Country Facts - United States

The People

Ethnic Composition

White 77.1%

Black 12.9%

Asian 4.2%

Amerindian and Alaskan Native 1.5%

Hawaiian and other Pacific islander 0.3%

Other 4%

Note: a separate listing for Hispanic is not included because the US Census Bureau considers Hispanic to mean a person of Latin American descent (especially of Cuban, Mexican, or Puerto Rican origin) living in the US who may be of any race or ethnic group (white, black, Asian, etc.)
Religious Composition

Protestant 56%

Catholic 28%

Judaic 2%

Other 4%

No affiliation 10%

Nationality

American(s)

Languages Spoken

English is the most common, especially in business and government, followed in popularity by Spanish. A vast number of foreign languages are spoken in various areas throughout the nation. Some local government functions are carried out in non-English formats.

Education and Literacy

Education is compulsory throughout the country through age 16. The college and university system is extensive and open to the general population. Literacy is 97 percent nationwide.

Labor Force

Total: 141.8 million (includes unemployed) (2001)
By occupation:

Managerial and professional	31%
Technical, sales, and administrative support	28.9%
Manufacturing, mining, transportation, and crafts	24.1%
Services	13.6%
Farming, forestry, and fishing	2.4%

(2001)

Geography

Land Mass Total

3,717,812 sq mi (9,629,091 sq km)
Note: Includes only the 50 states and District of Columbia.

Land

3,536,294 sq mi (

9,158,960 sq km)

Water

181,518 sq mi (470,131 sq km)

Land Boundaries

Total: 7,477 mi (12,034 km)
Border countries: Canada 5,525 mi (8,893 km) - including 1,539 mi (2,477 km) with Alaska, Mexico 1,951 mi (3,141 km)
Note: US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is leased by the US and thus remains part of Cuba; the base boundary is 18 mi (29 km)

Coastline

12,380 mi (19,924 km)

Maritime claim

Contiguous zone: 24 nm
Continental shelf: not specified
Exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
Territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate/Weather

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.

Terrain

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.

Elevation extremes

Lowest: Death Valley 282 ft (86 m)
Highest: Mount McKinley 20,321 ft (6,194 m)

Natural Resources

Coal, copper, lead, molybdenum, phosphates, uranium, bauxite, gold, iron, mercury, nickel, potash, silver, tungsten, zinc, petroleum, natural gas, timber

Land use

Arable land	19%
Permanent crops	0%
Other	81%

(1998)

Natural hazards

Tsunamis, volcanoes, 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, a major impediment to development.

Environment - current issues

Air pollution resulting in acid rain in both the U.S. and Canada; the U.S. is the largest single emitter of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels; water pollution from runoff of pesticides and fertilizers; very limited natural freshwater resources in much of the western part of the country require careful management; desertification.

Geography Note

World's third-largest country by size (after Russia and Canada) and by population (after China and India); Mt. McKinley is highest point in North America and Death Valley the lowest point on the continent.

Demographics

Population

280,562,489 (July 2002)

Age structure

0-14 years:	21%	Male: 30,116,782	Female: 28,765,183
15-64 years:	66.4%	Male: 92,391,120	Female: 93,986,468
65 years and over:	12.6%	Male: 14,748	Female: 20,554,414

(2002))

Growth Rate

0.89% (2002)

Life Expectancy

77.4 years (2002)
Male: 74.5 years
Female: 80.2 years

GDP Per Capita

Purchasing power parity
US$36,300 (2001)

Infant Mortality

6.69 deaths/1,000 live births (2002)

Sex ratio

At birth:	1.05 male(s)/female
Under 15 years:	1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years:	0.98 male(s)/female
65 years and over:	0.72 male(s)/female
Total population:	0.96 male(s)/female

(2002)

Net migration rate

3.5 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2002)

