseparation of powers intended to provide a system ofchecks and balances to prevent any of the three branches from becoming supreme.[246]
TheU.S. Congress is abicameral legislature made up of theSenate and theHouse of Representatives. The Senate has 100 members—two residents from each state and elected by that state's voters for a six-year term. The House of Representatives has 435 members, elected for a two-year term by the constituency of thecongressional district where they reside. Astate's legislature decides the district boundaries, which are contiguous within the state. Every U.S. congressional district is of equivalent population and sends one representative to Congress.[247] Election years for senators are staggered so that only one-third of them will be up for election every two years.[248] U.S. representatives are all up for election at the same time every two years. The U.S. Congress makesfederal law,declares war, approves treaties, has thepower of the purse,[249] and hasthe power of impeachment.[250] One of its foremost non-legislative functions isthe power to investigate and oversee the executive branch.[251]Congressional oversight is usually delegated to committees and is facilitated byCongress's power to issue subpoenas.[252] Much of the work of Congress is performed bya collection of committees, each appointed for a specific purpose or function. Committee membership is by tradition and statutebipartisan, but all committees arechaired by a member of themajority party, who sets the committee agenda.[253]
The U.S. president is thehead of state,commander-in-chief of the military,chief executive of the federal government, and has the ability to vetolegislative bills from the U.S. Congress before they become law. However,presidential vetoes can be overridden by a two-thirdssupermajority vote in both chambers of Congress. The president appoints themembers of the Cabinet, subject to Senate approval, and names other officials who administer and enforce federal law and policy throughtheir respective agencies.[254] The president also has clemency power for federal crimes andcan issue pardons. Finally, the president has the authority to issue expansive "executive orders" in a number of policy areas, subject tojudicial review. Candidates for president campaign with a vice-presidentialrunning mate. Both candidates are elected together, or defeated together, in a presidential election. Unlike other votes in American politics, this is technically anindirect election in which the winner will be determined by theU.S. Electoral College. There, votes are officially cast by individual electors selected bytheir state legislature.[255] In practice, however, each of the 50 states chooses a group of presidential electors who are required by state law to confirm the winner of their state's popular vote. Each state is allocated two electors plus one additional elector for every congressional district in the state, which in effect combines to equal the number of elected officials that state sends to Congress. The District of Columbia, with no representatives or senators, is allocated three electoral votes. Both the president and the vice president serve a four-year term, and the president may bereelected to the office only once, for one additional four-year term.[s]
TheU.S. federal judiciary, whose judges are all appointed for life by the president with Senate approval, consists primarily of theU.S. Supreme Court, theU.S. courts of appeals, and theU.S. district courts. The lowest level in the federal judiciary is the federal district court, which decides all cases considered to be under "original jurisdiction", such as federal statutes, constitutional law, orinternational treaties. After a federal district court has decided a case, its decision may be contested and sent to a higher court, a federal court of appeals. The U.S. judicial system's 12 federal circuits divide the country into 12 separate geographic administrative regions for appeals decisions. The next and highest court in the system is the Supreme Court of the United States.[256] The U.S. Supreme Court interprets laws andoverturns those it finds unconstitutional.[256] On average, the Supreme Court receives about 7,000 appeals petitions forwrits of certiorari each year, but only grants about 80.[257] Consisting of nine members led by theChief Justice of the United States, the court judges each case before it by majority decision. As with all other federal judges, the members are appointed for life by the sitting president with Senate approval when a vacancy becomes available.[258]
The three-branch system is known as thepresidential system, in contrast to theparliamentary system where the executive is part of the legislative body. Many countries around the world adopted this aspect of the 1789 Constitution of the United States, especially in thepostcolonial Americas.[259]
Beginning in 2014, the U.S. had becomea key ally of Ukraine.[293][294] AfterDonald Trump was elected U.S. president in 2024, he sought to negotiate an end to theRusso-Ukrainian War. He paused all military aid to Ukraine in March 2025,[295] although the aid resumed later.[296] Trump also ended U.S. intelligence sharing with the country,[297] but this too was eventually restored.[298]
State defense forces (SDFs) are military units that operate under the sole authority of a state government. SDFs are authorized by state and federal law but are under the command ofthe state's governor.[309][310][311]By contrast, the 54U.S. National Guard organizations[t] fall under the dual control ofstate orterritorial governments and thefederal government; their units can also become federalized entities, but SDFs cannot be federalized.[312] The National Guard personnel of a state or territory can be federalized by the president under theNational Defense Act Amendments of 1933; this legislation created the Guard and provides for the integration ofArmy National Guard andAir National Guard units and personnel into the U.S. Army and (since 1947) the U.S. Air Force.[313] The total number of National Guard members is about 430,000, while the estimated combined strength of SDFs is less than 10,000.
