the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
The ranking varies depending on how two territories disputed by China and India are counted and how the total size of the United States is measured: calculations range from  to  to .
Measured by only land area, the United States is third in size behind Russia and China, just ahead of Canada.
The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way further inland to deciduous forests and the rolling hills of the Piedmont.
The Appalachian Mountains divide the eastern seaboard from the Great Lakes and the grasslands of the Midwest.
The Mississippi–Missouri River, the world's fourth longest river system, runs mainly north-south through the heart of the country.
The flat, fertile prairie of the Great Plains stretches to the west, interrupted by a highland region in the southeast.
The Rocky Mountains, at the western edge of the Great Plains, extend north to south across the country, reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in Colorado.
Further west is the rocky Great Basin and deserts such as the Chihuahua and Mojave.
The Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges run close to the Pacific coast, both ranges reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet.
The United States, with its large size and geographical variety, includes most climate types.
To the east of the 100th meridian, the climate ranges from humid continental in the north to humid subtropical in the south.
The southern tip of Florida is tropical, as is Hawaii.
The Great Plains west of the 100th meridian are semi-dry.
Much of the Western mountains are alpine.
The climate is dry in the Great Basin, desert in the Southwest, Mediterranean in coastal California, and oceanic in coastal Oregon and Washington and southern Alaska.
Most of Alaska is subarctic or polar.
Extreme weather is not unusual—the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and most of the world's tornadoes happen within the country, mainly in the Midwest's Tornado Alley.
The U.S. ecology is considered "megadiverse"; 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.
The United States is home to more than 400 mammal, 750 bird, and 500 reptile and amphibian species.
About 91,000 insect species have been described.
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 protects threatened and endangered species and their habitats, which are monitored by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
There are fifty-eight national parks and hundreds of other federally managed parks, forests, and wilderness areas.
Altogether, the government owns 28.8% of the country's land area.
Most of this is protected, though some is leased for oil and gas drilling, mining, logging, or cattle ranching; 2.4% is used for military purposes.
A example of animals that are native to the United States such as opossums, raccoons, pumas, and bears.
Endangered animals in the United States include the jaguar, the California condor, and the Florida panther.
Small trees and shrubs common in the United States are hackberries, hawthorn, serviceberry, blackberry, wild cherry, dogwood, and snowberry.
Wildflowers bloom in all areas, from the seldom-seen blossoms of rare desert cacti to the hardiest alpine species.
Wildflowers include forget-me-not, fringed and closed gentians, jack-in-the-pulpit, black-eyed Susan, columbine, and common dandelion, along with numerous varieties of aster, orchid, lady's slipper, and wild rose.
Native Americans and European settlers
It is believed that the indigenous peoples of the continental United States, including the natives of Alaska, moved in from Asia.
They began arriving twelve or forty thousand years ago, if not earlier.
Some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture in the southeast, developed advanced farming, grand construction, and state-level communities.
The native population of America decreased after Europeans arrived, and for different reasons, mostly sicknesses such as smallpox and measles.
In 1492, Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus, under contract to the Spanish crown, reached some Caribbean islands, making the first contact with the native people.
On April 2, 1513, Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León landed on what he called "La Florida"—the first recorded European coming on what would become the U.S. mainland.
Spanish settlements in the area were followed by ones in the present-day southwestern United States that drew thousands through Mexico.
French fur traders established outposts of New France around the Great Lakes; France eventually claimed much of the North American interior, down to the Gulf of Mexico.
The first successful English settlements were the Colony of Virginia in Jamestown in 1607 and the Pilgrims' Plymouth Colony in 1620.
The 1628 chartering of the Massachusetts Bay Colony resulted in a wave of relocation; by 1634, New England had been settled by some 10,000 Puritans.
Between the late 1610s and the American Revolution, about 50,000 convicts were shipped to Britain's American colonies.
Beginning in 1614, the Dutch settled along the lower Hudson River, including New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island.
Independence and expansion
Tensions between American colonials and the British during the rebel period of the 1760s and early 1770s led to the American Revolutionary War, fought from 1775 through 1781.
On June 14, 1775, the Continental Congress, a meeting in Philadelphia, established a Continental Army under the command of George Washington.
Announcing that "all men are created equal" and are born with "certain natural rights," the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, drafted mostly by Thomas Jefferson, on July 4, 1776.
That date is now celebrated every year as America's Independence Day.
In 1777, the Articles of Confederation established a weak federal government that operated until 1789.
Morocco became the first country in the world to recognize America’s independence.
