United States

United States of America
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: "In God We Trust"[1] Other traditional mottos:[2] " Latin ) "Out of many, one" " Latin ) "Providence favors our undertakings" " Latin ) "New order of the ages"
Anthem: " Ethnic groups (2020)[4][5][6]		By race: 61.6% White 12.4% Black 6% Asian 1.1% Native American 0.2% Pacific Islander 10.2% two or more races 8.4% other By origin: 81.3% non-Hispanic or Latino 18.7% Hispanic or Latino
Religion (2023)[7]	67% Christianity 33% Protestantism 22% Catholicism 1% Mormonism 11% other Christian 22% Government	Federal presidential republic
• President	Donald Trump
• Vice President	JD Vance
• House Speaker	Mike Johnson
• Chief Justice	John Roberts
Legislature	Congress
• Upper house	Senate
• Lower house	House of Representatives
Independence  from Great Britain
• Declaration	July 4, 1776 (1776-7-4)
• Confederation	March 1, 1781 (1781-3-1)
• Recognition	September 3, 1783 (1783-9-3)
• Constitution	June 21, 1788 (1788-6-21)
$) (USD)
Time zone	UTC−4 to −12, +10, +11
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 to −10[h]
Date format	mm/dd/yyyy[i]
Calling code	+1
ISO 3166 code	US
Internet TLD	.us[16]

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S.) or simply America, is a country primarily located in

Documented use of the phrase "United States of America" dates back to January 2, 1776. On that day, Stephen Moylan, a Continental Army aide to General George Washington, wrote a letter to Joseph Reed, Washington's aide-de-camp, seeking to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the Revolutionary War effort.^[20][21] The first known public usage is an anonymous essay published in the Williamsburg newspaper The Virginia Gazette on April 6, 1776.^[20] Sometime on or after June 11, 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote "United States of America" in a rough draft of the Declaration of Independence,^[20] which was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.^[22]

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.^[23] "United States" and "U.S." are the established terms throughout the U.S. federal government, with prescribed rules.^[m] "The States" is an established colloquial shortening of the name, used particularly from abroad;^[25] "stateside" is the corresponding adjective or adverb.^[26]

"America" is the feminine form of the first word of Americus Vesputius, the Latinized name of Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512); it was first used as a place name by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann in 1507.^[27][n] Vespucci first proposed that the West Indies discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492 were part of a previously unknown landmass and not among the Indies at the eastern limit of Asia.^[28][29][30] In English, the term "America" rarely refers to topics unrelated to the United States, despite the usage of "the Americas" to describe the totality of North and South America.^[31]

The

The original Thirteen Colonies^[p] that would later found the United States were administered as possessions of Great Britain,^[59] and had local governments with elections open to most white male property owners.^[60][61] The colonial population grew rapidly from Maine to Georgia, eclipsing Native American populations;^[62] by the 1770s, the natural increase of the population was such that only a small minority of Americans had been born overseas.^[63] The colonies' distance from Britain allowed for the development of self-governance,^[64] and the First Great Awakening, a series of Christian revivals, fueled colonial interest in religious liberty.^[65]

Following their victory in the French and Indian War, Britain began to assert greater control over local colonial affairs, resulting in colonial political resistance; one of the primary colonial grievances was a denial of their rights as Englishmen, particularly the right to representation in the British government that taxed them. To demonstrate their dissatisfaction and resolve, the First Continental Congress met in 1774 and passed the Continental Association, a colonial boycott of British goods that proved effective. The British attempt to then disarm the colonists resulted in the 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord, igniting the American Revolutionary War. At the Second Continental Congress, the colonies appointed George Washington commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, and created a committee that named Thomas Jefferson to draft the Declaration of Independence. Two days after passing the Lee Resolution to create an independent nation the Declaration was adopted on July 4, 1776.^[66] The political values of the American Revolution included liberty, inalienable individual rights; and the sovereignty of the people;^[67] supporting republicanism and rejecting monarchy, aristocracy, and all hereditary political power; civic virtue; and vilification of political corruption.^[68] The Founding Fathers of the United States, who included Washington, Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison, Thomas Paine, and many others, were inspired by Greco-Roman, Renaissance, and Enlightenment philosophies and ideas.^[69][70]