There is no unified "criminal justice system" in the United States. TheAmerican prison system is largely heterogenous, with thousands of relatively independent systems operating across federal, state, local, and tribal levels. In 2025, "these systems holdnearly 2 million people in 1,566 state prisons, 98 federal prisons, 3,116 local jails, 1,277 juvenile correctional facilities, 133 immigration detention facilities, and 80 Indian country jails, as well as in military prisons, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S. territories."[318]
Despite disparate systems of confinement, four main institutions dominate:federal prisons,state prisons, local jails, andjuvenile correctional facilities.[319] Federal prisons are run by theFederal Bureau of Prisons and hold pretrial detainees as well as people who have been convicted of federal crimes.[319] State prisons, run by the department of corrections of each state, hold people sentenced and serving prison time (usually longer than one year) for felony offenses.[319] Local jails are county or municipal facilities that incarcerate defendants prior to trial; they also hold those serving short sentences (typically under a year).[319] Juvenile correctional facilities are operated by local or state governments and serve as longer-term placements for anyminor adjudicated as delinquent and ordered by a judge to be confined.[320]
In January 2023, the United States had thesixth-highest per capita incarceration rate in the world—531 people per 100,000 inhabitants—and the largest prison and jail population in the world, with more than 1.9 million people incarcerated.[318][321][322] An analysis of theWorld Health Organization Mortality Database from 2010 showed U.S. homicide rates "were 7 times higher than in other high-income countries, driven bya gun homicide rate that was 25 times higher".[323]
Wealth in the United States is highly concentrated; in 2011, the richest 10% of the adult population owned 72% of the country's household wealth, while the bottom 50% owned just 2%.[358]U.S. wealth inequality increased substantially since the late 1980s,[359] andincome inequality in the U.S. reached a record high in 2019.[360] In 2024, the country had some of the highest wealth and income inequality levels amongOECD countries.[361] Since the 1970s, there has been a decoupling of U.S. wage gains from worker productivity.[362] In 2016, the top fifth of earners took home more than half of all income,[363] giving the U.S. one of the widest income distributions among OECD countries.[364][362] There were about 771,480homeless persons in the U.S. in 2024.[365] In 2022, 6.4 million children experienced food insecurity.[366]Feeding America estimates that around one in five, or approximately 13 million,children experience hunger in the U.S. and do not know where or when they will get their next meal.[367] Also in 2022, about 37.9 million people, or 11.5% of the U.S. population, wereliving in poverty.[368]
AstronautsBuzz Aldrin andNeil Armstrong (seen in visor reflection) during the 1969Apollo 11 mission, the first crewedMoon landing. The United States is the only country to have landed humans on the Moon.
The U.S. is the world'slargest producer of nuclear power, generating around 30% of the world's nuclear electricity.[405] It also has the highest number of nuclear power reactors of any country.[406] From 2024, the U.S. plans to triple its nuclear power capacity by 2050.[407]
The United States' 4 million miles (6.4 million kilometers) of road network, owned almost entirely by state and local governments, is thelongest in the world.[408][409] The extensiveInterstate Highway System that connects all major U.S. cities is funded mostly by the federal government but maintained bystate departments of transportation. The system is further extended bystate highways and some privatetoll roads.
The U.S. is among the top ten countries with thehighest vehicle ownership per capita (850 vehicles per 1,000 people) in 2022. A 2022 study found that 76% of U.S. commuters drive alone and 14% ride a bicycle, including bike owners and users ofbike-sharing networks. About 11% use some form of public transportation.[410][411]
Public transportation in the United States is well developed in the largest urban areas, notably New York City, Washington, D.C., Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco; otherwise, coverage is generally less extensive than in most other developed countries. The U.S. also has many relativelycar-dependent localities.[412]
Long-distance intercity travel is provided primarily by airlines, but travel by rail is more common along theNortheast Corridor, the onlyhigh-speed rail in the U.S. that meets international standards.Amtrak, the country's government-sponsored national passenger rail company, has a relatively sparse network compared to that of Western European countries. Service is concentrated in the Northeast, California, the Midwest, the Pacific Northwest, and Virginia/Southeast.
The United States has an extensive air transportation network.U.S. civilian airlines are all privately owned. The three largest airlines in the world, by total number of passengers carried, are U.S.-based;American Airlines became the global leader after its 2013 merger withUS Airways.[415] Of the 50 busiest airports in the world, 16 are in the United States, as well as five of the top 10.[416] The world's busiest airport by passenger volume isHartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International inAtlanta, Georgia.[413][416] In 2022, most of the19,969 U.S. airports[417] were owned and operated by local government authorities, and there are also some private airports. Some 5,193 are designated as "public use", including forgeneral aviation. TheTransportation Security Administration (TSA) has provided security at most major airports since 2001.
The country's rail transport network, thelongest in the world at 182,412.3 mi (293,564.2 km),[418] handles mostlyfreight[419][420] (in contrast to more passenger-centered rail in Europe[421]). Because they are often privately owned operations, U.S. railroads lag behind those of the rest of the world in terms of electrification.[422]
TheU.S. Census Bureau reported 331,449,281 residents on April 1, 2020,[v][426] making the United States thethird-most-populous country in the world, after India and China.[427] The Census Bureau's official 2025 population estimate was 341,784,857, an increase of 3.1% since the 2020 census.[13] According to the Bureau'sU.S. Population Clock, on July 1, 2024, the U.S. population had a net gain of one person every 16 seconds, or about 5400 people per day.[428] In 2023, 51% of Americans age 15 and over were married, 6% werewidowed, 10% were divorced, and 34% had never been married.[429] In 2023, thetotal fertility rate for the U.S. stood at 1.6 children per woman,[430] and, at 23%, it had the world's highest rate of children living insingle-parent households in 2019.[431] Most Americans live in thesuburbs of major metropolitan areas.
