Contents

Outline of the United States

The flag of the United States

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the United States:

United States of America – federal republic located primarily in North America, and the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With the Soviet Union's collapse and the subsequent end of the Cold War in 1991, the United States emerged as the world's sole superpower.

• The United States is: a megadiverse country

 Canada 8,893 km (5,525 mi)^{[note 1]}

 Mexico 3,145 km (1,954 mi)^[1]

• Coastline: 19,924 km (12,380 mi)

• Population of the United States: 308,745,538 (2010 census) – 3rd most populous country
• Area of the United States: 9,826,630 km² (3,794,080 sq mi) – 4th most extensive country
• Atlas of the United States
• Cities of the United States, by population

View from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, a World Heritage Site

The geography of the United States varies across their immense area. Within the continental U.S., eight distinct physiographic divisions exist, though each is composed of several smaller physiographic subdivisions.^[2] These major divisions are:

• Laurentian Upland – part of the Canadian Shield that extends into the northern United States Great Lakes area.
• Atlantic Plain – the coastal regions of the eastern and southern parts includes the continental shelf, the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf Coast.
• Appalachian Highlands – lying on the eastern side of the United States, it includes the Appalachian Mountains, Adirondacks and New England province.
• Interior Plains – part of the interior continental United States, it includes much of what is called the Great Plains.
• Interior Highlands – also part of the interior continental United States, this division includes the Ozark Plateau.
• Rocky Mountain System – one branch of the Cordilleran system lying far inland in the western states.
• Intermontane Plateaus – also divided into the Columbia Plateau, the Colorado Plateau and the Basin and Range Province, it is a system of plateaus, basins, ranges and gorges between the Rocky and Pacific Mountain Systems. It is the setting for the Grand Canyon, the Great Basin and Death Valley.
• Pacific Mountain System – the coastal mountain ranges and features in the west coast of the United States.

At the Declaration of Independence, the United States consisted of 13 states, former colonies of the United Kingdom. In the following years, the number of states has grown steadily due to expansion to the west, conquest and purchase of lands by the American government, and division of existing states to the current number of 50 United States:^[3]

• United States territory
  • Territorial evolution of the United States

• none since 1959

• Palmyra Atoll

• Territory of American Samoa, technically unorganized, but self-governing under a constitution last revised in 1967

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• Outline of the history of Los Angeles

• United States Constitution

• United States Congress
  • United States Senate
    • President pro tempore of the United States Senate, Patty Murray (D-WA)
  • United States House of Representatives
    • Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Mike Johnson (R-LA)

• Head of state and head of government, 46th President of the United States, Joseph R. Biden, Jr
  • 49th Vice President of the United States, Kamala D. Harris

All departments are listed by their present-day name and only departments with past or present cabinet-level status are listed. Order of succession applies only to within the cabinet; the vice president has always been first in the line of succession, and the Speaker of the House and the President pro tem of the Senate have at times been included.

• Federal Trade Commission
• U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

• United States federal courts
  • United States Supreme Court
    • Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts
  • United States court of appeals
  • United States district court

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• Foreign policy of the United States

• Member state of the Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors
• Member state of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
• Member state of the Organization of American States
• Member state of the United Nations
• Member of the World Health Organization
• Member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement
• World Veterans Federation

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• Early childhood education in the United States
• K-12 education in the United States
  • High school in the United States
  • Homeschooling in the United States
• Higher education in the United States
  • Community colleges in the United States
  • Vocational education in the United States
  • For-profit higher education in the United States
  • Liberal arts colleges in the United States
• Language education in the United States

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The United States is the world's largest economy (IMF, 2010).