The

The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 from France nearly doubled the territory of the United States.^[78][79] Lingering issues with Britain remained, leading to the War of 1812, which was fought to a draw.^[80][81] Spain ceded Florida and its Gulf Coast territory in 1819.^[82] In the late 18th century, American settlers began to expand westward, many with a sense of manifest destiny.^[83][84] The Missouri Compromise of 1820, which admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine 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. The compromise further prohibited slavery in all other lands of the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36°30′ parallel.^[85] As Americans expanded further into land inhabited by Native Americans, the federal government often applied policies of Indian removal or assimilation.^[86][87] The most significant removal legislation in U.S. history was the Indian Removal Act of 1830. It culminated in the Trail of Tears (1830–1850), in which an estimated 60,000 Native Americans living east of the Mississippi River were forcibly removed and displaced to lands far to the west, resulting in anywhere from 13,200 to 16,700 deaths.^[88] These and earlier organized displacements prompted a long series of American Indian Wars west of the Mississippi.^[89][90] The Republic of Texas was annexed in 1845,^[91] and the 1846 Oregon Treaty led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest.^[92] Victory in the Mexican–American War resulted in the 1848 Mexican Cession of California, Nevada, Utah, and much of present-day Colorado and the American Southwest.^[83][93] The California gold rush of 1848–1849 spurred a huge migration of white settlers to the Pacific coast, leading to even more confrontations with Native populations. One of the most violent, the California genocide of thousands of Native inhabitants, lasted into the early 1870s,^[94] just as additional western territories and states were created.^[95]

During the colonial period,

From 1865 through 1917, an unprecedented stream of immigrants arrived in the United States, including 24.4 million from Europe.^[113] Most came through the port of New York City, and New York City and other large cities on the East Coast became home to large Jewish, Irish, and Italian populations, while many Germans and Central Europeans moved to the Midwest. At the same time, about one million French Canadians migrated from Quebec to New England.^[114] During the Great Migration, millions of African Americans left the rural South for urban areas in the North.^[115] Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867.^[116]

The Compromise of 1877 effectively ended Reconstruction and white supremacists took local control of Southern politics.^[117][118] African Americans endured a period of heightened, overt racism following Reconstruction, a time often called the nadir of American race relations.^[119][120] A series of Supreme Court decisions, including Plessy v. Ferguson, emptied the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of their force, allowing Jim Crow laws in the South to remain unchecked, sundown towns in the Midwest, and segregation in communities across the country, which would be reinforced by the policy of redlining later adopted by the federal Home Owners' Loan Corporation.^[121]

The United States

After World War II, the United States entered the Cold War, where geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union led the two countries to dominate world affairs.^{[147][148][149]} The U.S. utilized the policy of containment to limit the USSR's sphere of influence, engaged in regime change against governments perceived to be aligned with Moscow, and prevailed in the Space Race, which culminated with the first crewed Moon landing in 1969.^[150][151] Domestically, the U.S. experienced economic growth, urbanization, and population growth following World War II.^[152] The civil rights movement emerged, with Martin Luther King Jr. becoming a prominent leader in the early 1960s.^[153] The Great Society plan of President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration resulted in groundbreaking and broad-reaching laws, policies and a constitutional amendment to counteract some of the worst effects of lingering institutional racism.^[154] The counterculture movement in the U.S. brought significant social changes, including the liberalization of attitudes toward recreational drug use and sexuality.^[155][156] It also encouraged open defiance of the military draft (leading to the end of conscription in 1973) and wide opposition to U.S. intervention in Vietnam (with the U.S. totally withdrawing in 1975).^[157] A societal shift in the roles of women was significantly responsible for the large increase in female paid labor participation during the 1970s, and by 1985 the majority of American women aged 16 and older were employed.^[158] The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the fall of communism and the collapse of the Soviet Union, which marked the end of the Cold War and left the United States as the world's sole superpower.^{[159][160][161][162]} This cemented the United States' global influence, reinforcing the concept of the "American Century" as it dominated international politics, economics, and military affairs.^[163][164]

Main articles:

History of the United States (2008–present)

The 1990s saw the longest recorded economic expansion in American history, a dramatic decline in U.S. crime rates, and advances in technology. Throughout this decade, technological innovations such as the World Wide Web, the evolution of the Pentium microprocessor in accordance with Moore's law, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, the first gene therapy trial, and cloning either emerged in the U.S. or were improved upon there. The Human Genome Project was formally launched in 1990, while Nasdaq became the first stock market in the United States to trade online in 1998.^[165]

In the Gulf War of 1991, an American-led international coalition of states expelled an Iraqi invasion force that had occupied neighboring Kuwait.^[166] The September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001 by the pan-Islamist militant organization al-Qaeda led to the war on terror, and subsequent military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq.^[167][168]