The United States has a diverse population; 37ancestry groups have more than one million members.[432]White Americans with ancestry from Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa form the largestracial andethnic group at 57.8% of the United States population.[433][434]Hispanic and Latino Americans form the second-largest group and are 18.7% of the United States population.African Americans constitute the country's third-largest ancestry group and are 12.1% of the total U.S. population.[432] Asian Americans are the country's fourth-largest group, composing 5.9% of the United States population. The country's 3.7 million Native Americans account for about 1%,[432] and some 574 native tribes are recognized by the federal government.[435] In 2024, themedian age of the United States population was 39.1 years.[436]
While many languages anddialects are spoken in the United States,English is by far the most commonly spoken and written.[437]De facto, English is theofficial language of the United States, and in 2025,Executive Order 14224 declared English official.[4] However, the U.S. has never had ade jure official language, as Congress has never passed a law to designate English as official for all three federal branches. Some laws, such asU.S. naturalization requirements, nonetheless standardize English. Twenty-eight states and theUnited States Virgin Islands have laws that designate English as the sole official language; 19 states and theDistrict of Columbia have no official language.[438] Three states and four U.S. territories have recognized local or indigenous languages in addition to English: Hawaii (Hawaiian),[439] Alaska (twenty Native languages),[w][440] South Dakota (Sioux),[441] American Samoa (Samoan), Puerto Rico (Spanish), Guam (Chamorro), and the Northern Mariana Islands (Carolinian and Chamorro). In total, 169 Native American languages are spoken in the United States.[442] In Puerto Rico, Spanish is more widely spoken than English.[443]
According to theAmerican Community Survey (2020),[444] some 245.4 million people in the U.S. age five and older spoke only English at home. About 41.2 million spokeSpanish at home, making it the second most commonly used language. Other languages spoken at home by one million people or more includeChinese (3.40 million),Tagalog (1.71 million),Vietnamese (1.52 million),Arabic (1.39 million),French (1.18 million),Korean (1.07 million), andRussian (1.04 million).German, spoken by 1 million people at home in 2010, fell to 857,000 total speakers in 2020.[445]
America's immigrant population is by far the world'slargest in absolute terms.[446][447] In 2022, there were 87.7 million immigrants andU.S.-born children of immigrants in the United States, accounting for nearly 27% of the overall U.S. population.[448] 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) wereunauthorized immigrants.[449] 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%).[450] In fiscal year 2022, over one million immigrants (most of whom entered throughfamily reunification) were grantedlegal residence.[451] The undocumented immigrant population in the U.S. reached a record high of 14 million in 2023.[452]
About 82% of Americans live inmetropolitan areas, particularly insuburbs;[346] about half of those reside in cities with populations over 50,000.[465] In 2022, 333incorporated municipalities had populations over 100,000, nine cities had more than one million residents, and four cities—New York City,Los Angeles,Chicago, andHouston—had populations exceeding two million.[466] Many U.S. metropolitan populations are growing rapidly, particularly in the South and West.[467]
According to theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), average U.S. life expectancy at birth reached 79.0 years in 2024, its highest recorded level. This was an increase of 0.6 years over 2023. The CDC attributed the improvement to a significant fall in the number of fatal drug overdoses in the country, noting that "heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death in the United States, followed by cancer and unintentional injuries."[472] In 2024, life expectancy at birth for American men rose to 76.5 years (+0.7 years compared to 2023), while life expectancy for women was 81.4 years (+0.3 years).[473] Starting in 1998, life expectancy in the U.S. fellbehind that of other wealthy industrialized countries, and Americans' "health disadvantage" gap has been increasing ever since.[474]
American primary and secondary education, known in the U.S. asK–12 ("kindergarten through 12th grade"), is decentralized. School systems are operated by state, territorial, and sometimes municipal governments and regulated by theU.S. Department of Education. In general, children are required to attend school oran approved homeschool from the age of five or six (kindergarten orfirst grade) until they are 18 years old. This often brings students through the12th grade, the final year of a U.S. high school, but some states and territories allow them to leave school earlier, at age 16 or 17.[482] The U.S. spends more on education per student than any other country,[483] an average of $18,614 per year per public elementary and secondary school student in 2020–2021.[484] Among Americans age 25 and older, 92.2% graduated from high school, 62.7% attended some college, 37.7% earned abachelor's degree, and 14.2% earned a graduate degree.[485] TheU.S. literacy rate is near-universal.[346][486] The U.S. has produced themost Nobel Prize winners of any country, with411 (having won 413 awards).[487][488]
As forpublic expenditures on higher education, the U.S. spends more per student than theOECD average, and Americans spend more than all nations in combined public and private spending.[492] Colleges and universities directly funded by the federal government do not charge tuition and are limited to military personnel and government employees, including: theU.S. service academies, theNaval Postgraduate School, andmilitary staff colleges. Despite some studentloan forgiveness programs in place,[493]student loan debt increased by 102% between 2010 and 2020,[494] and exceeded $1.7 trillion in 2022.[495]
TheNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities is an agency of the United States federal government that was established in 1965 with the purpose to "develop and promote a broadly conceived national policy of support for the humanities and the arts in the United States, and for institutions which preserve the cultural heritage of the United States."[533] It is composed of four sub-agencies:
Whilemodernism generally took on an international character, modernist authors working within the United States more often rooted their work in specific regions, peoples, and cultures.[548] Following the Great Migration to northern cities, African-American and blackWest Indian authors of theHarlem Renaissance developed an independent tradition of literature that rebuked a history of inequality and celebrated black culture. An important cultural export during theJazz Age, these writings were a key influence onNégritude, a philosophy emerging in the 1930s among francophone writers of theAfrican diaspora.[549][550] In the 1950s, an ideal of homogeneity led many authors to attempt to write theGreat American Novel,[551] while theBeat Generation rejected this conformity, using styles that elevated the impact of thespoken word over mechanics to describe drug use, sexuality, and the failings of society.[552][553] Contemporary literature is more pluralistic than in previous eras, with the closest thing to a unifying feature being a trend toward self-consciousexperiments with language.[554] Twelve American laureates have won theNobel Prize in Literature.[555]
In 2025, the U.S. was the world'ssecond-largest video game market by revenue (after China).[565] In 2015, the U.S. video game industry consisted of 2,457 companies that employed around 220,000 jobs and generated $30.4 billion in revenue.[566] There are 444 game publishers, developers, and hardware companies in California alone.[567] According to theGame Developers Conference (GDC), the U.S. is the top location forvideo game development, with 58% of the world'sgame developers based there in 2025.[568]
Many movie and televisioncelebrities have gotten their big break working in New York productions. Outside New York City, many cities have professionalregional or resident theater companies that produce their own seasons. The biggest-budget theatrical productions are musicals. U.S. theater has an activecommunity theater culture.[572]
Folk art incolonial America grew out of artisanalcraftsmanship in communities that allowed commonly trained people to individually express themselves. It was distinct from Europe's tradition ofhigh art, which was less accessible and generally less relevant to early American settlers.[575] Cultural movements in art and craftsmanship in colonial America generally lagged behind those of Western Europe. For example, the prevailing medieval style ofwoodworking and primitivesculpture became integral to early American folk art, despite the emergence ofRenaissance styles in England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The new English styles would have been early enough to make a considerable impact on American folk art, but American styles and forms had already been firmly adopted. Not only did styles change slowly in early America, but there was a tendency for rural artisans there to continue their traditional forms longer than their urban counterparts did—and far longer than those in Western Europe.[514]
TheHudson River School was a mid-19th-century movement in the visual arts tradition of Europeannaturalism. The 1913Armory Show in New York City, an exhibition of Europeanmodernist art, shocked the public and transformed the U.S. art scene.[576]
American folk music encompasses numerous music genres, variously known as traditional music, traditionalfolk 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 theBritish Isles,mainland Europe, orAfrica.[581] The rhythmic and lyrical styles of African-American music in particular have influenced American music.[582]Banjos were brought to America through the slave trade.Minstrel shows incorporating the instrument into their acts led to its increased popularity and widespread production in the 19th century.[583][584] Theelectric guitar, first invented in the 1930s, and mass-produced by the 1940s, had an enormous influence on popular music, in particular due to the development ofrock and roll.[585] Thesynthesizer,turntablism, andelectronic music were also largely developed in the U.S.
The United States has the world's largestapparel market by revenue.[603] Apart from professionalbusiness attire, American fashion is eclectic and predominantly informal. Americans' diverse cultural roots are reflected in their clothing; however,sneakers,jeans,T-shirts, andbaseball caps are emblematic of American styles.[604] New York, withits Fashion Week, is considered to be one of the "Big Four" globalfashion capitals, along withParis,Milan, andLondon. A study demonstrated that general proximity toManhattan's Garment District has been synonymous with American fashion since its inception in the early 20th century.[605]
Largely centered in the New York City region from its beginnings in the late 19th century through the first decades of the 20th century,[616][617][618][619] the U.S. film industry has since been primarily based in and around Hollywood. Nonetheless, American film companies have been subject to the forces ofglobalization in the 21st century, and an increasing number of films are made elsewhere.[620] TheAcademy Awards, popularly known as "the Oscars", have been held annually by theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1929,[621] and theGolden Globe Awards have been held annually since January 1944.[622]
The industry peaked in what is commonly referred to as the "Golden Age of Hollywood", from the early sound period until the early 1960s,[623] with screen actors such asJohn Wayne andMarilyn Monroe becoming iconic figures.[624][625] In the 1970s, "New Hollywood", or the "Hollywood Renaissance",[626] was defined by grittier films influenced by French and Italian realist pictures of thepost-war period.[627] The 21st century has been marked by the rise of Americanstreaming platforms, which came to rival traditional cinema.[628][629]
Early settlers were introduced by Native Americans to foods such asturkey,sweet potatoes,corn,squash, andmaple syrup. Of the most enduring and pervasive examples are variations of the native dish calledsuccotash. Early settlers and later immigrants combined these with foods they were familiar with, such aswheat flour,[630] beef, and milk, to create a distinctive American cuisine.[631][632]New World crops, especiallypumpkin, corn,potatoes, and turkey as the main course are part of a shared national menu onThanksgiving, when many Americans prepare or purchase traditional dishes to celebrate the occasion.[633]
