Although the founding fathers declared American independence in 1776, and the subsequent Revolutionary War ended in 1783, individual states did not officially join the union until 1787. The first states to ratify the U.S. Constitution were Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, in December 1787, and they were joined by the remainder of the thirteen ex-British colonies by 1790. Another three states joined before the turn of the nineteenth century, and there were 45 states by 1900. The final states, Alaska and Hawaii, were admitted to the union in 1959, almost 172 years after the first colonies became federal states. Secession in the American Civil War The issues of slavery and territorial expansion in the mid nineteenth century eventually led to the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 until 1865. As the U.S. expanded westwards, a moral and economic argument developed about the legality of slavery in these new states; northern states were generally opposed to the expansion of slavery, whereas the southern states (who were economically dependent on slavery) saw this lack of extension as a stepping stone towards nationwide abolition. In 1861, eleven southern states seceded from the Union, and formed the Confederate States of America. When President Lincoln refused to relinquish federal property in the south, the Confederacy attacked, setting in motion the American Civil War. After four years, the Union emerged victorious, and the Confederate States of America was disbanded, and each individual state was readmitted to Congress gradually, between 1866 and 1870. Expansion of other territories Along with the fifty U.S. states, there is one federal district (Washington D.C., the capital city), and fourteen overseas territories, five of which with a resident population (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). In 2019, President Trump inquired about the U.S. purchasing the territory of Greenland from Denmark, and, although Denmark's response indicated that this would be unlikely, this does suggest that the US may be open to further expansion of it's states and territories in the future. There is also a movement to make Washington D.C. the 51st state to be admitted to the union, as citizens of the nation's capital (over 700,000 people) do not have voting representation in the houses of Congress nor control over many local affairs; as of 2020, the U.S. public appears to be divided on the issue, and politicians are split along party lines, as D.C. votes overwhelmingly for the Democratic nominee in presidential elections.

As of February 1, 2025, California was the state with the most Target stores in the United States, with *** stores. The company had a total of ***** stores open throughout the United States that year.

When surveyed in 2022, it was found that Florida and New York were the two most visited states by adults in the United States, having been visited by ** and ** percent of respondents, respectively. Although it is not a state, the federal district of Washington, D.C. proved a popular travel destination for respondents, ** percent of whom claimed to have visited the U.S. capital. In contrast, only ** percent of respondents said they had visited Alaska, making it the least-visited state. What is the most visited national park in the U.S.? With approximately **** million recreational visits in 2022, the Blue Ridge Parkway was the most visited National Park Service park in the United States. The park extends *** miles through Virginia and North Carolina, connecting the Shenandoah National Park to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Meanwhile, the number of recreational visitors to Yellowstone National Park in 2022 was **** million, down from the previous year’s total of **** million. How many domestic leisure trips do Americans take? The number of domestic leisure trips in the U.S. amounted to **** billion in 2022. As estimated, domestic leisure travels in the U.S. dropped to *** billion in 2020. This was due to travel restrictions related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. It is forecast that the number of leisure trips will recover gradually during the following years, reaching * billion by 2026. The number of business trips, by comparison, is forecast to reach *** million that same year.

In 2023, there were 906,176 cases of property crimes reported in California - the highest in the country. Texas, New York, Florida, and Washington rounded out the top five states in the U.S. for property crimes in that year.

In 2022, the federal state of California had about 558.68 billion U.S. dollars of debt outstanding, the most out of any state. New York, Texas, Illinois, and Florida rounded out the top five states with the most debt outstanding in 2022.

In 2023, there were *** institutions of higher education in the state of California. Of these *** institutions, *** were four-year institutions and *** were two-year institutions. California had the most higher education institutions of any state in that year.