The U.S. housing bubble culminated in 2007 with the Great Recession, the largest economic contraction since the Great Depression.^[169] Coming to a head in the 2010s, political polarization in the country increased between liberal and conservative factions.^{[170][171][172]} This polarization was capitalized upon in the January 2021 Capitol attack,^[173] when a mob of insurrectionists^[174] entered the U.S. Capitol and sought to prevent the peaceful transfer of power^[175] in an attempted self-coup d'état.^[176] In May–August 2021, the 2021 Taliban offensive ended the War in Afghanistan one year after the United States–Taliban deal.^[177]

The United States is the world's third-largest country by total area behind Russia and Canada.^{[d][178][179]} The 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia occupy a combined area of 3,119,885 square miles (8,080,470 km²).^{[10][180][181]} The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way to inland forests and rolling hills in the Piedmont plateau region.^[182]

The

The Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains, extend north to south across the country, peaking at over 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in Colorado.^[184] Farther west are the rocky Great Basin and Chihuahua, Sonoran, and Mojave deserts.^[185] In the northwest corner of Arizona, carved by the Colorado River over millions of years, is the Grand Canyon, a steep-sided canyon and popular tourist destination known for its overwhelming visual size and intricate, colorful landscape.

The

With its large size and geographic variety, the United States includes most climate types. East of the 100th meridian, the climate ranges from humid continental in the north to humid subtropical in the south.^[191] The western Great Plains are semi-arid.^[192] Many mountainous areas of the American West have an alpine climate. The climate is arid in the Southwest, Mediterranean in coastal California, and oceanic in coastal Oregon, Washington, and southern Alaska. Most of Alaska is subarctic or polar. Hawaii, the southern tip of Florida and U.S. territories in the Caribbean and Pacific are tropical.^[193]

The United States receives more high-impact

The U.S. is one of 17 megadiverse countries containing large numbers of endemic species: about 17,000 species of vascular plants occur in the contiguous United States and Alaska, and over 1,800 species of flowering plants are found in Hawaii, few of which occur on the mainland.^[200] The United States is home to 428 mammal species, 784 birds, 311 reptiles, 295 amphibians,^[201] and around 91,000 insect species.^[202]

There are 63 national parks, and hundreds of other federally managed parks, forests, and wilderness areas, managed by the National Park Service and other agencies.^[203] About 28% of the country's land is publicly owned and federally managed,^[204] primarily in the Western States.^[205] Most of this land is protected, though some is leased for commercial use, and less than one percent is used for military purposes.^[206][207]

The United States is a federal republic of 50 states, 574 federally recognized tribes, and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. Indian country is made up of 574 tribal governments and 326 Indian reservations. The U.S. also asserts sovereignty over five unincorporated territories and several uninhabited island possessions.^[17][216] The U.S. is the world's oldest surviving federation,^[217] and its presidential system of national government has been adopted, in whole or in part, by many newly independent states worldwide following their decolonization.^[218] It is a liberal representative democracy "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law".^[219] The Constitution of the United States serves as the country's supreme legal document.^[220]

Composed of three branches, all headquartered in Washington, D.C., the federal government is the national government of the United States. It is regulated by a strong system of

• The
  investigate and oversee the executive branch.^[225] Congressional oversight is usually delegated to committees and is facilitated by Congress's subpoena power.^[226]
• The U.S. president is the
  executive orders", subject to judicial review, in a number of policy areas. Candidates for president campaign with a vice-presidential running mate. Both candidates are elected together, or defeated together, in a presidential election. Unlike other votes in American politics, this is technically an indirect election in which the winner will be determined by the U.S. Electoral College. There, votes are officially cast by individual electors selected by their state legislature.^[228] In practice, however, each of the 50 states chooses a group of presidential electors who are required to confirm the winner of their state's popular vote. Each state is allocated two electors plus one additional elector for each congressional district, 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 be reelected to the office only once, for one additional four-year term.^[q]
• The
  federal circuits that divide the country into different regions for federal appeals courts. After a federal district court has decided a case, it can then be appealed to a United States court of appeal. The next and highest court in the system is the Supreme Court of the United States.^[229]

The three-branch system is known as the presidential system, in contrast to the parliamentary system, where the executive is part of the legislative body. Many countries around the world imitated this aspect of the 1789 Constitution of the United States, especially in the Americas.^[231]

