Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
This is a complete list of all 50 U.S. states, its federal district (Washington, D.C.) and its major territories ordered by total area, land area and water area. [1] The water area includes inland waters, coastal waters, the Great Lakes and territorial waters.
Total areas including water are also given, but when ranked by total area, a number of coastal cities appear disproportionately larger. San Francisco is an extreme example: water makes up nearly 80% of its total area of 232 square miles (601 km 2 ).
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]
The National Geographic style guide recommends the use of contiguous or conterminous United States instead of lower 48 when the 48 states are meant, unless used in the context of Alaska. [5] [19] Almost all of Hawaii is south of the southernmost point of the conterminous United States in Florida.
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]
Satellite image of the Big Island of Hawaii, the largest island in the United States. Scale depiction of the 5 largest islands in the US, with some other significant islands. This is a list of islands of the United States, as ordered by area. It includes most islands with an area greater than 20 square miles (approximately 52 km 2
This is a list of urban areas in the United States as defined by the United States Census Bureau, ordered according to their 2020 census populations. An urban area is defined by the Census Bureau as a contiguous set of census blocks that are "densely developed residential, commercial, and other nonresidential areas".
The first documented use of the phrase "United States of America" is a letter from January 2, 1776. Stephen Moylan, a Continental Army aide to General George Washington, wrote to Joseph Reed, Washington's aide-de-camp, seeking to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the Revolutionary War effort.