Out of all 50 states, New York had the highest per-capita real gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023, at 90,730 U.S. dollars, followed closely by Massachusetts. Mississippi had the lowest per-capita real GDP, at 39,102 U.S. dollars. While not a state, the District of Columbia had a per capita GDP of more than 214,000 U.S. dollars. What is real GDP? A country’s real GDP is a measure that shows the value of the goods and services produced by an economy and is adjusted for inflation. The real GDP of a country helps economists to see the health of a country’s economy and its standard of living. Downturns in GDP growth can indicate financial difficulties, such as the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, when the U.S. GDP decreased by 2.5 percent. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on U.S. GDP, shrinking the economy 2.8 percent. The U.S. economy rebounded in 2021, however, growing by nearly six percent. Why real GDP per capita matters Real GDP per capita takes the GDP of a country, state, or metropolitan area and divides it by the number of people in that area. Some argue that per-capita GDP is more important than the GDP of a country, as it is a good indicator of whether or not the country’s population is getting wealthier, thus increasing the standard of living in that area. The best measure of standard of living when comparing across countries is thought to be GDP per capita at purchasing power parity (PPP) which uses the prices of specific goods to compare the absolute purchasing power of a countries currency.

In 2022, California was the federal state with the highest number of motor vehicle registrations in the United States. More than **** million motor vehicles were registered in the nation’s most populous state. Overall, the United States recorded over ***** million vehicle registrations. Vehicle classes Automobiles and trucks are the leading categories in terms of motor vehicle sales in the United States, accounting for roughly ** percent of all registrations. Motorcycles and buses comprise the remaining categories, with buses accounting for a miniscule **** percent of registrations. In terms of sales, light trucks were the most popular category in 2023 with retail sales of nearly **** million units. Leading state California recorded around **** million registrations of automobiles and trucks, having a resident population of just under ** million people. California is the largest market for car registration. The state is known for progressive state legislation that promotes the manufacturing and sale of electric vehicles.

In 2024, the annual cost for a private room in an assisted living facility in the U.S. amounted to ****** U.S. dollars. However, costs varied greatly from one state to another. The most expensive states for a private room in assisted living was found in Hawaii, followed by Alaska and DC.

In 2023, there were around 1.11 million active duty U.S. Armed Forces personnel stationed within the United States. In that year, there were 156,418 U.S. Armed Forces personnel stationed in California, the most of any state.

Hogs and pigs are one of the main sources of meat in the United States, and there is a thriving domestic pork market. As of March 2024, Iowa had an inventory of about 25.1 million hogs and pigs, making it the top producer of swine in the country by a large margin. In that same year, the second largest producer of hogs and pigs was Minnesota, with about nine million head. Swine Production Pigs have several advantages over other livestock. They are good at converting animal feed into meat and do not require large grazing areas. In addition, almost every part of the pig can be eaten or processed, making them an efficient source of meat. Thus, raising pigs for consumption is a good investment for small-scale farmers and factory farms alike. Pork Market in the U.S. Some of the classic staples of an American breakfast are bacon, sausage, or ham, which are all pork products. Pork is one of the most frequently consumed types of meat in the United States with the average American consuming about 51.1 pounds of pork per year as of 2020. In 2022, over 27 billion pounds of pork were produced in the United States.

In 2024, California was the state with the highest employment level in accounting and auditing, with approximately ******* working within this industry. The state of New York was second in the list, employing roughly *******, as well as being second in the list of highest paying states for accounting and auditing. The accounting industry in the United States The spending per average consumer of accounting services in the United States increased significantly between 2020 and 2023, with trends indicating that spending on accounting fees will continue to grow. With such great demand, it is little surprise that the revenue of accounting services within the country has been on an upward spiral since 2011. The number of bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks employed in the United States have also had to keep up with these growth trajectories, as employment within the industry also grew in the last year. Employment levels in the United States In 2023, figures of those in officially recognized employment rose substantially, as employment in the United States continued on a steady path. According to the International Monetary Fund, this figure is expected to rise continuously until 2023. With the backbone of the U.S. economy lying in the hospitality and leisure industry, employment figures took a significant hit during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 owing to lockdown measures that required restaurants and leisure facilities to stay closed indefinitely. This prediction, therefore, will have come as a relief to the American economy, as hires in leisure and hospitality services was the industry with the third most new employees nationwide in September 2024.