In the U.S. federal system, the sovereign powers are shared between three levels of government specified in the Constitution: the national government, the 50 states, and Indian tribes.^[232][233]

Residents of the

Indian country is made up of 574 federally recognized tribes and 326 Indian reservations. These are legally defined as domestic dependent nations with inherent tribal sovereignty rights.^{[233][232][237][238]}

The Constitution is silent on

The United States has an established structure of foreign relations, and it has the world's second-largest diplomatic corps as of 2024^[update]. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council,^[242] and home to the United Nations headquarters.^[243] The United States is a member of the G7,^[244] G20,^[245] and OECD intergovernmental organizations.^[246] Almost all countries have embassies and many have consulates (official representatives) in the country. Likewise, nearly all countries host formal diplomatic missions with the United States, except Iran,^[247] North Korea,^[248] and Bhutan.^[249] Though Taiwan does not have formal diplomatic relations with the U.S., it maintains close unofficial relations.^[250] The United States regularly supplies Taiwan with military equipment to deter potential Chinese aggression.^[251] Its geopolitical attention also turned to the Indo-Pacific when the United States joined the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue with Australia, India, and Japan.^[252]

The United States has a "Special Relationship" with the United Kingdom^[253] and strong ties with Canada,^[254] Australia,^[255] New Zealand,^[256] the Philippines,^[257] Japan,^[258] South Korea,^[259] Israel,^[260] and several European Union countries (France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Poland).^[261] The U.S. works closely with its NATO allies on military and national security issues, and with countries in the Americas through the Organization of American States and the United States–Mexico–Canada Free Trade Agreement. In South America, Colombia is traditionally considered to be the closest ally of the United States.^[262] The U.S. exercises full international defense authority and responsibility for Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau through the Compact of Free Association.^[229] It has increasingly conducted strategic cooperation with India,^[263] while its ties with China have steadily deteriorated.^[264][265] Since 2014, the U.S. has become a key ally of Ukraine.^[266][267]

The president is the

The United States spent $916 billion on its military in 2023, which is by far the largest amount of any country, making up 37% of global military spending and accounting for 3.4% of the country's GDP.^[270][271] The U.S. possesses 42% of the world's nuclear weapons—the second-largest stockpile after that of Russia.^[272]

The United States has the third-largest combined armed forces in the world, behind the Chinese People's Liberation Army and Indian Armed Forces.^[273] The military operates about 800 bases and facilities abroad,^[274] and maintains deployments greater than 100 active duty personnel in 25 foreign countries.^[275]

There are about 18,000 U.S. police agencies from local to national level in the United States.

There is no unified "criminal justice system" in the United States. The American prison system is largely heterogenous, with thousands of relatively independent systems operating across federal, state, local, and tribal levels. In 2024, "these systems hold over 1.9 million people in 1,566 state prisons, 98 federal prisons, 3,116 local jails, 1,323 juvenile correctional facilities, 142 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."^[284] Despite disparate systems of confinement, four main institutions dominate: federal prisons, state prisons, local jails, and juvenile correctional facilities.^[285] Federal prisons are run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and hold people who have been convicted of federal crimes, including pretrial detainees.^[285] State prisons, run by the official department of correction of each state, hold sentenced people serving prison time (usually longer than one year) for felony offenses.^[285] Local jails are county or municipal facilities that incarcerate defendants prior to trial; they also hold those serving short sentences (typically under a year).^[285] Juvenile correctional facilities are operated by local or state governments and serve as longer-term placements for any minor adjudicated as delinquent and ordered by a judge to be confined.^[286]

In January 2023, the United States had the

The U.S. economy has been the world's largest nominally since about 1890.^[291] The 2024 U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) of more than $29 trillion^[292][f] was the highest in the world, constituting over 25% of the nominal global economic output or 15% at purchasing power parity (PPP). From 1983 to 2008, U.S. real compounded annual GDP growth was 3.3%, compared to a 2.3% weighted average for the rest of the G7.^[293] The country ranks first in the world by nominal GDP,^[294] second when adjusted for purchasing power parities (PPP),^[13] and ninth by PPP-adjusted GDP per capita.^[13] It has the highest disposable household income per capita among OECD countries.^[295] In February 2024, the total U.S. federal government debt was $34.4 trillion.^[296]

