| Official name: | United States of America |
| Capital: | Washington, DC |
| Area: | total: 9,629,091 sq km
land: 9,158,960 sq km
water: 470,131 sq km
note: includes only the 50 states and District of Columbia |
| Climate: | mostly temperate, but tropical in Hawaii and Florida, arctic in Alaska, semiarid in the great plains west of the Mississippi River, and arid in the Great Basin of the southwest; low winter temperatures in the northwest are ameliorated occasionally in January and February by warm chinook winds from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains |
| Location: | North America, bordering both the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Pacific Ocean, between Canada and Mexico |
| Geographic coordinates: | 38 00 N, 97 00 W |
| Comparative Area: | about half the size of Russia; about three-tenths the size of Africa; about half the size of South America (or slightly larger than Brazil); slightly larger than China; about two and a half times the size of Western Europe |
| Land boundaries: | total: 12,034 km
border countries: Canada 8,893 km (including 2,477 km with Alaska), Mexico 3,141 km
note: US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is leased by the US and thus remains part of Cuba; the base boundary is 29 km |
| Coastline: | 19,924 km |
| Terrain: | vast central plain, mountains in west, hills and low mountains in east; rugged mountains and broad river valleys in Alaska; rugged, volcanic topography in Hawaii |
| Elevation extremes: | lowest point: Death Valley -86 m
highest point: Mount McKinley 6,194 m |