Aug. 26, 2006 Search Again HISTORY.COM RESOURCES ALMANAC: Federal Minimum Hourly Wage Rates Since 1950 Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Dept. of LaborThe Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and subsequent amendments provide for minimum wage-coverage applicable to nonprofessional workers in specified nonsupervisory employment categories. EFFECTIVE DATE NONFARM WORKERS FARM WORKERS4 Under laws prior to 19661 Percent of avg. earnings2 Under 1966 and later provis.3 Jan. 25, 1950 $0.75 54 NA NA Mar. 1, 1956 1.00 52 NA NA Sept. 3, 1961 1.15 50 NA NA Sept. 3, 1963 1.25 51 NA NA Feb. 1, 1967 1.40 50 $1.00 $1.00 Feb. 1, 1968 1.60 54 1.15 1.15 Feb. 1, 1969 (5) (5) 1.30 1.30 Feb. 1, 1970 (5) (5) 1.45 (5) Feb. 1, 1971 (5) (5) 1.60 (5) May 1, 1974 2.00 46 1.90 1.60 Jan. 1, 1975 2.10 45 2.00 1.80 Jan. 1, 1976 2.30 46 2.20 2.00 Jan. 1, 1977 (5) (5) 2.30 2.20 Jan. 1, 1978 2.65 44 2.65 2.65 Jan. 1, 1979 2.90 45 2.90 2.90 Jan. 1, 1980 3.10 43 3.10 3.10 Jan. 1, 1981 3.35 42 3.35 3.35 Apr. 1, 1990 3.806 35 3.80 3.806 Apr. 1, 1991 4.256 38 4.25 4.256 Oct. 1, 1996 4.757 37 4.75 4.757 Sept. 1, 1997 5.157 39 5.15 5.157 NA - = not applicable. (1) - Applies to workers covered prior to 1961 Amendments and, after Sept. 1965, to workers covered by 1961 Amendments. Rates set by 1961 Amendments were: Sept. 1961, $1.00; Sept. 1964, $1.15; and Sept. 1965, $1.25. (2) - Percent of gross average hourly earnings of production workers in manufacturing. (3) - Applies to workers newly covered by Amendments of 1966, 1974, and 1977, and Title IX of Education Amendments of 1972. (4) - Included in coverage as of 1966, 1974, and 1977 Amendments. (5) - No change in rate. (6) - Training wage for workers age 16-19 in first 6 months of first job: Apr. 1, 1990, $3.35; Apr. 1, 1991, $3.62. The training wage expired Mar. 31, 1993. (7) - Under 1996 legislation, a subminimum training wage of $4.25 an hour was established for employees under 20 years of age during their first 90 consecutive calendar days of employment with an employer. For workers receiving gratuities, the minimum wage remained $2.13 per hour. An article from The World Almanac and Book of Facts. © 2005 World Almanac Education Group. A WRC Media Company. All rights reserved. Except as otherwise permitted by written agreement, uses of the work inconsistent with U.S. and applicable foreign copyright and related laws are prohibited. ADVERTISEMENT Search Again ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aug. 26, 2006 Search Again HISTORY.COM RESOURCES ENCYCLOPEDIA: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, popularly referred to as the United States or as America, a federal republic of the North American continent, consisting of 48 contiguous states and the noncontiguous states of Alaska and Hawaii. Outlying areas include Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Virgin Islands of the United States. The conterminous 48 states are bounded on the N by Canada, on the E by the Atlantic Ocean, on the S by the Gulf of Mexico and Mexico, and on the W by the Pacific Ocean. The N boundary with Canada is partly formed by the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence R.; the S boundary with Mexico is partly formed by the Rio Grande. POLITICAL DIVISIONS OF THE UNITED STATES State Area (sq km/sq mi) Population (2000) Year and Order of Admission to Union Capital Alabama 135,775 / 52,423 4,447,100 1819 22 Montgomery Alaska 1,700,139 / 656,424 626,932 1959 49 Juneau Arizona 295,276 / 114,006 5,130,632 1912 48 Phoenix Arkansas 137,742 / 53,182 2,673,400 1836 25 Little Rock California 424,002 / 163,707 33,871,648 1850 31 Sacramento Colorado 269,620 / 104,100 4,301,261 1876 38 Denver Connecticut 14,358 / 5544 3,405,565 1788 * 5 Hartford Delaware 6447 / 2489 783,600 1787 * 1 Dover Florida 170,313 / 65,758 15,982,378 1845 27 Tallahassee Georgia 153,953 / 59,441 8,186,453 1788* 4 Atlanta Hawaii 28,313 / 10,932 1,211,537 1959 50 Honolulu Idaho 216,456 / 83,574 1,293,953 1890 43 Boise Illinois 150,007 / 57,918 12,419,293 1818 21 Springfield Indiana 94,328 / 36,420 6,080,485 1816 19 Indianapolis Iowa 145,754 / 56,276 2,926,324 1846 29 Des Moines Kansas 213,110 / 82,282 2,688,418 1861 34 Topeka Kentucky 104,665 / 40,411 4,041,769 