Of the world's

The United States has been a leader in technological innovation since the late 19th century and scientific research since the mid-20th century.^[341] Methods for producing interchangeable parts and the establishment of a machine tool industry enabled the large-scale manufacturing of U.S. consumer products in the late 19th century.^[342] By the early 20th century, factory electrification, the introduction of the assembly line, and other labor-saving techniques created the system of mass production.^[343]

In the 21st century, the United States continues to be one of the world's foremost scientific powers,^[344] though China has emerged as a major competitor in many fields.^[345] The U.S. has the highest total research and development expenditure of any country^[346] and ranks ninth as a percentage of GDP.^[347] In 2022, the United States was (after China) the country with the second-highest number of published scientific papers.^[348] In 2021, the U.S. ranked second (also after China) by the number of patent applications, and third by trademark and industrial design applications (after China and Germany), according to World Intellectual Property Indicators.^[349] In 2023 and 2024, the United States ranked third (after Switzerland and Sweden) in the Global Innovation Index.^[350][351] The United States is considered to be the leading country in the development of artificial intelligence technology.^[352] In 2023, the United States was ranked the second most technologically advanced country in the world (after South Korea) by Global Finance magazine.^[353]

The United States has maintained a space program since the late 1950s, beginning with the establishment of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958.^[354][355] NASA's Apollo program (1961–1972) achieved the first crewed Moon landing with the 1969 Apollo 11 mission; it remains one of the agency's most significant milestones.^[356][357] Other major endeavors by NASA include the Space Shuttle program (1981–2011),^[358] the Voyager program (1972–present), the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes (launched in 1990 and 2021, respectively),^[359][360] and the multi-mission Mars Exploration Program (Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance).^[361] NASA is one of five agencies collaborating on the International Space Station (ISS);^[362] U.S. contributions to the ISS include several modules, including Destiny (2001), Harmony (2007), and Tranquility (2010), as well as ongoing logistical and operational support.^[363]

The United States private sector dominates the global commercial spaceflight industry.^[364] Prominent American spaceflight contractors include Blue Origin, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX. NASA programs such as the Commercial Crew Program, Commercial Resupply Services, Commercial Lunar Payload Services, and NextSTEP have facilitated growing private-sector involvement in American spaceflight.^[365]

In 2023, the United States received approximately 84% of its energy from fossil fuel, and the largest source of the country's energy came from

The U.S. is the world's largest producer of nuclear power, generating around 30% of the world's nuclear electricity.^[370] It also has the highest number of nuclear power reactors of any country.^[371] From 2024, the U.S. plans to triple its nuclear power capacity by 2050.^[372]

The

The country's inland waterways are the world's fifth-longest, totaling 41,009 km (25,482 mi).^[391] They are used extensively for freight, recreation, and a small amount of passenger traffic. Miami is a major international hub for cruise ship and airline passengers visiting the Caribbean.

The

While many languages are spoken in the United States,

America's immigrant population is by far the world's

The First Amendment guarantees the free exercise of religion in the country and forbids Congress from passing laws respecting its establishment.^[420][421] Religious practice is widespread, among the most diverse in the world,^[422] and profoundly vibrant.^[423] The country has the world's largest Christian population.^[424] Other notable faiths include Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, many New Age movements, and Native American religions.^[425] Religious practice varies significantly by region.^[426] "Ceremonial deism" is common in American culture.^[427]

The overwhelming majority of Americans believe in a higher power or spiritual force, engage in spiritual practices such as prayer, and consider themselves religious or spiritual.^[428][429] In the "Bible Belt", located within the Southern United States, evangelical Protestantism plays a significant role culturally, whereas New England and the Western United States tend to be more secular.^[426] Mormonism—a Restorationist movement, whose members migrated westward from Missouri and Illinois under the leadership of Brigham Young in 1847 after the assassination of Joseph Smith^[430]—remains the predominant religion in Utah to this day.

About 82% of Americans live in

U.S. Census Bureau[434]
	Rank	Name	Region	Pop.	Rank	Name	Region	Pop.
Los Angeles	1	New York	Northeast	19,940,274	11	Boston	Northeast	5,025,517	Chicago Dallas–Fort Worth
	2	Los Angeles	West	12,927,614	12	Riverside–San Bernardino	West	4,744,214
	3	Chicago	Midwest	9,408,576	13	San Francisco	West	4,648,486
	4	Dallas–Fort Worth	South	8,344,032	14	Detroit	Midwest	4,400,578
	5	Houston	South	7,796,182	15	Seattle	West	4,145,494
	6	Miami	South	6,457,988	16	Minneapolis–Saint Paul	Midwest	3,757,952
	7	Washington, D.C.	South	6,436,489	17	Tampa–St. Petersburg	South	3,424,560
	8	Atlanta	Northeast	6,411,149	18	San Diego	West	3,298,799
	9	Philadelphia	South	6,330,422	19	Denver	West	3,052,498
	10	Phoenix	West	5,186,958	20	Orlando	South	2,940,513

