Outline of the United States

An orthographic projection 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.

General reference

An enlargeable map of the United States showing the population density in 2010

Geography of the United States

An enlargeable topographic map of the contiguous United States
 Canada 8,893 km (5,525 mi)[note 1]
 Mexico 3,145 km (1,954 mi)[1]
  • Coastline: 19,924 km (12,380 mi)

Environment of the United States

An enlargeable satellite composite image of the contiguous United States. Lush temperate, subtropical, and tropical vegetation and low to moderately high mountains prevail throughout the humid east, and high mountains, plateaus, temperate and subtropical savannas, and hot dry deserts prevail in the west.

Geographic features of the United States

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

Regions of the United States

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Administrative
Units
Time zones
Census
Courts of
appeals
Physical
Physiographic
Coastal
Historical
Civil War
DividedOther
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Physiographic divisions of the United States

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:

Administrative divisions of the United States

States 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]

Map of the United States with state border lines. Alaska and Hawaii are shown at different scales, and that the Aleutian Islands and the uninhabited northwestern Hawaiian Islands are omitted from this map.

Territories of the United States

Location of the insular areas of the United States:
  The United States of America
  Incorporated unorganized territory
  Unincorporated organized territory
  Unincorporated unorganized territory
  Freely associated commonwealth
Incorporated organized territories
  • none since 1959
Incorporated unorganized territories
Unincorporated organized territories
Unincorporated unorganized territories

Geography of the states and territories

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Demography of the United States

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MT – NC – ND – NE – NH – NM – NV – NJ – NY – OH – OK – OR – PA – RI – SC – SD – TN – TX – UT – VA – VT – WA – WI – WV – WY

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Climate of the United States

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States
Federal district
Insular areas
By city, county,
or region
Topics
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Eastern states
Gulf Coast states
  • Alabama
  • Florida
    • pre-1900
    • 1900–1949
    • 1950–1974
    • 1975–1999
    • 2000–present
  • Louisiana
    • 2000–present
  • Texas
    • pre-1900
    • 1900–1949
    • 1950–1979
    • 1980–present
Western states
Other states

History of the United States

John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence is usually incorrectly identified as a depiction of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, but it actually shows the drafting committee presenting its work to the Congress.
A map of the territorial evolution of the United States

Period-coverage

History of the states and territories

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History of cities

Presidents of the United States

Government and politics in the United States

Federal government

Legislative branch

The United States Capitol

Executive branch

The White House
Federal executive departments

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.

Department Creation Order of
succession 		Modifications since creation 2007 Budget
in billions
of dollars 		Employees (2007)
State 1789 1 Initially named "Department of Foreign Affairs" 9.96 30,266
Treasury 1789 2 11.10 115,897
Defense 1947 3 Initially named "National Military Establishment" 439.30 3,000,000
Justice 1870 4 Position of Attorney General created in 1789, but had no department until 1870 23.40 112,557
Interior 1849 5 10.70 71,436
Agriculture 1889 6 77.60 109,832
Commerce 1903 7 Originally named Commerce and Labor; Labor later separated 6.20 36,000
Labor 1913 8 59.70 17,347
Health and Human Services 1953 9 Originally named Health, Education, and Welfare; Education later separated 543.20 67,000
Housing and Urban Development 1965 10 46.20 10,600
Transportation 1966 11 58.00 58,622
Energy 1977 12 21.50 116,100
Education 1979 13 62.80 4,487
Veterans Affairs 1989 14 73.20 235,000
Homeland Security 2002 15 44.60 208,000
Total budget (fiscal year 2007): 1,523.42 4,193,144

Commissions

Judicial branch

The United States Supreme Court building

State and territory governments

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Politics of the states and territories

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Foreign relations

International organization membership

Military

The Pentagon

Intelligence organizations

Headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency

Law of the United States

Culture of the United States

American cuisine

Historical cuisine

Cuisine of the regions

  • Cuisine of the Southwestern United States
  • Cuisine of the Mid-Atlantic United States
  • Cuisine of the Midwestern United States
  • Cuisine of the Northeastern United States
  • Cuisine of the Southern United States
  • Cuisine of the Western United States

Art in the United States

Film

Music in the United States

Genres
Music in the states and territories

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Radio

Sports in the United States

List of Major Sports Leagues in the United States

Other top-level leagues and series
Minor and developmental professional leagues and series
College sports
Sports governing bodies

Sports by state and territory

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Sports Museums in the United States

Education in the United States

Education in the states and territories

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Economy and infrastructure of the United States

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

Economy by state and territory

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Health in the United States

Tourism in the United States

See also

  • flagUnited States portal
  • mapNorth America portal
  • History portal
  • iconGeography portal

Notes

  1. ^ The total length of the land border between Canada and the United States is the longest between any two countries.

References

  1. ^ "U.S.-Mexico Border". National Geographic. February 26, 2013. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  2. ^ "Physiographic Regions". United States Geological Survey. April 17, 2003. Archived from the original on May 15, 2006. Retrieved January 30, 2008.
  3. ^ "Arkansas Secretary of State". www.sos.arkansas.gov. Retrieved February 9, 2023.
  4. ^ DOI Office of Internal Affairs "DOI Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) - WAKE ISLAND". Archived from the original on May 13, 2012. Retrieved May 13, 2012.

External links

United States at Wikipedia's sister projects
  • Definitions from Wiktionary
  • Media from Commons
  • News from Wikinews
  • Quotations from Wikiquote
  • Texts from Wikisource
  • Textbooks from Wikibooks
  • Resources from Wikiversity
  • United States travel guide from Wikivoyage
Government
  • 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
History
  • 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
Maps
  • Wikimedia Atlas of the United States
  • National Atlas of the United States Official maps from the U.S. Department of the Interior
Other
  • U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Official government site
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General reference
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