United States of America "USA"

United States Capital: Washington, DC Population: 295,734,134 (July 2005) Location: North America, bordering both the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Pacific Ocean, between Canada and Mexico More information about United States

The United States of America (also referred to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, or America) is a federal constituticional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district . The country is situated mostly in central North America , where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C. , the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipielago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Caribbean and Pacific. At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and with over 310 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest both by land, area and population.