After the British defeat by American forces helped by the French, Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States and the states' sovereignty over American land west to the Mississippi River.
A constitutional convention was organized in 1787 by those wishing to establish a stronger national government, with powers of taxation.
The United States Constitution was approved in 1788, and the new republic's first Senate, House of Representatives, and President—George Washington—took office in 1789.
The Bill of Rights, forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and certifying a range of legal protections, was adopted in 1791.
Attitudes toward slavery were shifting; a clause in the Constitution protected the African slave trade only until 1808.
The Northern states permanently stopped slavery between 1780 and 1804, leaving the slave states of the South as defenders of the "peculiar institution."
The Second Great Awakening, beginning about 1800, made evangelicalism a force behind different social reform movements, including abolitionism.
Americans' eagerness to expand westward caused a long series of Indian Wars and an Indian removal policy that stripped the native peoples of their land.
The Louisiana Purchase of French-claimed land under President Thomas Jefferson in 1803 almost doubled the nation's size.
The War of 1812, declared against Britain over different complaints and fought to a draw, strengthened U.S. nationalism.
A series of U.S. military invasions into Florida led Spain to give up it and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819.
The United States took over the Republic of Texas in 1845.
The idea of Manifest destiny became popular during this time.
The 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest.
The U.S. victory in the Mexican–American War resulted in the 1848 cession of California and much of the present-day American Southwest.
The California Gold Rush of 1848–49 further encouraged western relocation.
New railways made relocation easier for settlers and increased conflicts with Native Americans.
Over a half-century, up to 40 million American bison, or buffalo, were murdered for skins and meat and to ease the railways' spread.
The loss of the buffalo, which were valuable to the plains Indians, caused many native cultures to become gone forever.
Civil War and industrialization
Tensions between slave and free states mounted with arguments over the relationship between the state and federal governments, as well as violent conflicts over the spread of slavery into new states.
Abraham Lincoln, a candidate of the most antislavery Republican Party, was elected president in 1860.
Before he took office, seven slave states declared their secession—which the federal government maintained was illegal—and formed the Confederate States of America.
With the Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter, the American Civil War began and four more slave states joined the Confederacy.
Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation committed the Union to end slavery.
Following the Union victory in 1865, three changes to the U.S. Constitution secured freedom for the nearly four million African Americans who had been slaves, made them citizens, and gave them voting rights.
The war and its resolution led to a big increase in federal power.
After the war, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln caused the Reconstruction, where policies were put together directed at getting back and rebuilding the Southern states while securing the rights of the newly freed slaves.
The resolution of the disputed 1876 presidential election by the Compromise of 1877 ended this era, and the Jim Crow laws soon disenfranchised many African Americans.
In the North, urbanization and a never-before-seen inflow of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe made the country's industrialization grow rapidly.
The wave of immigration, lasting until 1929, gave labor and changed American culture.
High tax protections, national infrastructure building, and new banking laws encouraged growth also.
The 1867 Alaska Purchase from Russia completed the country's mainland expansion.
The Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 was the last major armed conflict of the Indian Wars.
In 1893, the native monarchy of the Pacific Kingdom of Hawaii was ended in a secret and successful plan led by American residents; the United States took over the archipelago in 1898.
Victory in the Spanish–American War the same year proved that the United States was a world power and led to the addition of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.
The Philippines gained independence fifty years later; Puerto Rico and Guam are still U.S. territories.
World War I, Great Depression, and World War II
As the First World War erupted in Europe in 1914, the United States declared itself neutral.
Afterward, the Americans sympathized with the British and French, even though many citizens, especially those from Ireland and Germany, were against the intervention.
In 1917, they joined the Allies, adding to the defeat of the Central Powers.
Unwilling to participate in European affairs, the Senate did not approve the Treaty of Versailles (1919), which established the League of Nations, applying a policy of unilateralism, which bordered on isolationism.
In 1920, the Women's rights movement gained the approval of a constitutional amendment to grant women the right to vote.
For most of the 1920s, the country enjoyed a period of success, decreasing the inequality in the balance of payments while profiting from industrial farms.
This period, known as the Roaring Twenties, ended with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 that triggered the Great Depression.
After his election as president in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the New Deal, a series of policies that increased government interference in the economy.
From 1920 to 1933 a prohibition banning alcohol was in place.
The Dust Bowl of the 1930s left many poor farmer communities and encouraged a new wave of emigration to the West Coast.
The United States, officially neutral during the early stages of World War II, began supplying supplies to the Allies in March 1941, through the Lend-Lease program.
