Total area: 9,372,610 km2
land area: 9,166,600 km2; includes only the 50 states and District of Colombia

Comparative area: about four-tenths the size of USSR; about one-third the size of Africa
about one-half the size of South America (or slightly larger than Brazil)
slightly smaller than China
about two and one-half times the size of Western Europe

Land boundaries: 12,248.1 km total
Canada 8,893 km (including 2,477 km with Alaska), Mexico 3,326 km, Cuba (US naval base at Guantanamo) 29.1 km

Coastline: 19,924 km

Maritime claims: @m5Contiguous zone: 12 nm @m5Continental shelf: 200 meters @m5Extended economic zone: 200 nm @m5Territorial sea: 12 nm

Disputes: maritime boundary dispute with Canada; US Naval Base at Guantanamo is leased from Cuba and only mutual agreement or US abandonment of the area can terminate the lease; Haiti claims Navassa Island; has made no territorial claim in Antarctica (but has reserved the right to do so) and does not recognize the claims of any other nation

Climate: mostly temperate, but varies from tropical (Hawaii) to arctic (Alaska); arid to semiarid with occasional warm, dry chinook wind in west

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

Natural resources: coal, copper, lead, molybdenum, phosphates, uranium, bauxite, gold, iron, mercury, nickel, potash, silver, tungsten, zinc, crude oil, natural gas, timber

Land use: 20% arable land; NEGL% permanent crops; 26% meadows and pastures; 29% forest and woodland; 25% other; includes 2% irrigated

Environment: pollution control measures improving air and water quality; acid rain; agricultural fertilizer and pesticide pollution; management of sparse natural water resources in west; desertification; tsunamis, volcanoes, and earthquake activity around Pacific Basin; continuous permafrost in northern Alaska is a major impediment to development

Note: world's fourth-largest country (after USSR, Canada, and China)

NOTE: The information regarding United States on this page is re-published from the 1989 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of United States Geography 1989 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about United States Geography 1989 should be addressed to the CIA.