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[3] [4] The colloquial term "Lower 48" [5] is also used, especially in relation to Alaska. The related but distinct term continental United States includes Alaska, which is also on North America, but separated from the 48 states by British Columbia in Canada, but excludes Hawaii and all the insular areas in the Caribbean and the Pacific. [1] [6]
The United States of America is a federal republic [1] consisting of 50 states, a federal district (Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States), five major territories, and various minor islands. [2] [3] Both the states and the United States as a whole are each sovereign jurisdictions. [4]
The population density of the United States is lower than that of many other countries because of the United States' large land area. There are large, sparsely populated areas in parts of the US, like the east-to-west stretch extending from the outskirts of Seattle all the way to Minneapolis , or the north-to-south portion from northern Montana ...
The term "United States," when used in the geographic sense, refers to the contiguous United States (sometimes referred to as the Lower 48, including the District of Columbia not as a state), Alaska, Hawaii, the five insular territories of Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and minor outlying possessions. [1]
Four states (Louisiana, Missouri, Nevada, and Pennsylvania) have expanded substantially by acquiring additional federal territory after their initial admission to the Union. In 1912, Arizona was the last state established in the contiguous United States, commonly called the "lower 48".
U.S. Census Bureau regions and divisions. Since 1950, the United States Census Bureau defines four statistical regions, with nine divisions. [1] [2] The Census Bureau region definition is "widely used ... for data collection and analysis", [3] and is the most commonly used classification system.
The following table lists the 3,244 counties and county equivalents of the United States with the following information for each entity: The entity name; The state or equivalent (federal district or territory) The population as of April 1, 2020 as enumerated by the United States Census Bureau. [10]
Prior to 1987, when the U.S. Secretary of Commerce approved the two-letter codes for use in government documents, [13] the United States Government Printing Office (GPO) suggested its own set of abbreviations, with some states left unabbreviated. Today, the GPO supports United States Postal Service standard. [14]