Date of independence, or formation date: 1776
Date when current borders were established: 1959
National day: July 4
Vehicle country identifying code: USA
Time zone (hours plus or minus from GMT): -5 to -11
International telephone dialling code: +1
Internet country identifying code: n/a

The world's third-largest country, the United States is neither overpopulated (like China) nor in the main subject to extremes of climate (like much of Russia and Canada). Its main landmass, bounded by Canada and Mexico, contains 48 of its 50 states. The two others, Alaska at the northwest tip of the Americas and Hawaii in the Pacific, became states in 1959. The US was not built on ethnic identity but on a concept of nationhood intimately bound up with the 18th-century founding fathers' ideas of democracy and liberty – still powerful touchstones in both a political and an economic sense. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, the US holds a unique position – but arouses extreme hatreds – as the sole global superpower.

From "The Financial Times World Desk Reference" © Dorling Kindersley 2004