The United States of America (officially: United States of America), is a federal republic in North America, and includes the District of Columbia and 50 states, of which 49 to the mainland of North America and one (Hawaii) in the Pacific Ocean. The total land area of the United States totaled 9,809,155 km2 and thus it is after Russia and Canada the largest country in the world. The United States is bordered in the north to Canada (8,893 km, including 2,477 km border with Alaska), in the south to Mexico (3141 km), in the east to the Atlantic Ocean and in the west to the Pacific Ocean. The land border with Mexico is the other half formed by the Rio Grande. The distance from New York to Los Angeles is almost 5000 kilometers. Under the jurisdiction of the United States: the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, a number of small, often uninhabited islands in the Pacific Ocean, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas (Northern Marianas), a total of approximately 11,155 km2. Part of California in the southwest lies exactly in the St. Andreas fault. It is in this area at increased risk of earthquakes.
The population of the United States covers a wide variety of groups, both by race as by country. This pluralism since the sixties have increased by massive immigration from Africa, Asia and Latin America. In the same period increased immigration from Europe. The original inhabitants make about 1% of the total population. In 1995 there lived about 2.2 million Indians in the United States. Most Indians live in the western states, often in reserves. In 1924 the Indians were given the full American citizenship, while the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 the Tribal Indians the opportunity to live a high degree of autonomy gave. The first Europeans who settled in American territory, the Spaniards in the sixteenth century. In the seventeenth century followed the English, Scots, Dutch, Germans and Irish. French settled in the 17th and 18th century in the valley of the Mississippi. From the beginning of the 19th century, the population began to rise dramatically, from around 5 million in 1800 to about 75 million at the end of that century. From 1830 until the beginning of the Civil War in 1865 followed a massive wave of immigration from Europe, with many Britons, Germans, Irish, Dutch and Scandinavians. They were quickly and quietly Friday included in the existing society. After the Civil War came half wave of immigrants from Europe in motion, now mainly from South and South-Eastern Europe (including Hungarians, Italians, Poles, Russians, Ukrainians and Czechs). They did agree totally different background than the first wave of immigrants, and were often closed groups in the large cities that barely integrated into society. In economic and social terms than they were too far behind the rest of the population. An ink black period in American history, the era of the slave trade, when millions of blacks from Africa were within the country, and were often employed on the southern plantations.
Slavery was abolished in 1863, but a large part of the black population of the United States now still living in often extremely poor economic and social conditions. After the Second World War, many blacks went to the big cities in the north. In 1995 formed the approximately 33 million blacks about 13% of the total population. A very large group, currently the second ethnic minority, are the so-called 'Hispanic', including Mexican Americans, Porto Ricans and Cubans. Also this group is in a difficult socio-economic position, forming a sort of second class citizens. In 1995 formed the approximately 26.8 million Hispanic about 10% of the total population. Since 1980, there are tens of thousands of Cubans as refugees or so-called boat 'marielitos' came to the United States. Ca. 9.2 million people (4% of the population) are Americans of Asian descent, mainly Japanese, Chinese, Filip Pinos, Vietnamese and Koreans. A special group are the Cajun, descendants of French Acadians coming from Canada, which, after they had refused to submit to the English, took refuge in the bayous (wetlands) of the state of Louisiana.
Population per July 2002 amounted to 280,562,489, and the United States after China and India thus the largest country in the world in terms of population size. The population distribution in the United States is very uneven. Alaska and the desert in the west have a population density of less than 10 inhabitants per km2. The east, the areas to the Great Lakes and parts of Texas and California have a very high population density. The average population density of the United States is approximately 28 inhabitants per km2. The state of Wyoming has a population density of 2 inhabitants per km2, while in New Jersey to 366 inhabitants per km2 is behind. Approximately three quarters of the population lives in an urban area. California and some northeastern states are the most urbanized, relatively the least urbanized, the southern states. The United States has more than 175 cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. The area is the largest urban agglomeration New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island with a population of more than 20 million people. With a population of 16 million is the agglomerate western Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County in a good second place. The average annual population growth over the period 1985-1995 amounted to 0.9% (2002, 0.89%). The birth rate in 2002 was 14.1%, 8.7% mortality. The life expectancy at birth in 2002 was 74.5 years for white men, 68.5 years for black and colored men, 80.2 years for white women and 77 years for black and colored women. The infant mortality rate in 2002 was 6.69 per 1000 live births.