The United States of America is a federal republic consisting of 50 states and a federal district. Hawaii is an archipelago off the southwestern coast of the contiguous U.S., and Alaska is located in the northwestern part of North America attached to Canada. The United States covers 3.8 million square miles and houses over 320 million people. The U.S. is the world’s fourth largest country by area and the third most populous country in the world. It’s one of the world’s most ethnically diverse nations, a cultural melting pot due to immigrations from all countries at the founding of the U.S. The geography, climate, natural life, and wildlife are also extremely diverse.

While most of the world calls this country “America,” it’s unfair to call only this country America when many other countries are part of North America. We use “America” to name our country only because it’s shortened from “the United States of America.” The country is a melting pot from all nations of the world. Very unique to America, we describe ourselves by our heritage instead of our current nation. When you meet someone from America, a common question that is not considered inappropriate would be, “What nationality are you?” To which the other person would respond where their ancestry comes from. This is uncommon for the rest of the world, but very common within the United States. Almost no one considers themselves “American.”

The United States uses the common currency, the U.S. dollar in every state. English is the national and most common language spoken throughout the U.S. although many languages can be heard in any corner of the country.

The United States is a democratic country who elects a president every four years. A president can be in office for one or two terms. The two major political parties are Democrat and Republican. Each state gets two electoral votes for president depending on it’s majority vote.