1792 15 Frankfort Louisiana 134,275 / 51,844 4,468,976 1812 18 Baton Rouge Maine 91,653 / 35,387 1,274,923 1820 23 Augusta Maryland 32,135 / 12,407 5,296,486 1788 * 7 Annapolis Massachusetts 27,337 / 10,555 6,349,097 1788 * 6 Boston Michigan 250,738 / 98,810 9,938,444 1837 26 Lansing Minnesota 225,182 / 86,943 4,919,479 1858 32 Saint Paul Mississippi 125,443 / 48,434 2,844,658 1817 20 Jackson Missouri 180,546 / 69,709 5,595,211 1821 24 Jefferson City Montana 380,850 / 147,046 902,195 1889 41 Helena Nebraska 200,358 / 77,358 1,711,263 1867 37 Lincoln Nevada 286,368 / 110,567 1,998,257 1864 36 Carson City New Hampshire 24,219 / 9351 1,235,786 1788 * 9 Concord New Jersey 22,590 / 8722 8,414,350 1787 * 3 Trenton New Mexico 314,939 / 121,598 1,819,046 1912 47 Santa Fe New York 141,089 / 54,475 18,976,457 1788 * 11 Albany North Carolina 139,397 / 53,821 8,049,313 1789 * 12 Raleigh North Dakota 183,123 / 70,704 642,200 1889 39 Bismarck Ohio 116,103 / 44, 828 11,353,140 1803 17 Columbus Oklahoma 181,049 / 69,903 3,450,654 1907 46 Oklahoma City Oregon 254,819 / 98,386 3,421,399 1859 33 Salem Pennsylvania 119,291 / 46,058 12,281,054 1787 * 2 Harrisburg Rhode Island 4002 / 1545 1,048,319 1790 * 13 Providence South Carolina 82,898 / 32,007 4,012,012 1788 * 8 Columbia South Dakota 199,745 / 77,122 754,844 1889 40 Pierre Tennessee 109,158 / 42,146 5,689,283 1796 16 Nashville Texas 695,676 / 268,601 20,851,820 1845 28 Austin Utah 219,902 / 84,904 2,233,169 1896 45 Salt Lake City Vermont 24,903 / 9615 608,827 1791 14 Montpelier Virginia 110,771 / 42,769 7,078,515 1788 * 10 Richmond Washington 184,674 / 71,303 5,894,121 1889 42 Olympia West Virginia 62,759 / 24,231 1,808,344 1863 35 Charleston Wisconsin 169,653 / 65,503 5,363,675 1848 30 Madison Wyoming 253,349 / 97,818 493,782 1890 44 Cheyenne District of Columbia 177 / 68 572,059 * - Year of ratification of the U.S. Constitution; one of the original 13 states. The total area of the U.S. (including the District of Columbia) is 9,809,431 sq km (3,787,428 sq mi), of which 1,700,139 sq km (656,424 sq mi) are in Alaska and 28,313 sq km (10,932 sq mi) are in Hawaii. Inland bodies of water occupy 650,306 sq km (251,084 sq mi) of the total area. Measured along the parallel of latitude that passes through West Quoddy Head, Maine, the easternmost point in the U.S., the maximum width of the conterminous 48 states is approximately 4517 km (about 2807 mi). The maximum length measured from the vicinity of Brownsville, Tex., due N to the Canadian frontier is about 2572 km (about 1598 mi). The boundaries of the U.S. extend along the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, along the Gulf of Mexico, and along land areas. The N boundary is some 6420 km (some 3990 mi) long; the S boundary, some 3115 km (some 1935 mi); and the boundary between Alaska and Canada, some 2480 km (some 1540 mi). For the U.S., the Atlantic coastline is 3330 km (2069 mi) long; the Pacific coastline, excluding Hawaii, 12,268 km (7623 mi); the Gulf of Mexico coastline, 2625 km (1631 mi); and the Arctic coastline of Alaska, 1706 km (1060 mi). Mt. McKinley, or Denali (6194 m/20,320 ft), in Alaska, is the highest point in North America; Death Valley, a depression 86 m (282 ft) below sea level, in California, is the lowest point. The approximate mean elevation of the U.S. is 762 m (2500 ft) above sea level. LAND AND RESOURCES The U.S. has an enormous variety of physical features and a wide diversity of animal and plant life. Besides the discussion below, much information is given in the separate articles on the states, as well as those on important mountains, rivers, lakes, and other physical features. Geologic History of Physiographic Regions. The present-day pattern of the landforms of the U.S. is the result of a long sequence of collisions and separations of large blocks of the earth's surface crust (see PLATE TECTONICS,). The oldest part of the continent is the Canadian, or Laurentian, Shield, a mass of granite and related rock that underlies E Canada and the northeastern U.S. The shield was formed during several long periods of crustal convergence in Precambrian times (a period that stretches from the formation of the earth to about 570 million years ago). During these slow but relentless