Official Name: United States of America

Area: North America

Size: 9,631,420 km²

Coastline: 19,924 km

Independence: from Great Britain July 4, 1776 

Form of Govt.: Federal republic

Head of Govt.: President

Capital: Washington DC

Largest City: New York City

Demographics (2005): 301,632,000.   31 /km²

White 74.67%, African American 12.12%, Asian and Pacific Islander 4.46%, Other 5.99%

GDP per Capita (2005): $45,652

Languages: English 82.1%, Spanish 10.7%, other Indo-European 3.8%, Asian and Pacific island 2.7%, other 0.7%

Geography: Vast central plain, mountains in west, hills and low mountains in east; rugged mountains and broad river valleys in Alaska; rugged, volcanic topography in Hawaii. Tsunamis, volcanoes (Mt St Helens), and earthquake activity around Pacific Basin; hurricanes along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts; tornadoes in the midwest and southeast; mud slides in California; forest fires in the west; flooding; permafrost in northern Alaska

Climate: 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