On December 7, 1941, the country joined the Allies' fight against the Axis Powers, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
World War II boosted the economy by providing investment capital and jobs, making many women enter the labor market.
Of the significant fighters, the United States was the only nation to be enriched by war.
The discussions at Bretton Woods and Yalta created a new system of an international organization that placed the country and the Soviet Union at the heart of world affairs.
In 1945, when the end of the Second World War in Europe came, and international gathering held in San Francisco drafted the Charter of the United Nations, which came into force after the war.
Having developed the first nuclear weapon, the government decided to use it in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of that same year.
Japan gave up on September 2, ending the war.
Cold War and civil rights era
In the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed after the Second World War, controlling the military affairs of Europe through NATO and the Warsaw Pact.
The first supported liberal democracy and capitalism, while the second favored communism and an economy planned by the government.
Both supported several dictatorships and participated in proxy wars.
Between 1950 and 1953, U.S. troops fought Chinese communist forces in the Korean War.
From the break with the USSR and the start of the Cold War until 1957, McCarthyism also called the Second Red Dread, developed within the United States.
The State unleashed a wave of political mistreatment and a campaign of prejudice against Communists, which some authors point out as of a totalitarian state.
Hundreds of people were arrested, including celebrities, and between 10,000 and 12,000 people lost their jobs.
The abuse ended when the courts declared it unconstitutional.
In 1961, the Soviet launch of the first human-crewed spacecraft caused President John F. Kennedy to propose to the country to be the first to send "a man to the Moon", a fact completed in 1969.
Kennedy also faced a tense nuclear conflict with the Soviet forces in Cuba, while the economy grew and expanded steadily.
A growing Civil Rights Movement, represented and led by African-Americans such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr. and James Bevel, used nonviolence to deal with segregation and discrimination.
After Kennedy's murder in 1963, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed during the term of President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Johnson and his successor, Richard Nixon, led a civil war in Southeast Asia, assistant to the unsuccessful Vietnam War.
A generalized counterculture movement grew, driven by opposition to war, black nationalism and the sexual revolution.
A new wave of feminist movements also emerged, led by Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem and other women who sought political, social and economic equity.
In 1974, as a result of the Watergate scandal, Nixon became the first president to resign, to avoid being dismissed on charges such as obstruction of justice and abuse of power, and was succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford.
The presidency of Jimmy Carter in the 1970s was marked by stagflation and the hostage crisis in Iran.
The election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980 announced a change in U.S. policy, which was reflected in significant changes in taxes and fiscal expenses.
His second term brought with it the Iran–Contra affair and the significant diplomatic progress with the Soviet Union.
The later Soviet collapse ended the Cold War.
Under President George H. W. Bush, the country took on a global dominant role worldwide, as in the Gulf War (1991).
The longest economic expansion in modern American history, from March 1991 to March 2001, spanned the presidency of Bill Clinton and the dot-com bubble.
A civil lawsuit and a sex scandal led to his impeachment in 1998, although he managed to finish his period.
The 2000 presidential election was one of the most competitive in American history, it was settled by the Supreme Court: George W. Bush, son of George H. W. Bush, became president, even though he gained fewer votes than his opponent Al Gore.
On September 11, 2001, the terrorists of the Al-Qaeda group attacked the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City (which were destroyed) and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., in a series of attacks that ended the life of nearly three thousand people.
In response, the Bush administration launched the "War on Terror."
At the end of 2001, U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan, toppled the Taliban government and destroyed Al-Qaeda's training camps.
Taliban insurgents continue to fight a guerrilla war.
In 2002, Bush began to push for a regime change to take place in Iraq.
With NATO's lack of support and without a clear UN order for military intervention, Bush organized the coalition of the willing; The coalition forces quickly invaded Iraq in 2003 and toppled the statue of dictator Saddam Hussein.
The following year, Bush was re-elected as the most voted president in an election.
On November 4, 2008, during a global economic downturn, Barack Obama was elected president, having been the first African American to take office.
In May 2011, American Special forces managed to kill Osama bin Laden, hiding in Pakistan.
The following year, Barack Obama was re-elected.
Under his second term, he led the war against the Islamic State and restored diplomatic relations with Cuba.
The massacres in Orlando of June 12, 2016 at the gay disco Pulse (51 dead) and in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017 (60) are listed as the largest massacres in the country since 9/11.
The Murder of George Floyd in late May 2020 sparked protests all over the world that demanded racial justice.
On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. was stormed during a riot and violent attack against the U.S. Congress.
The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation.
It is a constitutional republic and representative democracy, "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law."
The government is controlled by a system of checks and balances from the United States Constitution.