Health

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), average American life expectancy at birth was 78.4 years in 2023 (75.8 years for men and 81.1 years for women). This was a gain of 0.9 year from 77.5 years in 2022, and the CDC noted that the new average was largely driven by "decreases in mortality due to COVID-19, heart disease, unintentional injuries, cancer and diabetes".^[438] Starting in 1998, life expectancy in the U.S. fell behind that of other wealthy industrialized countries, and Americans' "health disadvantage" gap has been increasing ever since.^[439]

The Commonwealth Fund reported in 2020 that the U.S. had the

American primary and secondary education (known in the U.S. as K-12, "kindergarten through 12th grade") is decentralized. School systems are operated by state, territorial, and sometimes municipal governments and regulated by the U.S. Department of Education. In general, children are required to attend school or an approved homeschool from the age of five or six (kindergarten or first grade) until they are 18 years old. This often brings students through the 12th 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.^[447] The U.S. spends more on education per student than any other country,^[448] an average of $18,614 per year per public elementary and secondary school student in 2020–2021.^[449] Among Americans age 25 and older, 92.2% graduated from high school, 62.7% attended some college, 37.7% earned a bachelor's degree, and 14.2% earned a graduate degree.^[450] The U.S. literacy rate is near-universal.^[178][451] The country has the most Nobel Prize winners of any country, with 411 (having won 413 awards).^[452][453]

Americans have traditionally

The National 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."^[488] It is composed of four sub-agencies:

• National Endowment for the Arts
• National Endowment for the Humanities
• Institute of Museum and Library Services
• Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities

The United States is considered to have the

Colonial American authors were influenced by

The conflict surrounding abolitionism inspired writers, like Harriet Beecher Stowe, and authors of slave narratives, such as Frederick Douglass. Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850) explored the dark side of American history, as did Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851). Major American poets of the nineteenth century American Renaissance include Walt Whitman, Melville, and Emily Dickinson.^[507][508] Mark Twain was the first major American writer to be born in the West. Henry James achieved international recognition with novels like The Portrait of a Lady (1881). As literacy rates rose, periodicals published more stories centered around industrial workers, women, and the rural poor.^[509][510] Naturalism, regionalism, and realism were the major literary movements of the period.^[511][512]

While modernism generally took on an international character, modernist authors working within the United States more often rooted their work in specific regions, peoples, and cultures.^[513] Following the Great Migration to northern cities, African-American and black West Indian authors of the Harlem Renaissance developed an independent tradition of literature that rebuked a history of inequality and celebrated black culture. An important cultural export during the Jazz Age, these writings were a key influence on Négritude, a philosophy emerging in the 1930s among francophone writers of the African diaspora.^[514][515] In the 1950s, an ideal of homogeneity led many authors to attempt to write the Great American Novel,^[516] while the Beat Generation rejected this conformity, using styles that elevated the impact of the spoken word over mechanics to describe drug use, sexuality, and the failings of society.^[517][518] Contemporary literature is more pluralistic than in previous eras, with the closest thing to a unifying feature being a trend toward self-conscious experiments with language.^[519] Twelve American laureates have won the Nobel Prize in Literature.^[520]

Media is

In 2022, the video game market of the United States was the world's

largest by revenue.^[529] There are 444 publishers, developers, and hardware companies in California alone.^[530]

Theater

Main article: Theater in the United States

Broadway theaters in Theater District, Manhattan

The United States is well known for its theater. Mainstream theater in the United States derives from the old European theatrical tradition and has been heavily influenced by the

Tom Shows, the showboat theater and the minstrel show.^[532] The central hub of the American theater scene is the Theater District in Manhattan, with its divisions of Broadway, off-Broadway, and off-off-Broadway.^[533]

Many movie and television

community theater culture.^[534]

The

regional theater. Several discretionary non-competitive awards are given as well, including a Special Tony Award, the Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre, and the Isabelle Stevenson Award.^[535]

Visual arts

Main articles:

Architecture of the United States

colonial America grew out of artisanal craftsmanship in communities that allowed commonly trained people to individually express themselves. It was distinct from Europe's tradition of high art, which was less accessible and generally less relevant to early American settlers.^[537] Cultural movements in art and craftsmanship in colonial America generally lagged behind those of Western Europe. For example, the prevailing medieval style of woodworking and primitive sculpture became integral to early American folk art, despite the emergence of Renaissance 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.^[489]

The Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century movement in the visual arts tradition of European naturalism. The 1913 Armory Show in New York City, an exhibition of European modernist art, shocked the public and transformed the U.S. art scene.^[538]

American Regionalism sought to reflect and give America new ways of looking at itself. Georgia O'Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, and others experimented with new and individualistic styles, which would become known as American modernism. Major artistic movements such as the abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning and the pop art of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein developed largely in the United States. Major photographers include Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, James Van Der Zee, Ansel Adams, and Gordon Parks.^[539]

The tide of modernism and then postmodernism has brought global fame to American architects, including Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, and Frank Gehry.^[540] The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan is the largest art museum in the United States^[541] and the fourth-largest in the world.^[542]

Music

Main article: Music of the United States

mainland Europe, or Africa.^[543] The rhythmic and lyrical styles of African-American music in particular have influenced American music.^[544] 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.^[545][546] The electric 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 of rock and roll.^[547] The synthesizer, turntablism, and electronic music

were also largely developed in the U.S.

Elements from folk idioms such as the

hip hop both originated in the United States in the 1970s.^[553]

The United States has the world's largest music market, with a total retail value of $15.9 billion in 2022.^[554] Most of the world's major record companies are based in the U.S.; they are represented by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).^[555] Mid-20th-century American pop stars, such as Frank Sinatra^[556] and Elvis Presley,^[557] became global celebrities and best-selling music artists,^[548] as have artists of the late 20th century, such as Michael Jackson,^[558] Madonna,^[559] Whitney Houston,^[560] and Mariah Carey,^[561] and the early 21st century, such as Eminem,^[562] Britney Spears,^[563] Lady Gaga,^[563] Katy Perry,^[563] Taylor Swift and Beyoncé.^[564]

Fashion

Main article: Fashion in the United States

catwalk during New York Fashion Week

The United States is the world's largest

T-shirts, and baseball caps are emblematic of American styles.^[566] New York, with its fashion week, is considered to be one of the "Big Four" global fashion capitals, along with Paris, Milan, and London. A study demonstrated that general proximity to Manhattan's Garment District has been synonymous with American fashion since its inception in the early 20th century.^[567]

The headquarters of many designer labels reside in Manhattan. Labels cater to niche markets, such as preteens. New York Fashion Week is one of the most influential fashion weeks in the world, and occurs twice a year;^[568] while the annual Met Gala in Manhattan is commonly known as the fashion world's "biggest night".^[569][570]

Cinema

Main article: Cinema of the United States

American film industry

The U.S. film industry has

Golden Globe Awards have been held annually since January 1944.^[578]

The industry peaked in what is commonly referred to as the "Golden Age of Hollywood", from the early sound period until the early 1960s,^[579] with screen actors such as John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe becoming iconic figures.^[580][581] In the 1970s, "New Hollywood", or the "Hollywood Renaissance",^[582] was defined by grittier films influenced by French and Italian realist pictures of the post-war period.^[583] The 21st century has been marked by the rise of American streaming platforms, which came to rival traditional cinema.^[584][585]

Cuisine

Main article: American cuisine

green salad, and apple sauce

Early settlers were introduced by Native Americans to foods such as

potatoes, and turkey as the main course are part of a shared national menu on Thanksgiving, when many Americans prepare or purchase traditional dishes to celebrate the occasion.^[589]

Characteristic American dishes such as

Culinary Institute of America was founded by Katharine Angell and Frances 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.^[595][596]

The

fourth-largest wine-producing country in the world, after Italy, Spain, and France.^[605][606]

The American

Kentucky Fried Chicken, Dunkin' Donuts and many others, have numerous outlets around the world.^[610]

Sports

Main articles: Sports in the United States and United States at the Olympics

FedExField

.