collisions of crustal plates, the rigid surface rocks buckled and cracked. Large pieces of crust were forced downward into the hot interior of the earth, where they warmed and eventually melted. This lighter molten material then moved upward through the crustal cracks, occasionally erupting as a volcano, but more often pushing surface rock upward in a broad bulge, or dome. In time, the molten material cooled and crystallized. The characteristic rock of the shield is granite, a slowly cooled and therefore coarse-grained rock. The margins of the ancient continent are more complex in structure, with zones of granite, darker ocean-bottom rocks, fine-grained volcanic rocks, hardened ocean sediments, and rocks of all types that were altered by heat and pressure during later crustal activity. The iron deposits of Minnesota, Upper Michigan, Wisconsin, and N New York all occur in contorted rocks near the edges of the ancient shield. A long period of inactivity in the crust followed the formation of the shield. Erosion reduced the mountainous continent to a low plain, and the adjoining seas were filled with thick beds of sediment. Near the end of this period, great forests covered the land, and the addition of organic material to the sediment formed the vast coal and petroleum layers that stretch in a broad curve from N Pennsylvania through West Virginia to Alabama, then W to Texas and NW through the Great Plains states and Canadian prairies to Arctic Alaska. Geological activity and calm. The period of crustal calm ended when the North American and European landmasses collided early in the fossil-forming period; S Massachusetts and Rhode Island are actually parts of the European landmass that became attached to the American plate at this time. Later, after the coal-forming age, the African and American landmasses converged. The modern Appalachians are the worn-down remnants of lofty mountains that were built during this majestic collision. This was an age of earthquakes and volcanoes, the same kind of intermittent but relentless geologic activity that characterizes California, Washington, and Alaska today. Crustal uplift and subsequent erosion exposed ancient granite rocks all the way from New England to Alabama, as evidenced in the low Piedmont hills of Georgia and the Carolinas and the somewhat higher Blue Ridge Mts. of North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. To the W, the layers of younger sedimentary rocks still remain at the surface, crumpled and eroded, notably in the long, even ridges and valleys of central Pennsylvania, E Tennessee, and the Ouachita region of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Still farther W and N, less intense folding created broad domes and basins. Present-day Michigan and Iowa occupy geologic basins. Structural domes are centered near the Wisconsin Dells, the Bluegrass area of Kentucky, and the Nashville area of Tennessee. After the Appalachian collision, the continent reversed direction and drifted W. The Atlantic Ocean began to widen, and the eastern U.S. again became a region of geologic calm. The lofty Appalachians began to erode, and the resulting sediment accumulated on the midcontinental Great Plains and on the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal plains. Meanwhile, new ranges of mountains were rising as the western U.S. collided with the Pacific Plate. Lava erupted onto the surface in many places at different times: in N New Mexico, central Arizona, E California, and S Idaho, and especially in the region of the Cascade Range of Oregon and Washington. The sandy sediments of the Great Plains were thrust sharply upward along the Front Range of the Rocky Mts. in Colorado and Montana and around smaller mountain ranges such as the Black Hills of South Dakota. Rock movement along massive faults formed California's Sierra Nevada, Utah's Wasatch Range, Nevada's aligned mountain ranges, and the Teton Range in Wyoming. The land of Arizona and S Utah was lifted, and rivers cut canyons in the level sedimentary rocks. Effects of climate. The motion of crustal plates thus accounts for the broad panorama of the landforms of the U.S. Interpreting the finer details of the present-day landscape requires consideration of the effects