The constitution is the country's main legal document.
There are three branches.
State governments and the federal government work in very similar ways.
Each state has its own executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
The executive branch of a state government is led by a governor, instead of a president.
Members of the U.S. Electoral College elect a president who is the leader of the executive branch, as well as the leader of the armed forces.
The president may veto a bill that Congress has passed, so it does not become a law.
The President may also make "executive orders" to ensure that people follow the law.
The president is in charge of many departments that control much of the day-to-day actions of the government.
For example, Department of Commerce makes rules about trade.
The president chooses the heads of these departments and also nominates federal judges.
However, the Senate, part of the legislative branch, must agree with all of the people the president chooses.
The president may serve two 4-year terms.
The legislative branch makes laws.
The legislative branch is called the United States Congress.
Congress is divided into two "houses".
One house is the House of Representatives.
The Representatives are each elected by voters from a set area within a state.
The number of Representatives a state has is based on how many people live there.
The total number of representatives today is 435.
The leader of the House of Representatives is the Speaker of the House.
The other house is the Senate.
In the Senate, each state is represented equally, by two senators.
The President's treaties or appointments of officials need the Senate's approval.
The Vice President of the United States serves as president of the Senate.
In practice, the vice president is usually absent from the Senate, and a senator serves as president pro tempore, or temporary president, of the Senate.
Representatives and senators propose laws, called "bills", in their respective houses.
A bill may be voted upon by the entire house right away or may first go to a small group, known as a committee, which may recommend a bill for a vote by the whole house.
If one house votes to pass a bill, the bill then gets sent to the other house; if both houses vote for it, it is then sent to the president, who may sign the bill into law or veto it.
If the president vetoes the bill, it is sent back to Congress.
If Congress votes again and passes the bill with at least a two-thirds majority, the bill becomes law and cannot be vetoed by the president.
Under the American system of federalism, Congress may not make laws that directly control the states; instead, Congress may use the promise of federal funds, or special circumstances such as national emergencies, to encourage the states to follow federal law.
The judicial branch is the part of government that interprets what the law means.
The Judicial Branch is made up of the Supreme Court and many lower courts.
If the Supreme Court decides that a law is not allowed by the Constitution, the law is said to be "struck down" and is no longer a valid law.
The Supreme Court is made up of nine judges, called justices, who are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
One of these justices, called the chief justice, heads the court.
A Supreme Court justice serves until he or she dies or resigns (quits in the middle of his or her term).
When that happens, the president nominates someone new to replace the justice who left.
If the Senate agrees with that choice, the person becomes a justice.
If the Senate does not agree with the president's choice, then the president must nominate someone else.
Famous court cases such as Marbury v Madison (which was decided in 1803) have firmly established that the Supreme Court is the ultimate interpreter of the United States Constitution and has the power to strike down any law that conflicts with it.
The United States of America consists of 50 states, 5 territories, and 1 district (Washington D.C.).
States can make laws about things inside the state, but federal law is about things dealing with more than one state or dealing with other countries.
In some areas, if the federal government makes laws that say different things from the state laws, people must follow the federal law because the state law is not a law anymore.
Each state has a constitution of its own, different from the federal (national) Constitution.
Each of these is like the federal Constitution because they say how each state's government is set up, but some also talk about specific laws.
The federal and most state governments are dominated by two political parties: the Republicans and the Democrats.
There are many smaller parties; the largest of these are the Libertarian Party and the Green Party.
People help in political campaigns that they like.
They try to persuade politicians to help them; this is called lobbying.
All Americans are allowed to do these things, but some have and spend more money than others, or in other ways do more in politics.
Some people think this is a problem, and lobby for rules to be made to change it.
Since 2021, the president is a Democrat, and Congress is also Democrat-controlled, so the Democrats have more power in the federal government.
There are still many powerful Republicans who can try to stop the Democrats from doing things that they believe will be bad for the country.
Also, members of a party in power do not always agree on what to do.
If enough people decide to vote against Democrats in the next election, they will lose power.
In a republic like the United States, no party can do whatever they want.
All politicians have to argue, compromise, and make deals with each other to get things done.
They have to answer to the people and take responsibility for their mistakes.
The United States conquered and bought new lands over time, and grew from the original 13 colonies in the east to the current 50 states, of which 48 of them are joined together to make up the contiguous United States.
These states, called the "lower 48", can all be reached by road without crossing a border into another country.
They go from the Atlantic to the east to the Pacific in the west.
There are two other states which are not joined to the lower 48 states.