Americanchefs have had a significant impact on society both domestically and internationally. In 1946, theCulinary Institute of America was founded byKatharine Angell andFrances Roth. This would become the United States' most prestigious culinary school, where many of the most talented American chefs would study prior to successful careers.[639][640] TheUnited States restaurant industry was projected at $899 billion in sales for 2020,[641][642] and employed more than 15 million people, representing 10% of the nation's workforce directly.[641] It is the country's second-largest private employer and the third-largest employer overall.[643][644] The United States is home to over 220Michelin star-rated restaurants, 70 of which are in New York City.[645]
American football is by several measures the most popular spectator sport in the United States.[664] Although American football does not have a substantial following in other nations, the NFL does have the highest average attendance (67,254) of any professional sports league in the world.[665] In the year 2024, the NFL generated over $23 billion, making them the most valued professional sports league in the United States and the world.[666] Baseball has been regarded as the U.S. "national sport" since the late 19th century. The most-watchedindividual sports in the U.S. aregolf andauto racing, particularlyNASCAR andIndyCar.[667][668]
On thecollegiate level, earnings for the member institutions exceed $1 billion annually,[669] andcollege football andbasketball attract large audiences, as theNCAA March Madness tournament and theCollege Football Playoff are some of the most watched national sporting events.[670] In the U.S., the intercollegiate sports level serves as the main feeder system for professional and Olympic sports, with significant exceptions such asMinor League Baseball. This differs greatly from practices in nearly all other countries, where publicly and privately funded sports organizations serve this function.[671]
^PerExecutive Order 14224.[4][5] States and territories variously recognize English only, English plus one or more local languages, or no language at all. See§ Language.
^The historical and informal demonymYankee has been applied to Americans, New Englanders, and northeasterners since the 18th century. Other terms, such asUsonian, are rare.
^abcAt 3,531,900 sq mi (9,147,590 km2), the United States is the third-largest country in the world by land area, behindRussia andChina. By total area (land and water), it is the third-largest, behind Russia andCanada, if its coastal and territorial water areas are included. However, if only its internal waters are included (bays, sounds, rivers, lakes, and theGreat Lakes), the U.S. is the fourth-largest, after Russia, Canada, and China. Coastal/territorial waters included: 3,796,742 sq mi (9,833,517 km2)[20] Only internal waters included: 3,696,100 sq mi (9,572,900 km2)[21]
^TheU.S. Census Bureau's latest official population estimate of 341,784,857 residents (2025)[13] is for the 50 states and the District of Columbia; it excludes the 3.6 million residents of the five majorU.S. territories and outlying islands. The Census Bureau also provides a continuously updated but unofficial population clock:www.census.gov/popclock
^The officialU.S. Government Publishing Office Style Manual has prescribed specific usages for "U.S." and "United States" as part of official names. In "formal writing (treaties, Executive orders, proclamations, etc.); congressional bills; legal citations and courtwork; and covers and title pages",[26] "United States" is always used. In a sentence containing the name of another country, "United States" must be used. Otherwise, "U.S." is used preceding a government organization or as an adjective, but "United States" is used as an adjective preceding non-governmental organizations (e.g.United States Steel Corporation).[26]
^"Americus" is derived from the Old High German first name "Emmerich".
^One for each state, the District of Columbia, and the territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands
^A country's total exports are usually understood to be goods and services. Based on this, the U.S. is the world's second-largest exporter, after China.[349] However, if primary income is included, the U.S. is the world's largest exporter.[350]
^abAreas of the 50 states and the District of Columbia but not Puerto Rico nor other island territories per"State Area Measurements and Internal Point Coordinates".Census.gov. August 2010. RetrievedMarch 31, 2020.reflect base feature updates made in the MAF/TIGER database through August, 2010.
^Viegas, Jennifer."First Americans Endured 20,000-Year Layover".Discovery News. Archived fromthe original on October 10, 2012. RetrievedNovember 18, 2009.Archaeological evidence, in fact, recognizes that people started to leave Beringia for the New World around 40,000 years ago, but rapid expansion into North America didn't occur until about 15,000 years ago, when the ice had literally broken
^Florida Center for Instructional Technology (2002). "Pedro Menendez de Aviles Claims Florida for Spain".A Short History of Florida. University of South Florida.
^abCarlisle, Rodney P.; Golson, J. Geoffrey (2007).Manifest destiny and the expansion of America. Turning Points in History Series. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. p. 238.ISBN978-1-85109-834-7.OCLC659807062.
^Hammond, John Craig (March 2019). "President, Planter, Politician: James Monroe, the Missouri Crisis, and the Politics of Slavery".Journal of American History.105 (4):843–867.doi:10.1093/jahist/jaz002.
^Calloway, Colin G. (2019).First peoples: a documentary survey of American Indian history (6th ed.). Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, Macmillan Learning.ISBN978-1-319-10491-7.OCLC1035393060.
Meyer et al. 2001, From 1800 to 1900: "The discovery of gold in California in 1848 proved a momentous watershed for native people in the West. Hordes of single men stampeded to find fortune. Unrestrained by family, community, or church, they decimated the native population near the goldfields. California natives suffered the most complete genocide in U.S. history."
