United States

USA: population, cities

Population

Population

According to Countryaah website, the USA now has a population of around 330 million (2020).

Ethnic groups

The United States is a melting pot of many nations and ethnic groups. The country's population is made up of:

Caucasians (Europeans) approx. 70%

Afro-Americans approx. 11%

Latinos approx. 12%

Asians approx 4%

indigenous people (only comparatively few)

Religions

There are no state religions in the United States. State and church are officially strictly separated from each other. Faith and religion play an extremely large role in the country. Around 63% of the population are members of around 240 religious communities - around 26% of them are in the Roman Catholic Church. Over 90% describe themselves as religious, and around 50 million even as extremely religious. Most of them are Protestant (including Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans or from particularly conservative Evangelical churches). The minorities include Orthodox Christianity, Judaism and Islam

Language The

official language is English. In recent years, however, there has been an increase in immigration from Latin America, so that Spanish is slowly developing into the second national language in many states (including New Mexico, Texas, California). It is estimated that around 12% of the population now speaks Spanish.

Capital and other cities

The capital and seat of government of the USA is Washington DC with a population of around 600,000 people and an area of 177 km². The city does not belong to any state and manages itself as the seat of the US government. Washington DC is not to be confused with the state of Washington in the northwest on the coast of the Pacific. The abbreviation DC stands for "District of Columbia". Washington DC was named after George Washington (1732-1799), the first President of the United States of America. The city lies on the left bank of the Potomac River between the states of Maryland (NE) and Virginia (SW).

For more cities and their population, see the table of 50 states.

USA: map

National borders

Defined by DigoPaul, the USA is located in the central part of North America and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Pacific Ocean to the west and Canada to the north.

Most of the United States is located between the 24th and 49th parallel north and between the 68th and 125th longitude west.

The USA is divided into four time zones.

The easternmost time zone is the Eastern Standard Time Zone (EST; UTC − 5, MEZ-6). This is followed by the Central Standard Time Zone (CST; UTC − 6, MEZ-7) and the Mountain Standard Time Zone (MST; UTC −7, MEZ-8) and the Pacific Standard Time Zone (PST; UTC − 8, MEZ-9) on the west coast.

Alaska and Hawaii occupy a special position. The east-west extension of the USA, i.e. the distance between the Atlantic and Pacific, is around 4,500 km, the north-south extension, i.e. the distance between the Canadian and Mexican borders, is around 2,700 km.

The land border with Canada is approximately 8,895 km long, of which approximately 2,477 km is between Canada and Alaska. The border between the two countries is the longest undefended border in the world and is only monitored by police units. A special highlight are the world-famous Niagara Falls, which lie on the border between the USA and Canada.

The Mexico border is approximately 3,326 km and runs from Brownsville, Texas and Maramoros (Tamaulipas) in the east to San Diego, California and Tijuana (Baja California) in the west. In the eastern part, the border follows the course of the Rio Grande. The border is one of the most crossed borders in the world. In addition to around 250 million legal border crossings, there are also numerous illegal ones. The illegal crossing of the border is to be contained by a security fence with a length of approx. 1,125 km.

In addition, the Bering Strait separates the USA and Russia, even if this is not a land border, the easternmost point of Asia and the westernmost point of the American continent are opposite. At the narrowest point of the Bering Strait (between the Chukchi Peninsula and Cape Deschnjow), the USA and Russia are only 82 km apart.

This brings the total length of the US borders 19,924 km. The total land area of the United States is 9,161,924 km² and the area covered by water, such as lakes and rivers, is 64,706 km². This results in a total national area of 9,826,630 km².

Coastline

The coasts to the Pacific, Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico have a total length of 19,924 km.

States

The USA covers an area of 9,826,630 km² with well over 300 million residents. Two of the total of 50 states are not in the core area of the USA, they are: Hawaii, the 50th state, is in the South Pacific and Alaska is in the north of the continent - and is separated from the heartland of the USA by Canada. A detailed description of the sights of the individual states can be found under the respective state.

Some geography

The USA is the third largest country in the world after Russia and Canada. Almost five percent of the country's area is made up of bodies of water.

There are also:

• Forest

  The forest area in the USA is around 265 million hectares = 2.65 million km². That is about 0.77 hectares per capita. Around 65% of this is used for forestry.

• Meadows and pasture land

  Of the approximately 430 million hectares = 4.3 million km² that are cultivated by agricultural businesses, around 56% are permanent meadows and pastures.

• Fields and fields

  Of the approximately 430 million hectares that are cultivated by farms, around 45% is arable land. This corresponds to around 19% of the country's area. Mainly grain, fruit, vegetables and cotton are grown.

  Particularly large agricultural zones (belts) can be found in the damp east with rain-fed agriculture and intensive livestock farming. In the dry west, dry farming, irrigation and extensive pasture farming dominate. In the central part of the Inner Plains, agriculture is intensive; Mainly maize, soybeans, wheat and oats are grown.

Geographical division

The USA can be geographically divided into larger areas: the coastal plain on the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, the Appalachians, the Inner Plains and the Cordilleras.

The Atlantic coastal plain extends south from the Atlantic Ocean and includes the Florida Peninsula. In northwest Florida it merges into the Gulf Coast Plain.

To the west is the Appalachian mountain range. It consists of ridges, long valleys and plateaus.

The inner planes (Interior Plains) are formed by the flat countries and plateaus in the interior of North America. They stretch along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers between the Rocky Mountains to the west, the Canadian Shield to the northeast, the Appalachians to the east, and the Gulf Coast Plain to the south. The Central Lowland extends around the Great Lakes.

The Cordilleras lie in the Pacific West. They extend over the entire American double continent in a north-south direction from the Bering Strait to Tierra del Fuego over a length of 15,000 km. The Cordilleras of North America are up to 1,500 km wide. The eastern chain is formed by the Rocky Mountains. The inner areas include the Columbiaplateau in the north, the Great Basin and the Colorado Plateau. To the west are the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade Range.

Islands

The following islands are offshore or are part of the USA:

American Samoa with an area of 199 km²

Baker Island with an area of 1.4 km²

Guam with an area of 549 km²

Howland Island with an area of 1.6 km²

Jarvis Island with an area of 4.5 km²

Johnston Atoll with an area of 2.8 km²

Kingman Reef with an area of 1 km²

Midway Islands with an area of 6.2 km²

Navassa Island with an area of 5.4 km²

Northern Mariana Islands with an area of 477 km²

Palmyra Atoll with an area of 11.9 km²

Puerto Ricowith an area of 9,104 km², Virgin Islands with an area of 352 km²

Wake Island with an area of 6.5 km².

Tidal range

On the 3,500 kilometer long Atlantic coast there are sometimes significant differences in the tidal wave. In Virginia Key, Florida, the tide horn is 0.9 meters, in Charlestown, South California, it is 1.9 meters, and in the north in Eastport, Maine, the tide horn is 6.1 meters.

The tidal range on the Pacific coast is between about three and six meters.

For detailed explanations of ebb and flow, see Tides, Ebb and Flow.

Compare

Incidentally, the world's highest tidal range can be found in the Bay of Fundy in Canada, where it is up to 16 meters, and at spring tide even over 20 meters. The Bay of Fundy is located on the Atlantic between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, which is called Nova Scotia in German and whose capital is Halifax.

On the German North Sea coast it varies between one and three meters. In the western Baltic Sea, on the other hand, the tidal range is only 0.3 meters, while it is barely noticeable in the eastern Baltic Sea.

Longitude and latitude

The heartland of the USA, i.e. without Alaska and Hawaii, extends up or down over the following geographical latitude (abbreviation Δφ) and geographical longitude (abbreviation Δλ):

You can find detailed information on this subject under Longitude and Latitude.

Time

The USA has four time zones excluding Hawaii and Alaska. In relation to Central European Time (CET), i.e. the time without summer time, the following value applies. A minus sign means that it is earlier there and a plus sign that it is later than after CET:

Hawaii has a time difference of:

Further and detailed explanations of the time can be found under Time zones, time.

Highs of the sun in New York and Miami

New York lies at a north latitude of around φ = 41 ° N and Miami in Florida at around 26 ° N.

If the sun is at the tropic, i.e. at δ = 23.5 °, summer starts in New York and Miami, this is June 21st. Then, for the highest position of the sun at noon, according to Eq. 1 (see position of the sun) in New York:

41 ° = (90 ° - h) + 23.5 °

so for New York:

and for Miami accordingly:

26 ° = (90 ° - h) + 23.5 °

so for Miami:

At noon on June 21, the sun reached its highest level of the year with 72.5 ° in New York and 87.5 ° in Miami.

mountains

The highest mountain in the country is Mount McKinley in Alaska with a height of 6,195 m.

The highest mountain outside of Alaska is the 4,418 m high Mount Whitney in the state of California.

Other high mountains are:

• Mount Elbert in Colorado (4,396 m)
• Mount Rainier in the Cascace Range (4,392 m)
• Mount Mitchell (2,037 m) and the
• Mount Washington in the White Mountains (1,917 m).

The lowest point in the United States is in Death Valley in California and a small part in Nevada. This depression is 86 meters below sea level.

Rivers

The longest river in the United States is the Mississippi-Missouri (also known as the "Old Man River") with a length of 6,021 km. It is considered to be the fourth longest river in the world and flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

Other rivers in the country are:

• Rio Grande with a length of 3,057 km
• Yukon River in Alaska with a length of around 3,190 km
• Colorado River with a length of approximately 2,330 km
• Tennessee River with a length of around 1,050 km
• Arkansas River with a length of approximately 2,350 km.

Lakes

The country includes numerous smaller and larger lakes. The largest of the lakes, which play a major role in the country's water supply, are grouped together under the name "Great Lakes". They are located in the north of the country on the border with Canada and are connected to each other. Their total area is around 244,000 km². They thus form the largest inland freshwater area on earth. The height differences between the Great Lakes are around 150 m, with Niagara Falls leading to the exchange of water between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

• Lake Superior with a maximum depth of 405 m and an area of around 82,100 km²
• Lake Michigan with a maximum depth of 281 m and an area of around 57,800 km²
• Lake Huron with a maximum depth of 229 m and an area of around 59,600 km²
• Lake Erie with a maximum depth of 64 m and an area of around 25,700 km²
• Lake Ontario, the smallest of the five lakes, with a maximum depth of 244 m and an area of around 18,960 km²
• Great Salt Lake in Utah with an area of around 6,000 km²

The great lakes are the only freshwater inland waters where tides can be observed.

Lake Michigan lies entirely in the United States, while the other four lakes also partially belong to Canada. The St. Lawrence River connects the lakes with the Atlantic. There is a water connection to the Mississippi via the Intracoastal Waterway and the Illinois Waterway.

Atlantic Ocean (Atlantic Ocean)

The Atlantic Ocean (Atlantic) , with an area of about 106 million square kilometers of the Pacific is the second largest ocean world.

It separates America from Europe and Africa.

At 9,220 m, it has its deepest point in the Milwaukee Deep - part of the Puerto Rico Trench.

Its salt content averages 3.54% (g/l).

Its water volume is approx. 355 million km³

Coming from the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf Stream crosses the Atlantic to the coast of Norway and is largely responsible for the climate in Western and Northern Europe.

The Atlantic includes numerous so-called marginal seas - e.g. the American Mediterranean.

In addition, the Atlantic - especially in seafaring - is divided into the North Atlantic and South Atlantic.

The Strait of Gibralta is certainly a very well-known connection between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, where it separates Europe (Gibraltar/Great Britain) from Africa (Morocco). The Panama Canal connects the Pacific with the Atlantic for around 82 km. The Atlantic and Pacific meet at the legendary Cape Horn on the southern tip of the American continent.