The most popular spectator sports in the U.S. are

market for professional sports in the United States was approximately $69 billion in July 2013, roughly 50% larger than that of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa combined.^[614]

American football is by several measures the most popular spectator sport in the United States;[615] the National Football League has the highest average attendance of any sports league in the world, and the Super Bowl is watched by tens of millions globally.^[616] However, baseball has been regarded as the U.S. "national sport" since the late 19th century. After American football, the next four most popular professional team sports are basketball, baseball, soccer, and ice hockey. Their premier leagues are, respectively, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, and the National Hockey League. The most-watched individual sports in the U.S. are golf and auto racing, particularly NASCAR and IndyCar.^[617][618]

On the collegiate level, earnings for the member institutions exceed $1 billion annually,^[619] and college football and basketball attract large audiences, as the NCAA March Madness tournament and the College Football Playoff are some of the most watched national sporting events.^[620] In the U.S., the intercollegiate sports level serves as a feeder system for professional sports. This differs greatly from practices in nearly all other countries, where publicly and privately funded sports organizations serve this function.^[621]

Eight

St. Louis, Missouri, were the first-ever Olympic Games held outside of Europe.^[622] The Olympic Games will be held in the U.S. for a ninth time when Los Angeles hosts the 2028 Summer Olympics. U.S. athletes have won a total of 2,968 medals (1,179 gold) at the Olympic Games, the most of any country.^{[623][624][625]}

In international professional competition, the U.S. men's national soccer team has qualified for eleven World Cups, while the women's national team has won the FIFA Women's World Cup and Olympic soccer tournament four times each.^[626] The United States hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup and will co-host, along with Canada and Mexico, the 2026 FIFA World Cup.^[627] The 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup was also hosted by the United States. Its final match was watched by 90,185, setting the world record for most-attended women's sporting event at the time.^[628]

See also

• Lists of U.S. state topics
• Outline of the United States

Notes

1. State of South Dakota recognizes English and all Sioux dialects
   as official languages. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have no official language.
2. ^ English is the de facto language. For more information, see Languages of the United States.
3. ^ The historical and informal demonym Yankee has been applied to Americans, New Englanders, or northeasterners since the 18th century.
4. ^ ^{a b c} At 3,531,900 sq mi (9,147,590 km²), the United States is the third-largest country in the world by land area, behind Russia and China. By total area (land and water), it is the third-largest, behind Russia and Canada, if its coastal and territorial water areas are included. However, if only its internal waters are included (bays, sounds, rivers, lakes, and the Great 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)^[18]
   Only internal waters included: 3,696,100 sq mi (9,572,900 km²)^[19]
5. U.S. census
   statistics
6. ^ ^{a b} U.S. nominal and PPP-adjusted GDP are the same as the U.S. is the reference country for PPP calculations.
7. ^ After adjustment for taxes and transfers
8. ^ See Time in the United States for details about laws governing time zones in the United States.
9. ^ See Date and time notation in the United States.
10. U.S. Virgin Islands
    use left-hand traffic.
11. ^ The five major territories, part of the U.S. but outside the union of states, are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The seven undisputed islands without permanent populations are Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Atoll, and Palmyra Atoll. U.S. sovereignty over the unpopulated Bajo Nuevo Bank, Navassa Island, Serranilla Bank, and Wake Island is disputed.^[17]
12. ^ The U.S. Census Bureau's latest official population estimate of 340,110,988 residents (2024) is for the 50 states and the District of Columbia; it excludes the 3.6 million residents of the five major U.S. territories and outlying islands. The Census Bureau also provides a continuously updated but unofficial population clock: www.census.gov/popclock
13. United States Steel Corporation).^[24]
14. ^ Americus comes from the Medieval Latin name Emericus (for Saint Emeric of Hungary), itself derived from the Old High German name Emmerich.
15. ^ From the late 15th century, the Columbian exchange had been catastrophic for native populations throughout the Americas. It is estimated that up to 95 percent of the indigenous populations, especially in the Caribbean, perished from infectious diseases during the years following European colonization;^[53] remaining populations were often displaced by European expansion.^[54][55]
16. ^ New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia
17. ^ Per the U.S. Constitution, Amendment Twenty-three, proposed by the U.S. Congress on June 16, 1960, and ratified by the States on March 29, 1961
18. ^ 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.^[317] However, if primary income is included, the U.S. is the world's largest exporter.^[318]
19. ^ These population figures are official 2024 annual estimates (rounded off) from the U.S. Census Bureau.^[392]
20. U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands
    ) and minor island possessions.
21. Central Alaskan Yup'ik, Alutiiq, Unanga (Aleut), Denaʼina, Deg Xinag, Holikachuk, Koyukon, Upper Kuskokwim, Gwichʼin, Tanana, Upper Tanana, Tanacross, Hän, Ahtna, Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian
22. ^ Also known less formally as Obamacare

References