Nearby Users
conventional long form: United States of America
conventional short form: United States
abbreviation: US or USA
9,826,630 km²
Washington, DC
US dollar (USD)
1
.us
English, Spanish, other Indo-European, Asian, Pacific island
Protestant, Roman Catholic, Mormon, Jewish, Muslim
301,139,947
Constitution-based federal republic
13 equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white; there is a blue rectangle in the upper hoist-side corner bearing 50 small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternating with rows of five stars; the 50 stars represent the 50 states, the 13 stripes represent the 13 original colonies; known as Old Glory; the design and colors have been the basis for a number of other flags, including Chile, Liberia, Malaysia, and Puerto Rico
Besides being the world's largest economy, the USA also offers diverse places to visit: Highly populated places—especially at the country's east and west coasts—with their vibrant urban life or places with low population and a beautiful nature.
Britain's American colonies broke with the mother country in 1776 and were recognized as the new nation of the United States of America following the Treaty of Paris in 1783. During the 19th and 20th centuries, 37 new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the North American continent and acquired a number of overseas possessions. The two most traumatic experiences in the nation's history were the Civil War (1861-65) and the Great Depression of the 1930s. Buoyed by victories in World Wars I and II and the end of the Cold War in 1991, the US remains the world's most powerful nation state.
mostly temperate, but tropical in Hawaii and Florida, arctic in Alaska, semiarid in the great plains west of the Mississippi River, and arid in the Great Basin of the southwest; low winter temperatures in the northwest are ameliorated occasionally in January and February by warm chinook winds from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
Since the 9/11 attacks the USA have much stricter requirements for visa and passports:
