Culture

FACTS AND STATISTICS

• Location:  North America, bordering both the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Pacific Ocean, between Canada and Mexico
• Capital: Washington, DC
• National anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner
• Nationality:  American
• Ethnic Make-up:  White American (72.4%), African American (12.6%),  Native American (0.9%), Asian American (4.8%) (2010 Census)
• Population: 328+ million (2019)
• Population growth rate: 0.75%
• Climate: mostly temperate, but tropical in Hawaii and Florida, arctic in Alaska, semiarid in the great plains west of the Mississippi River, and arid in the Great Basin of the southwest.
• Time Zone: There are 4 standard times zones as follows -  Pacific Time UTC -8:00 / -7:00 : Mountain Time UTC -7:00 / -6:00 : Central Time    UTC -6:00 / -5:00 : Eastern Time UTC -5:00 / -4:00
• Currency: US Dollar
• Government: Constitution-based federal republic
• Internet penetration: 84.2%

LANGUAGE IN AMERICA

There is no official language in the USA although English (specifically American English) is the primary language used for legislation, regulations, executive orders, treaties, federal court rulings, and all other official pronouncements.

Out of 50 states, 30 have established English as the only official language, while Hawaii recognizes both English and Hawaiian as official and Alaska has made some 20 Native languages official, along with English.

Due to a large number of immigrants that make up the population of America is very much a multilingual nation. Per the American Community Survey 2011, endorsed by the United States Census Bureau, the top 5 spoken languages in America are:

1. English – 230 million
2. Spanish – 37.58 million
3. Chinese – 2.88 million
4. French – 2.05 million
5. Tagalog – 1.59 million

There are laws requiring documents such as ballots to be printed in multiple languages when there are large numbers of non-English speakers in an area.

American Sign Language (ASL) is the most common sign language in the United States.