Alaska can be reached by passing through British Columbia and the Yukon, both of which are part of Canada.
Hawaii is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Washington, D.C., the national capital, is a federal district that was split from the states of Maryland and Virginia in 1791.
Not part of any US state, it used to be in the shape of a square, with the land west of the Potomac River coming from Virginia and the land east of the river coming from Maryland.
In 1846, Virginia took back its part of the land.
Some people living in DC want it to become a state, or for Maryland to take back its land, so that they can have the right to vote in Congress.
Territories and possessions
The United States territories and possessions consist of sixteen lands that do not state, many of which are colonial territories.
None of them have any land borders with the rest of the US.
People live in five of these places, which are de facto American:
The Philippines was a possession of the United States.
Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and other Pacific island nations were governed by the United States as a United Nations "Trust Territory".
All of these places have become independent: the Philippines in 1946, Palau in 1947, and Micronesia in 1986.
Counties and cities
All the states are divided into administrative subdivisions.
Most of them are called counties, but Louisiana uses the word "parish," and Alaska uses the word "borough."
There are many cities in the United States.
One city in each state is the state capital, where the government of the state meets and the governor works.
This city is not always the largest in its state.
For example, the city with the most people living in is New York City in New York State, but the state capital is Albany.
Some other big cities are Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; Seattle, Washington; Miami, Florida; Indianapolis, Indiana; Las Vegas, Nevada; Houston and Dallas, Texas; Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Boston, Massachusetts; Denver, Colorado; St. Louis, Missouri, Memphis, Tennessee, Atlanta, Georgia, San Francisco, San Diego and Detroit, Michigan.
The United States is very influential in global economics, politics, and the military.
It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and the headquarters of the United Nations is in New York City.
It is a member of the G7, G20, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Almost all countries have embassies in Washington, D.C., and many have consulates around the country.
Likewise, nearly all nations host American diplomatic missions.
However, Iran, North Korea, Bhutan, and Taiwan do not have formal diplomatic relations with the United States.
The United States has a "special relationship" with the United Kingdom and strong ties with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and Israel.
The president is the commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces and appoints its leaders, the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The United States Department of Defense administers the armed forces, including the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force.
The Coast Guard is run by the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime and by the Department of the Navy during times of war.
In 2008, the armed forces had 1.4 million personnel on active duty, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and National Guard for a total of 2.3 million troops.
The Department of Defense also employed about 700,000 civilians, not including contractors.
The military budget of the United States in 2011 was more than $700 billion, 41% of global military spending and equal to the next 14 largest national military expenditures combined.
At 4.7% of GDP, the rate was the second-highest among the top 15 military spenders, after Saudi Arabia.
U.S. defense spending as a percentage of GDP ranked 23rd globally in 2012 according to the CIA.
The proposed base Department of Defense budget for 2012, $553 billion, was a 4.2% increase over 2011; an additional $118 billion was proposed for the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The last American troops serving in Iraq departed in December 2011; 4,484 service members were killed during the Iraq War.
Approximately 90,000 U.S. troops were serving in Afghanistan in April 2012; by November 8, 2013 2,285 had been killed during the War in Afghanistan.
The United States has a capitalist economy.
The country has rich mineral resources, with many gold, coal, and uranium deposits.
Farming makes the country among the top producers of, among others, corn (maize), wheat, sugar, and tobacco.
Housing contributes about 15% to the Gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States.
America produces cars, airplanes, and electronics.
About 3/4 of Americans work in the service industry.
The United States of America has people of many different race and ethnic backgrounds.
80% of the people in the United States descend from European immigrants.
Many people are descended from Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, Africa, and Italy.
13% of the people in the United States are African-American.
Most of them descend from the African slaves that were brought to America.
Asian-Americans make up only 5% of the population in America but make up a bigger portion in the west coast.
For example, in California, Asian-Americans make up 13% of the population of that state.
Hispanic-Americans or people of Latin origins make up 15% of the nation.
The original peoples, called Native American, American Indians, or Amerindians and Inuit (Eskimos) are a very small group.
11% of the people in the United States are foreign-born.
18% speak a language other than English at home.
For people 25 and older, 80% are high school graduates while 25% have a bachelor's degree or higher.
The 2000 Census counted self-reported ancestry.
It identified 43 million German-Americans, 30.5 million Irish-Americans, 24.9 million African-Americans, 24.5 million English-Americans, and 18.4 million Armenian Americans.
The United States has the largest number of immigrants of any country in the world.
The United States attracts immigrants from other countries due to the American Dream.
Most immigrants in the United States come from Mexico, China, India, the Philippines and El Salvador.