New Jersey is home to the largest number of hazardous waste sites – or Superfund sites – across the United States, with *** locations as of March 2025. California and Pennsylvania followed, each with over ** sites at the time. What is a Superfund site? In 1980, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) was passed, which allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up the most contaminated sites in the United States. The locations managed under this program are commonly known as Superfund sites and include hazardous waste sites such as landfills and mines, where toxic waste has been dumped. As of March 2025, ***** Superfund sites across the ** U.S. states were listed on the National Priorities List (NPL). Hazardous waste shipments within the U.S. Featuring the sixth-highest number of hazardous waste sites across the United States, Texas received the largest volume of hazardous waste from other states in recent years, at nearly ******* metric tons. The southern state was also the largest shipper of hazardous waste within the North American country, with outbound shipments surpassing inbound by some *********** metric tons.

Texas is the largest coal energy consuming state in the U.S., using some 926 trillion British thermal units worth in 2022 in the electric power sector. Ranking second, Indiana consumed roughly 580 trillion British thermal units that same year. Most of the states listed are also heavy coal-producing states.

California had the most craft breweries of any state in the United States in 2024, by far. The state had *** craft breweries in total, compared to 2nd and 3rd place New York and Pennsylvania who had *** and *** craft breweries respectively. Washington D.C. was in last place with ** craft breweries. California also produced the most barrels of craft beer in 2024, **** million in total. The definition of a craft brewer The Brewers Association qualifies a brewery as a craft brewery if it adheres to three pillars. Firstly, the production must be small, 6 million barrels of beer or less a year. Secondly, the operation must be mostly independent; at least seventy-five percent of the brewery must not be owned by a beverage alcohol industry member that is not a craft brewer. Lastly, the brewery must have a Brewer’s Notice from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, and they must make beer.

As of 2022, the U.S. states with the highest death rates from suicide were Montana, Alaska, and Wyoming. In Wyoming and Montana, there were around ** and ** suicide deaths per 100,000 population, respectively. In comparison, in New Jersey, the state with the lowest suicide death rate, there were only around * suicide deaths per 100,000 population. Differences in suicide rates by gender In the United States, there is a vast difference in suicide rates between men and women, with rates over *** times higher among men. However, rates of suicide for both men and women have increased over the past couple of decades. Among men, those aged 75 years and older have the highest suicide rates, with around ** deaths per 100,000 population in 2021. Among women, those aged 45 to 64 years have the highest rates of suicide death with *** deaths per 100,000 population. What is the most common method of suicide? In the United States, the most common method of suicide is with firearms, followed by suffocation and then poisoning. In 2022, there were around ****** suicide deaths from firearms in the United States, compared to ****** deaths from suffocation and ***** from drug poisoning. In 2021, firearms accounted for around ** percent of suicide deaths among men. In comparison, around ** percent of deaths from suicide among women were due to firearms, while suffocation and poisoning each accounted for ** percent of such deaths.

This statistic shows the states in the United States with the largest number of outbound leisure travelers in 2016. Approximately 2.31 million people traveling abroad for leisure purposes or to visit friends and relatives resided in Texas.

This dataset is part of the Geographical repository maintained by Opendatasoft. This dataset contains data for counties and equivalent entities in United States of America. The primary legal divisions of most states are termed counties. In Louisiana, these divisions are known as parishes. In Alaska, which has no counties, the equivalent entities are the organized boroughs, city and boroughs, municipalities, and for the unorganized area, census areas. The latter are delineated cooperatively for statistical purposes by the State of Alaska and the Census Bureau. In four states (Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, and Virginia), there are one or more incorporated places that are independent of any county organization and thus constitute primary divisions of their states. These incorporated places are known as independent cities and are treated as equivalent entities for purposes of data presentation. The District of Columbia and Guam have no primary divisions, and each area is considered an equivalent entity for purposes of data presentation. The Census Bureau treats the following entities as equivalents of counties for purposes of data presentation: Municipios in Puerto Rico, Districts and Islands in American Samoa, Municipalities in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Islands in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The entire area of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Island Areas is covered by counties or equivalent entities.Processors and tools are using this data. Enhancements Add ISO 3166-3 codes. Simplify geometries to provide better performance across the services. Add administrative hierarchy.

This map shows population density of the United States. Areas in darker magenta have much higher population per square mile than areas in orange or yellow. Data is from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 Census Demographic and Housing Characteristics. The map's layers contain total population counts by sex, age, and race groups for Nation, State, County, Census Tract, and Block Group in the United States and Puerto Rico. From the Census:"Population density allows for broad comparison of settlement intensity across geographic areas. In the U.S., population density is typically expressed as the number of people per square mile of land area. The U.S. value is calculated by dividing the total U.S. population (316 million in 2013) by the total U.S. land area (3.5 million square miles).When comparing population density values for different geographic areas, then, it is helpful to keep in mind that the values are most useful for small areas, such as neighborhoods. For larger areas (especially at the state or country scale), overall population density values are less likely to provide a meaningful measure of the density levels at which people actually live, but can be useful for comparing settlement intensity across geographies of similar scale." SourceAbout the dataYou can use this map as is and you can also modify it to use other attributes included in its layers. This map's layers contain total population counts by sex, age, and race groups data from the 2020 Census Demographic and Housing Characteristics. This is shown by Nation, State, County, Census Tract, Block Group boundaries. Each geography layer contains a common set of Census counts based on available attributes from the U.S. Census Bureau. There are also additional calculated attributes related to this topic, which can be mapped or used within analysis.Vintage of boundaries and attributes: 2020 Demographic and Housing Characteristics Table(s): P1, H1, H3, P2, P3, P5, P12, P13, P17, PCT12 (Not all lines of these DHC tables are available in this feature layer.)Data downloaded from: U.S. Census Bureau’s data.census.gov siteDate the Data was Downloaded: May 25, 2023Geography Levels included: Nation, State, County, Census Tract, Block GroupNational Figures: included in Nation layer The United States Census Bureau Demographic and Housing Characteristics: 2020 Census Results 2020 Census Data Quality Geography & 2020 Census Technical Documentation Data Table Guide: includes the final list of tables, lowest level of geography by table and table shells for the Demographic Profile and Demographic and Housing Characteristics.News & Updates This map is ready to be used in ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online and its configurable apps, Story Maps, dashboards, Notebooks, Python, custom apps, and mobile apps. Data can also be exported for offline workflows. Please cite the U.S. Census Bureau when using this data. Data Processing Notes: These 2020 Census boundaries come from the US Census TIGER geodatabases. These are Census boundaries with water and/or coastlines erased for cartographic and mapping purposes. For Census tracts and block groups, the water cutouts are derived from a subset of the 2020 Areal Hydrography boundaries offered by TIGER. Water bodies and rivers which are 50 million square meters or larger (mid to large sized water bodies) are erased from the tract and block group boundaries, as well as additional important features. For state and county boundaries, the water and coastlines are derived from the coastlines of the 2020 500k TIGER Cartographic Boundary Shapefiles. These are erased to more accurately portray the coastlines and Great Lakes. The original AWATER and ALAND fields are unchanged and available as attributes within the data table (units are square meters).  The layer contains all US states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. Census tracts with no population that occur in areas of water, such as oceans, are removed from this data service (Census Tracts beginning with 99). Block groups that fall within the same criteria (Block Group denoted as 0 with no area land) have also been removed.Percentages and derived counts, are calculated values (that can be identified by the "_calc_" stub in the field name). Field alias names were created based on the Table Shells file available from the Data Table Guide for the Demographic Profile and Demographic and Housing Characteristics. Not all lines of all tables listed above are included in this layer. Duplicative counts were dropped. For example, P0030001 was dropped, as it is duplicative of P0010001.To protect the privacy and confidentiality of respondents, their data has been protected using differential privacy techniques by the U.S. Census Bureau.

In 2022, California had 10,952 drug overdose deaths. Opioids are the main driver of overdose deaths. This statistic presents the number of drug overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2022, by state.