Smithers 2012, p. 339: "The genocidal intent of California settlers and government officials was acted out in numerous battles and massacres (and aided by technological advances in weaponry, especially after the Civil War), in the abduction and sexual abuse of Indian women, and in the economic exploitation of Indian child labourers"
Blackhawk 2023, p. 38: "With these works, a near consensus emerged. By most scholarly definitions and consistent with the UN Convention, these scholars all asserted that genocide against at least some Indigenous peoples had occurred in North America following colonisation, perpetuated first by colonial empires and then by independent nation-states"
^Woods, Michael E. (2012). "What Twenty-First-Century Historians Have Said about the Causes of Disunion: A Civil War Sesquicentennial Review of the Recent Literature".The Journal of American History.99 (2):415–439.doi:10.1093/jahist/jas272.ISSN0021-8723.JSTOR44306803.
^Vinovskis, Maris (1990).Toward A Social History of the American Civil War: Exploratory Essays. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 4.ISBN978-0-521-39559-5.
^Woodward, C. Vann (1991).Reunion and Reaction: The Compromise of 1877 and the End of Reconstruction. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. pp. 237–246.
^Aldrich, Mark.Safety First: Technology, Labor and Business in the Building of Work Safety, 1870-1939. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.ISBN978-0-8018-5405-7.
^McDuffie, Jerome; Piggrem, Gary Wayne; Woodworth, Steven E. (2005).U.S. History Super Review. Piscataway, NJ: Research & Education Association. p. 418.ISBN978-0-7386-0070-3.
^Larson, Elizabeth C.; Meltvedt, Kristi R. (2021)."Women's suffrage: fact sheet".CRS Reports (Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service). Report / Congressional Research Service. RetrievedAugust 9, 2023.
^Brinkley, Alan (January 24, 1991). "Great Society". In Eric Foner; John Arthur Garraty (eds.).The Reader's Companion to American History. Houghton Mifflin Books. p. 472.ISBN978-0-395-51372-9.
^"Playboy: American Magazine".Encyclopædia Britannica. August 25, 2022. RetrievedFebruary 2, 2023....the so-called sexual revolution in the United States in the 1960s, marked by greatly more permissive attitudes toward sexual interest and activity than had been prevalent in earlier generations.
^Howell, Buddy Wayne (2006).The Rhetoric of Presidential Summit Diplomacy: Ronald Reagan and the U.S.-Soviet Summits, 1985–1988. Texas A&M University. p. 352.ISBN978-0-549-41658-6.
^Rutenberg, Jim; Becker, Jo; Lipton, Eric; Haberman, Maggie; Martin, Jonathan; Rosenberg, Matthew; Schmidt, Michael S. (January 31, 2021)."77 Days: Trump's Campaign to Subvert the Election".The New York Times.Archived from the original on June 18, 2022.
Harvey, Michael (2022). "Introduction: History's Rhymes". In Harvey, Michael (ed.).Donald Trump in Historical Perspective. Routledge.doi:10.4324/9781003110361-1.ISBN978-1-003-11036-1.As with the Beer Hall Putsch, a would-be leader tried to take advantage of an already scheduled event (in Hitler's case, Kahr's speech; in Trump's, Congress's tallying of the electoral votes) to create a dramatic moment with himself at the center of attention, calling for bold action to upend the political order. Unlike Hitler's coup attempt, Trump already held top of office, so he was attempting to hold onto power, not seize it (the precise term for Trump's intended action is a 'self-coup' or 'autogolpe'). Thus, Trump was able to plan for the event well in advance, and with much greater control, including developing the legal arguments that could be used to justify rejecting the election's results. (p. 3)
Castañeda, Ernesto; Jenks, Daniel (April 17, 2023). Costa, Bruno Ferreira; Parton, Nigel (eds.)."January 6th and De-Democratization in the United States".Social Sciences.12 (4).MDPI: 238.doi:10.3390/socsci12040238.ISSN2076-0760.What the United States went through on January 6th was an attempt at a self-coup, where Trump would use force to stay as head of state even if abandoning democratic practices in the U.S. Some advised Trump to declare martial law to create a state of emergency and use that as an excuse to stay in power.
Eisen, Norman; Ayer, Donald; Perry, Joshua; Bookbinder, Noah; Perry, E. Danya (June 6, 2022).Trump on Trial: A Guide to the January 6 Hearings and the Question of Criminality (Report). Brookings Institution. RetrievedDecember 16, 2023.[Trump] tried to delegitimize the election results by disseminating a series of far fetched and evidence-free claims of fraud. Meanwhile, with a ring of close confidants, Trump conceived and implemented unprecedented schemes to – in his own words – "overturn" the election outcome. Among the results of this "Big Lie" campaign were the terrible events of January 6, 2021 – an inflection point in what we now understand was nothing less than an attempted coup.
Eastman v Thompson, et al., 8:22-cv-00099-DOC-DFM Document 260, 44 (S.D. Cal. May 28, 2022) ("Dr. Eastman and President Trump launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history. Their campaign was not confined to the ivory tower – it was a coup in search of a legal theory. The plan spurred violent attacks on the seat of our nation's government, led to the deaths of several law enforcement officers, and deepened public distrust in our political process... If Dr. Eastman and President Trump's plan had worked, it would have permanently ended the peaceful transition of power, undermining American democracy and the Constitution. If the country does not commit to investigating and pursuing accountability for those responsible, the Court fears January 6 will repeat itself.").