Economy & Trade

The U.S. has the largest and most technologically powerful economy in the world, with a per capita GDP of $36,300. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. US business firms enjoy considerably greater flexibility than their counterparts in Western Europe and Japan in decisions to expand capital plant, lay off surplus workers, and develop new products. At the same time, they face higher barriers to entry in their rivals' home markets than the barriers to entry of foreign firms in U.S. markets. U.S. firms are at or near the forefront in technological advances, especially in computers and in medical, aerospace, and military equipment, although their advantage has narrowed since the end of World War II. The onrush of technology largely explains the gradual development of a "two-tier labor market" in which those at the bottom lack the education and the professional/technical skills of those at the top and, more and more, fail to get comparable pay raises, health insurance coverage, and other benefits. Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20 percent of households. The years 1994-2000 witnessed solid increases in real output, low inflation rates, and a drop in unemployment to below 5 percent. The year 2001 witnessed the end of the boom psychology and performance, with output increasing only 0.3 percent and unemployment and business failures rising substantially. The response to the terrorist attacks of September 11 showed the remarkable resilience of the economy. Moderate recovery occurred in 2002, with the GDP growth rate rising to 2.5 percent. A major short-term problem in first half 2002 was a sharp decline in the stock market, fueled in part by the exposure of dubious accounting practices in some major corporations. Long-term problems included inadequate investment in economic infrastructure, rapidly rising medical and pension costs of an aging population, sizable trade deficits, and stagnation of family income in the lower economic groups. Unemployment took an upturn at the end of 2002 but still came in at an enviable 6 percent. Prospects for 2003 are greatly dependent upon regaining control over the boom-bust cycle of the stock market and upon the outcome of geopolitical issues.

Unemployment

5% (2001)

Inflation Rate

2.8% (2001)

Industries

Leading industrial power in the world, highly diversified and technologically advanced; petroleum, steel, motor vehicles, aerospace, telecommunications, chemicals, electronics, food processing, consumer goods, lumber, mining

Exports

US$723 billion (f.o.b., 2001)

Imports

US$1.148 trillion (f.o.b., 2001)

Total Trade

Purchasing power parity
GDP US$10.082 trillion (2001)

Top Export Partners

Canada 22.4%, Mexico 13.9%, Japan 7.9%, UK 5.6%, Germany 4.1%, France, Netherlands (2001)

Top Import Partners

Canada 19%, Mexico 11.5%, Japan 11.1%, China 8.9%, Germany 5.2%, UK, Taiwan (2001)

Top Exports

Capital goods, automobiles, industrial supplies and raw materials, consumer goods, agricultural products

Top Imports

Crude oil and refined petroleum products, machinery, automobiles, consumer goods, industrial raw materials, food and beverages

Debt - external

US$862 billion (1995)

Economic aid

Donor: ODA, $6.9 billion (1997)

Fiscal Year:

October 1 to September 30

Business Workweek

	Monday - Friday	Saturday - Sunday
Offices	8:30a.m. to 5:30p.m. These are only general times. Business hours can vary widely.	Closed
Retail	9a.m. to 6p.m.	Extended hours on the weekends.
Banks	8a.m. to 5p.m.	Saturday 9a.m. to 1p.m.
Government	8:30a.m. to 5p.m.	Closed

Note: Many U.S. retail businesses are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This marketplace prides itself on having "everything, all the time."

Holidays

Official Holidays

Holidays	2003	2004	2005
New Year's Day	January 1	January 1	January 1
Martin Luther King Jr. Day¹	January 20	January 19	January 17
Presidents' Day/Washington's Birthday²	February 17	February 16	February 21
Good Friday	April 18	April 9	March 25
Easter³	April 20	April 11	March 27
Memorial Day*¹	May 26	May 24	May 30
Independence Day	July 4	July 4	July 4
Labor Day*²	September 1	September 6	September 5
Veterans' Day	November 11	November 11	November 11
Thanksgiving Day*³	November 27	November 25	November 24
Christmas**¹	December 25	December 25	December 25

¹	Martin Luther King Jr. Day commemorates the birthday of the late Civil Rights leader. Observed the third Monday of January.
²	In 1971, Richard Nixon proclaimed the third Monday of February in honor of all past presidents. Banks are closed on this day.
³	Easter, a Christian holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is the first Sunday after the full moon and the vernal equinox (fixed in the Gregorian calendar at March 21), and often observed with Good Friday and Easter Monday. In the West, Easter is predicted using the Gregorian calendar, while Eastern Orthodox Christians use the much older Julian calendar, and celebrate 13 days later. Easter coincides with Spring Break, a school holiday. Some people take the whole week before Easter off.
*¹	Memorial Day is a federal holiday officially observed the last Monday in May, and is a day of remembrance for those who died in service to the country.
*²	Labor Day celebrates the working class, and is also the last fling of summer. Usually taken as a three-day weekend, it is celebrated the first Monday of September.
*³	Historic day celebrating the Pilgrims first plentiful harvest. Celebrated on the third Thursday of November.
**¹	Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. In A.D. 320, Pope Julius I fixed the date at December 25 based on the Gregorian calendar. The Orthodox church calculates Christmas using the Julian calendar and celebrates 13 days later on January 7.