The social structure of the United States has a big range.
This means that some Americans are much, much richer than others.
The average (median) income for an American was $37,000 a year in 2002.
However, the richest 1% of Americans have as much money as the poorest 90%.
51% of all households have access to a computer and 41% had access to the Internet in 2000, a figure which had grown to 75% in 2004.
Also, 67.9% of American families owned their homes in 2002.
There are 200 million cars in the United States, two for every three Americans.
The debt has grown to over $21,000,000,000,000.
There are many different religions in the U.S. Statistically, the largest religion is Christianity, including groups such as Catholicism, Protestantism, and Mormonism.
Other religions include Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Unitarian Universalism, Wicca, Druidry, Baha'i, Raelism, Zoroastrianism, Taoism, and Jainism.
Religions which were founded within the United States include Eckankar, Satanism, and Scientology.
Native American religions have various animistic beliefs.
The United States is one of the most religious countries in the Western World, and most Americans believe in God.
The number of Christians in the U.S. has gone down.
86.2% called themselves Christian in 1990 and 78.4% said this in 2007.
The others include Judaism (2.3%), Islam (0.8%), Buddhism (0.7%), Hinduism (0.4%), and Unitarian Universalism (0.3%).
Those who have no religion are at 16.1%.
There is a large difference between those who say that they belong to a religion and those who are members of a religious body of that religion.
Doubts about the existence of a God, gods or goddesses are higher among young people.
Among the non-religious population of the U.S., there are deists, humanists, ignotic, atheists, and agnostics.
English (American English) is the de facto national language.
Although there is no official language at the federal level, some laws—such as U.S. naturalization requirements—standardize English.
In 2010, about 230 million, or 80% of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home.
Spanish, spoken by 12% of the population at home, is the second most common language and the most widely taught second language.
Some Americans advocate making English the country's official language, as it is in at least twenty-eight states.
Both Hawaiian and English are official languages in Hawaii by state law.
While neither has an official language, New Mexico has laws providing for the use of both English and Spanish, as Louisiana does for English and French.
Other states, such as California, order the publication of Spanish versions of certain government documents including court forms.
Many jurisdictions with large numbers of non-English speakers produce government materials, especially voting information, in the most commonly spoken languages in those jurisdictions.
In most states, children are required to attend school from the age of six or seven (generally, kindergarten or first grade) until they turn eighteen (generally bringing them through twelfth grade, the end of high school); some states allow students to leave school at sixteen or seventeen.
About 12% of children are enrolled in parochial or nonsectarian private schools.
Just over 2% of children are homeschooled.
American popular culture goes out to many places in the world.
It has a large influence on most of the world, especially the Western world.
American music is heard all over the world, and American movies and television shows can be seen in most countries.
Federal holidays
The American flag is made up of 50 stars on a blue background and has 13 stripes, seven red and six white.
It is one of many symbols of the United States like the Bald Eagle.
The 50 stars represent the 50 states.
The red stands for courage.
The blue stands for justice.
The white represents peace and cleanliness.
The 13 stripes represent the 13 original colonies.
A hamburger is one of the popular foods of the United States.
Fast food in the United States is home to many regional cuisines such as the Cuisine of the Southern United States, also known as Southern food.
There are Americanized versions of Chinese, Greek, Italian and Mexican cuisine.
Native American cuisine is the cuisine of the indigenous Native Americans.
A lot of American dishes are influenced by many countries around the world.
The most popular genres in the United States are Rock and roll, pop, country, R&B, and hip hop.
Native American music is the indigenous music of the United States.
Official U.S. Government Web Portal Gateway to governmental sites
White House Official site of the President of the United States
Senate Official site of the United States Senate
House Official site of the United States House of Representatives
[ Supreme Court] Official site of the Supreme Court of the United States
Library of Congress Official site of the Library of Congress
Overviews and Data
Portrait of the United States Overview from the U.S. Information Agency
United States  CIA World Factbook entry
United States Encyclopædia Britannica entry
U.S. Census Housing and Economic Statistics Wide-ranging data from the U.S. Census Bureau
State Fact Sheets Population, employment, income, and farm data from the U.S. Economic Research Service
The 50 States of the U.S.A. Collected informational links for each state
Historical Documents Collected by the National Center for Public Policy Research
U.S. National Mottos: History and Constitutionality Analysis by the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
USA Collected links to historical data
National Atlas of the United States Official maps from the U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Official government site
Canada is a country in North America.
It is north of the United States.
Its land reaches from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and the Arctic Ocean to the north.