Jacobson, Louis (January 6, 2021)."Is this a coup? Here's some history and context to help you decide".PolitiFact. RetrievedJanuary 7, 2021.A good case can be made that the storming of the Capitol qualifies as a coup. It's especially so because the rioters entered at precisely the moment when the incumbent's loss was to be formally sealed, and they succeeded in stopping the count.
Duignan, Brian (August 4, 2021)."January 6 U.S. Capitol attack".Encyclopædia Britannica.Archived from the original on January 17, 2023. RetrievedSeptember 22, 2021.Because its object was to prevent a legitimate president-elect from assuming office, the attack was widely regarded as an insurrection or attempted coup d'état.
^abLew, Alan."PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE US".GSP 220—Geography of the United States. North Arizona University. Archived fromthe original on April 9, 2016. RetrievedDecember 24, 2014.
^US Global Change Research Program."Heat Waves".www.globalchange.gov. Archived from the original on June 30, 2025. RetrievedJune 9, 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^Vincent, Carol H.; Hanson, Laura A.; Argueta, Carla N. (March 3, 2017).Federal Land Ownership: Overview and Data (Report). Congressional Research Service. p. 2. RetrievedJune 18, 2020.
^Gorte, Ross W.; Vincent, Carol Hardy.; Hanson, Laura A.; Marc R., Rosenblum."Federal Land Ownership: Overview and Data"(PDF).fas.org. Congressional Research Service. RetrievedJanuary 18, 2015.
^Sundquist, James L. (1997). "The U.S. Presidential System as a Model for the World". In Baaklini, Abdo I.; Desfosses, Helen (eds.).Designs for Democratic Stability: Studies in Viable Constitutionalism.Routledge. pp. 53–72.ISBN978-0-7656-0052-3.
^Fialho, Livia Pontes; Wallin, Matthew (August 1, 2013). Reaching for an Audience: U.S. Public Diplomacy Towards Iran (Report). American Security Project.JSTORresrep06070.
^Lindsay, James M. (August 4, 2021)."Happy 231st Birthday to the United States Coast Guard!". New York City:Council on Foreign Relations. RetrievedJuly 16, 2022.During peacetime it is part of the Department of Homeland Security. During wartime, or when the president or Congress so direct, it becomes part of the Department of Defense and is included in the Department of the Navy.
^Highest to Lowest.World Prison Brief (WPB). Use the dropdown menu to choose lists of countries by region or the whole world. Use the menu to select highest-to-lowest lists of prison population totals, prison population rates, percentage of pre-trial detainees/remand prisoners, percentage of female prisoners, percentage of foreign prisoners, and occupancy rate. Column headings in WPB tables can be clicked to reorder columns lowest to highest, or alphabetically. For detailed information for each country click on any country name in lists. See theWPB main data page and click on the map links or the sidebar links to get to the region and country desired.
^Moffatt, Mike (January 27, 2020)."A Mixed Economy: The Role of the Market".ThoughtCo. RetrievedMay 30, 2025.The US has a mixed economy because both private businesses and the government are important.
^Fordham, Benjamin (October 2017). "Protectionist Empire: Trade, Tariffs, and United States Foreign Policy, 1890–1914".Studies in American Political Development.31 (2):170–192.doi:10.1017/s0898588x17000116.ISSN0898-588X.S2CID148917255.
^Hagopian, Kip; Ohanian, Lee (August 1, 2012)."The Mismeasure of Inequality".Policy Review (174). Hoover Institution. Archived fromthe original on December 3, 2013. RetrievedJanuary 23, 2020.
^Benjamin J. Cohen,The Future of Money, Princeton University Press, 2006,ISBN978-0-691-11666-2;cf. "the dollar is the de facto currency in Cambodia", Charles Agar,Frommer's Vietnam, 2006,ISBN978-0-471-79816-3, p. 17.
^Wright, Gavin, and Jesse Czelusta, "Resource-Based Growth Past and Present", inNatural Resources: Neither Curse Nor Destiny, ed. Daniel Lederman and William Maloney (World Bank, 2007), p. 185.ISBN978-0-8213-6545-8.
^"Income".Better Life Index. OECD. RetrievedSeptember 28, 2019.In the United States, the average household net adjusted disposable income per capita is USD 45 284 a year, much higher than the OECD average of USD 33 604 and the highest figure in the OECD.
^Smith, Matthew; Zidar, Owen; Zwick, Eric (2022). "Top Wealth in America: New Estimates under Heterogeneous Returns".The Quarterly Journal of Economics.138:515–573.doi:10.1093/qje/qjac033.ISSN0033-5533.
^Smeeding, T. M. (2005). "Public Policy: Economic Inequality and Poverty: The United States in Comparative Perspective".Social Science Quarterly.86:955–983.doi:10.1111/j.0038-4941.2005.00331.x.S2CID154642286.