Unofficial Holidays

Holiday: Halloween
Where:   United States
When:    October 31st -- recurring annually
Hours:   24 hours
What
The day children and often, adults, dress up in costume and attend Halloween parties and go out trick-or-treating.
Background
Halloween is one of the oldest holidays influenced by many cultures going back thousands of years from Roman Pomona Day to the Celtic festival of Samhain to the Christian holidays of All Saints' and All Souls' Days. The Celts lived in what is now called Great Britain hundreds of years ago and they worshipped nature and many gods, with the sun god being their favorite. Their New Year was on November 1st and was celebrated every year with a festival that marked the end of the "season of the sun" and the beginning of the "season of darkness and cold." They believed all the dead were called together on the eve of their New Year, October 31st, and would take different forms with the bad spirits taking the forms of animals, the most evil being the cat.
The Druids, Celtic priests, would meet in oak forests because they were considered sacred trees to light fires and offer sacrifices of animals and crops. They danced around the fires to mark the changing of the seasons and in the morning they would give an ember from the fires to each family to help them start new cooking fires and keep their houses warm and free from evil spirits. This festival lasted three days and people would parade in costumes made from the skins and heads of animals and is known as the first Halloween.
During the first century the Romans invaded Britain and brought with them their festival known as Pomona Day named after their goddess of fruits and gardens and was also celebrated around November 1st. After hundreds of years the two festivals became one that was celebrated as a major fall holiday.
In A.D. 835 the Roman Catholic Church made November 1st a church holiday to honor all the saints and was called All Saints' Day or Hallowmas or All Hallows. Many years later November 2nd was also made a holy day and called All Souls' Day to honor the dead and was celebrated with bonfires, parades, and people dressing as saints, devils, and angels.
Christianity did not change the original customs of Samhain and Pomona Day and over the years the customs mixed with October 31st becoming known as All Hallow Even, then All Hallow's Eve and finally Halloween.
Witches and Warlocks have long been a part of Halloween with legends telling of witches who gathered twice a year when the seasons changed, April 30th and the eve of October 31st. They would arrive on broomsticks to celebrate a party hosted by the devil. Witches were believed to have the ability to cast spells to transform people into different forms. It was thought that to meet a witch one would wear their clothes wrong side out and walk backwards at midnight on Halloween night.
How celebrated
The history of "Trick-or-Treating" can be traced back to the early celebrations of All Souls' Day in Britain when the poor would go begging for special treats called "soulcakes." This was called "going a-souling," and the "soulers" would promise to say a prayer for the dead. Eventually the town's children became the beggars and went from house to house where they would be given apples, buns, and money. In America children were given candy to keep from being tricked and the children would shout "Trick or Treat!"
Today children as well as adults join in on the fun of dressing up as their favorite character or traditionally dress up as a ghost, witch, cat, or some other scary creature. People throw Halloween parties to celebrate the holiday and children wait until dark to visit their neighbors who fill their bags with candy as they yell "Trick or Treat!"
Symbols and customs
The black cat has long been associated with witches and is a symbol of Halloween. It was believed that witches could change into cats. Some believe that cats are the spirits of the dead and if a black cat crosses your path you would have to go back or you'd have bad luck.
The Pumpkin Patch
The tradition of the pumpkin or jack-o-lantern began with the Celtics who would carry a lantern when they walked on the eve of October 31. These lanterns were carved out of big turnips and the lights were believed to keep away evil spirits. Children would carve faces in the turnips which were called jack-o-lanterns.
Legend has it that the "jack-o-lantern" got its name from a stingy and mean old man, named Jack, who when he died was too mean to get into heaven. When Jack went to hell he was met by the devil and given a piece of burning coal and sent away. Jack placed the burning coal in a turnip to use as a lantern to light his way. It is said that Jack is still walking with the lantern looking for a place to stay.
Early settlers in America found the big round orange pumpkins and made great "jack-o-lanterns" out of them replacing the turnips of Europe.
Today children have pumpkin carving contests to see who will create the most scary or imaginative design on their pumpkin and they are set out on the front porch of the house to greet trick-or-treaters on Halloween.

Country information used by permission of World Trade Press