ABSTRACT
The United States of America (henceforth, the US) borders both the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Pacific Ocean, between Canada and Mexico. As the third country in the world in terms of area (9,826,675 square kilometers), the US is rich in fossil fuels (gas and coal especially, holding around 27 percent of the world's total reserves of the latter) and ores. At 313 million people, the population of the US is the third largest in the world after China and India and is moderately evenly distributed, although the four biggest states (California, Texas, New York, and Florida) amount to almost a third of the total. An estimated 82 percent of the population lives in urban areas. In its little more than two centuries of history, population growth has been explosive, especially during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when the US was seen as a land of opportunity that attracted thousands of immigrants to its coasts. Today, the US is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world, though according to the 2000 US Census only 2.4 percent of all Americans identify themselves as members of more than one race.