^Cellan-Jones, Rory (February 7, 2020)."Tech Tent - has Silicon Valley still got it?".BBC. RetrievedAugust 17, 2025.For decades it has been the beating heart of the tech industry, the place where the future is created and where anyone who wants to be part of it has to come in search of inspiration and funding.
^ANALYSIS (December 19, 2011)."Global Christianity". Pewforum.org. Archived fromthe original on July 30, 2013. RetrievedAugust 17, 2012.
^Sewell, Elizabeth (2010). "Religious Liberty and Religious Minorities in the United States". In Davis, Derek (ed.).The Oxford Handbook of Church and State in the United States.University of Oxford. pp. 249–275.ISBN978-0-19-989222-8.
^Kallo, Becka; et al. (December 7, 2023)."Spirituality Among Americans".Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. RetrievedDecember 8, 2023.
^Fahmy, Dalia; Smith, Gregory A.; Cooperman, Alan; Alper, Becka A.; Mohamed, Besheer; Rotolo, Chip; Tevington, Patricia; Nortey, Justin; Kallo, Asta; Diamant, Jeff (February 26, 2025)."Decline of Christianity in the U.S. Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off".Pew Research Center. RetrievedApril 22, 2025.
^Xu, Jiaquan; Murphy, Sherry; Kochanek, Kenneth D.; Arias, Elizabeth (January 29, 2026)."Mortality in the United States 2024".National Center for Health Statistics Brief / CDC. RetrievedFebruary 1, 2026.
^Hoeveler, J. David,Creating the American Mind: Intellect and Politics in the Colonial Colleges, Rowman & Littlefield,ISBN978-0-7425-4839-8, 2007, p. xi.
^abDerks, Marco; van den Berg, Mariecke (2020).Public Discourses About Homosexuality and Religion in Europe and Beyond.Springer International Publishing. p. 338.ISBN978-3-030-56326-4....(the United States and [Western] Europe) as "already in crisis" for their permissive attitudes toward nonnormative sexualities...
^Garretson, Jeremiah (2018). "A Transformed Society: LGBT Rights in the United States".The Path to Gay Rights: How Activism and Coming Out Changed Public Opinion.New York University Press.ISBN978-1-4798-5007-5.In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a dramatic wave began to form in the waters of public opinion: American attitudes involving homosexuality began to change... The transformation of America's response to homosexuality has been — and continues to be — one of the most rapid and sustained shifts in mass attitudes since the start of public polling.
^Gutfeld, Amon (2002).American Exceptionalism: The Effects of Plenty on the American Experience. Brighton and Portland: Sussex Academic Press. p. 65.ISBN978-1-903900-08-6.
^Zweig, Michael (2004).What's Class Got To Do With It, American Society in the Twenty-First Century. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.ISBN978-0-8014-8899-3.
^Lease, Benjamin (1972).That Wild Fellow John Neal and the American Literary Revolution. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. p. 80.ISBN978-0-226-46969-0.
^Meserve, Walter J. An Outline History of American Drama, New York: Feedback/Prospero, 1994.
^Londré, Felicia Hardison; Watermeier, Daniel J. (1998).The History of North American Theater: From Pre-Columbian Times to the Present. Continuum.ISBN978-0-8264-1079-5.OCLC1024855967.
^Stephen Watt, and Gary A. Richardson,American Drama: Colonial to Contemporary (1994).
^Winans, Robert B. (1976). "The Folk, the Stage, and the Five-String Banjo in the Nineteenth Century".The Journal of American Folklore.89 (354). American Folklore Society:407–437.doi:10.2307/539294.JSTOR539294.
^Rose, Lisa (April 29, 2012)."100 years ago, Fort Lee was the first town to bask in movie magic".NJ.com.Archived from the original on September 29, 2018. RetrievedJanuary 19, 2023.Back in 1912, when Hollywood had more cattle than cameras, Fort Lee was the center of the cinematic universe. Icons from the silent era like Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, and Lillian Gish crossed the Hudson River via ferry to emote on Fort Lee back lots.
Baym, Nina; Levine, Robert S., eds. (2013).The Norton Anthology of American Literature (Shorter eighth ed.). New York, New York: W.W. Norton.ISBN978-0-393-91885-4.
Bianchine, Peter J.; Russo, Thomas A. (1992). "The Role of Epidemic Infectious Diseases in the Discovery of America".Allergy and Asthma Proceedings.13 (5):225–232.doi:10.2500/108854192778817040.PMID1483570.
Blackhawk, Ned (2023). "'The Centrality of Dispossession': Native American Genocide and Settler Colonialism". In Blackhawk, Ned;Kiernan, Ben; Madley, Benjamin;Taylor, Rebe (eds.).The Cambridge World History of Genocide. Vol. 2: Genocide in the Indigenous, Early Modern and Imperial Worlds, from c.1535 to World War One.Cambridge University Press. pp. 23–45.doi:10.1017/9781108765480.002.
Cohen, Eliot A. (July–August 2004)."History and the Hyperpower".Foreign Affairs. Washington, D.C. RetrievedJuly 14, 2006.
Corbett, P. Scott; Janssen, Volker; Lund, John M.; Pfannestiel, Todd; Waskiewicz, Sylvie; Vickery, Paul (2014).U.S. History. Houston, Texas: OpenStax at Rice University.
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