Canada's area is , so it is the world's second largest country by total area but only the fourth largest country by land area.
It has the world's longest coastline which touches three oceans.
Canada has ten provinces and three territories.
Most parts of the country have a cold or severely cold winter climate, but areas to the south are warm in summer.
Much of the land is forests or tundra, with the Rocky Mountains towards the west.
About four fifths of Canada's 38 million people live in urban areas near the southern border with the US, the longest between any two countries in the world.
The national capital is Ottawa, and the largest city is Toronto.
Other large cities include Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg and Hamilton.
The name "Canada" probably comes from the Huron-Iroquois word "kanata," meaning "village" or "settlement."
In 1535, two Aboriginal youths told French explorer Jacques Cartier about the route to kanata; they were actually referring to the village of Stadacona, the site of the present-day City of Québec.
Aboriginal people lived in the places that are now Canada for a long time.
In 1537 the French started a colony and the British Empire soon followed.
The two empires fought several wars and in the late 18th century only British North America remained with what is more or less Canada today.
The country was formed with the British North America Act on July 1, 1867, from several colonies.
Over time, more provinces and territories became part of Canada.
In 1931, Canada achieved near total independence with the Statute of Westminster 1931, and became completely independent when the Canada Act 1982 removed the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Canada is a federal parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state.
The country is officially bilingual at the federal level, meaning that citizens have the right to communicate with the government in either English or French.
Immigration to Canada has made it one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations.
Its economy is the eleventh largest in the world, and relies mainly on natural resources and well-developed international trade networks.
Canada's relationship with its neighbor and biggest trading partner, the U.S., has a big impact on its economy and culture.
Canada is a developed country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the tenth highest ranking in the Human Development Index.
It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, and education.
Canada is a Commonwealth realm member of the Commonwealth of Nations, a member of the Francophonie, and part of several major international and intergovernmental institutions or groupings including the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the G8, the G20, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
By total area (including its waters), Canada is the second-largest country in the world, after Russia.
By land area alone, Canada ranks fourth.
It has the longest border with water (coastline) of any country in the world.
It is next to the Pacific, Arctic, and Atlantic Oceans.
It is the only country in the world to be next to three oceans at once.
It has six time zones.
Canada is made up of ten provinces and three territories.
The provinces are between the 45th and 60th parallels of latitude, and the territories are to the north of the 60th parallel of latitude.
Most large cities in Canada are in the southern part of the country, including Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal.
There are very few people living in the northern part of Canada.
Canada extends from the west coast, across the prairies and central Canada, to the Atlantic provinces.
In the north there are three territories, between Alaska and Greenland: the Yukon in the west, then the Northwest Territories, then Nunavut.
Four of the five Great Lakes (Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario) are shared between Canada and the United States (Lake Michigan is in the USA), and they make up 16% of the Earth's fresh water.
The Saint Lawrence Seaway joins the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, allowing ocean going vessels to travel as far inland as Thunder Bay in Ontario, Canada.
The geography of Canada is very different from place to place, from high alpine areas in the west, flat grasslands and prairies in the centre, and ancient shield rocks in the east.
Canada contains some of the very last untouched boreal forest in the world.
The Canadian Shield is a vast area of ancient Pre-Cambrian rocks lying in an arc around Hudson Bay, covering more than one third of Canada's land area.
This is a unique land of lakes, bogs, swamps, trees, and rocks.
It is a terrain that is very dangerous and difficult to traverse cross country because of lakes, bogs, swamps, trees, and rocks.
Canada has 60% of the world's lakes.
Aboriginal peoples
Indigenous peoples lived in what is now Canada for thousands of years before the first Europeans arrived.
The indigenous groups are called the First Nations, the Inuit, and the Métis.
The Métis are people that come from both First Nations and European families.
Together, these three groups are called "Indigenous," "Aboriginal," or "First Peoples."
They used to be called "Indians" by the Europeans, but this is now considered rude.
Many people think that the first people to live in Canada came from Siberia by using the Bering land bridge at least 14,000 years ago.
The land bridge used to connect Asia and North America.
European colonization
The Vikings were the first Europeans known to land in what is now called Canada, in what is now Newfoundland, led by the Viking explorer Leif Erikson.
They did not stay long, however.
In the early 16th century, Europeans started exploring Canada's eastern coast, beginning with John Cabot from England in 1497, and later Jacques Cartier in 1534 from France.
Alexander Mackenzie later reached the Pacific coast over land, where captains James Cook and George Vancouver went by sea.
The Europeans also traded beaver furs to the First Nations.
Parts of Canada were settled by France, and parts by Great Britain.
In 1605, Port-Royal was built in Acadia (today called Nova Scotia) by the French, led by Samuel de Champlain, and in 1608 he started settling Quebec.
The British took control of the French areas after a battle of the French and Indian War on the Plains of Abraham near Quebec City in 1759.
After the American Revolutionary War, many people in the new United States wanted to stay loyal to Britain.
Thousands came north to Canada and settled in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario.
They were called United Empire Loyalists.
During the War of 1812, the United States tried to conquer Canada but were defeated.
Confederation and expansion
On July 1, 1867, Canada was united under a federal government.
It included the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
Sir John A. Macdonald was the first prime minister.
Manitoba, the Yukon territory, and the Northwest Territories became part of Canada in 1870.
British Columbia joined in 1871, and Prince Edward Island in 1873.
There were two Red River Rebellions, in 1869-70 and 1885, both led by Louis Riel.
He fought for more rights for the Métis people, a mix between French and First Nations.
A railroad across the country, the Canadian Pacific Railway, finished in 1885, making it easier for Canadians to move to the west.
Many Europeans came to the prairies, so Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905.
Early 20th century
Canadian soldiers fought in World War I for the British Empire.
More Canadians died in this war than any other war.
Canada became better known as a country after its success in capturing Vimy Ridge from the Germans in France in 1917.
Women were given the right to vote by the end of the war, partly because of the help they gave making weapons while the men fought in Europe.
In 1931, Canada became fully independent.
Then the government of Canada made all decisions about Canada.
Canadians also fought in World War II.
The Dieppe Raid in 1942 went very badly and most of the soldiers were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner.
Canadians were important in 1944 at Normandy, and they liberated the Netherlands from the Germans.
In 1949, Newfoundland and Labrador became the 10th province of Canada.
In 1956, Canadian Lester Pearson, who later became prime minister, helped end the Suez Crisis.
As a result, he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1965, Pearson helped Canada get a new flag, the Maple Leaf.
Before that, Canadians had used the Red Ensign.
In 1982, Canada changed its constitution, including a new Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The main part of the Constitution is still the 1867 British North America Act.
Some French Canadians today wish to form their own country, separate from the rest of Canada.
The province of Quebec held a referendum (vote) in 1980, but only about 40% wanted to separate.
Another referendum was held in 1995, with almost 50% voting in favour of leaving Canada.
Since then, fewer people in Quebec have wanted to leave Canada, but it is still important to Quebec politics.
Today, about 25% of Canadians speak French as their first language.
Many people can speak both French and English.
Although most French Canadians live in the province of Quebec, there are French-speaking communities and people all across Canada.
For example, 40% of the people in the province of New Brunswick and 20% of those in Manitoba have a strong French background, as do some people in Ontario, mainly along its border with Quebec.
Canada has a government called a constitutional monarchy.
It has a monarch (meaning a king or queen is the head of that country), and is a democracy (meaning the people of that country rule it).
The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who is officially the Queen of Canada.
She appoints a Governor General to represent her in the country, however, the choice of Governor General is made by the prime minister.
The Queen's powers are mostly exercised by the Governor General, currently Mary Simon.
The Governor General, like the Canadian sovereign (King/Queen of Canada), is not political and remains above politics, and because of that they do not usually use their powers without the advice of the Prime Minister or other ministers.
The head of government is the Prime Minister.
The current prime minister is Justin Trudeau, who replaced Stephen Harper in October 2015.
Each province and territory has a premier to lead its government.
The day-to-day operations of the government are run by the cabinet.
The cabinet is usually formed from the largest party in Parliament.
The Parliament of Canada passes the laws of the country.
The governor general, acting on behalf of the monarch, has the right to veto a law (meaning the law cannot go into effect) but this right has not been used for some time.
There are five main parties in the Canadian Parliament: the Conservative Party, the New Democratic Party, the Liberal Party, the Bloc Québécois, and the Green Party.
In addition to the five parties with MPs in Parliament, there are fourteen other smaller parties registered with Elections Canada and several MPs who sit as Independents.
Provinces and territories
Below is a list of provinces and territories.
They are listed by population.
Climate and its influence
Since Canada is very far north and mostly unlivable for humans, most Canadians live in the southern parts, where the weather is much milder.
Nearly two thirds of Canadians live less than  from the U.S. border.
In some cities the temperature can get very cold in the winter, especially in the inland.
Warm air systems moving in from the Pacific Ocean bring more rain than snow to the Pacific coast, while colder temperatures further inland do result in snow.