of past and present climates. The major past climatic event is the Pleistocene epoch, more commonly known as the Ice Age. At least four times in the past 1 million years, great ice sheets formed in E Canada and the mountains of the W and spread outward. The moving ice, like a powerful bulldozer, scraped soil and rock from Canada and the northern U.S. and deposited material farther S. The aligned lakes and exposed rocks of New England and N Minnesota are results of glacial scouring. Long Island and Cape Cod are huge glacial deposits, characterized by hills composed of rock and soil, with associated swamps and sand outwash plains; similar features are abundant throughout the former glaciated areas, from New England to the Dakotas and in the W mountain valleys. Rivers such as the Hudson, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, and Columbia carried huge floods of glacial meltwater and carved valleys much larger than the present-day streams require. Glacial meltwater also formed many large lakes. Today level plains mark the beds and low beach ridges mark the shores of Ice Age lakes on both the E and W edges of Vermont, around the Maumee R. of NW Ohio, in the sand counties of central Wisconsin, around the Red R. of Minnesota and the Dakotas, around the Great Salt Lake of Utah, and in the Missoula Basin of Montana, the Central Valley of California, and hundreds of smaller areas in many states. Ice Age dust storms left thick deposits of silty loess on the undulating plains around the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, on the steeper bluffs of W Wisconsin and W Tennessee, and in the Palouse Hills region of E Washington. Times of higher sea level built beaches far up on the Gulf Coastal Plain and on slopes overlooking the Pacific Ocean; on the other hand, Chesapeake Bay and many similar drowned river valleys along the Atlantic coast from Georgia to Connecticut are results of periods of lower sea level. Climate. The climate of a place is the seasonal pattern of its inputs of solar energy, wind, and precipitation. With the exception of parts of Hawaii, no place in the U.S. ever sees the sun directly overhead. In general, sun intensity and, consequently, temperatures decrease from S to N; in summer, however, the decrease in intensity is partly offset by longer days in the N. Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota actually have higher record temperatures than New Mexico, Texas, and Alabama. In winter, on the other hand, the short days in the N exaggerate the effect of low sun angles, creating wide temperature differences from S to N. Forests use much solar energy to evaporate water, and therefore the humid states of the eastern U.S. do not get as warm as the dry W deserts. Oceans and lakes moderate temperatures; this is especially true of the W coast, where the ocean is cool and the wind is usually onshore. Finally, mountains are somewhat cooler by day and much colder at night than surrounding lowlands. CLIMATE OF SELECTED U.S. REGIONS Region Latitude (degrees N) Length of Daylight (hours) Average Daily Solar Energy (langleys) January Normal Daily Temperature * July Normal Daily Temperature Length of Freeze-Free Season (days) Jan July Jan July High °C/°F Low °C/°F High °C/°F Low °C/°F Alaska center 65 3 22 20 440 17.8/0 –34.4/–30 21.1/70 10/50 75 Alaska coast 59 6 18 40 400 1.1/30 –6.7/20 15.6/60 10/50 150 Washington coast 47 8 16 80 300 7.2/45 1.7/35 18.3/65 12.8/55 275 North Dakota grassland 47 8 16 170 370 –6.7/20 –20.6/–5 29.4/85 12.8/55 125 Upper Michigan forest 47 8 16 140 320 –3.9/25 –12.2/10 23.9/75 12.8/55 100 Maine coast 45 9 15 140 310 1.7/35 –9.4/15 23.9/75 12.8/55 150 Virginia coast 37 10 14 200 360 10/50 1.7/35 29.4/85 21.1/70 250 Missouri forest 37 10 14 190 380 7.2/45 –3.9/25 32.2/90 21.1/70 175 Colorado mountain 37 10 14 240 440 –1.1/30 –17.8/0 23.9/75 4.4/40 25 Nevada desert 37 10 14 250 490 10/50 –6.7/20 32.2/90 10/50 175 California coast 37 10 14 150 400 12.8/55 7.2/45 21.1/70 18.3/65 300 Arizona desert 32 10 14 300 510 18.3/65 1.7/35 40.6/105 23.9/75 300 Louisiana forest 32 10 14 220 420 15.6/60 4.4/40 32.2/90 23.9/75 225 Florida Everglades 25 11 13 310 450 23.9/75 18.3/65 32.2/90 23.9/75 350 Hawaii 21 11 13 370 520 26.7/80 18.3/65 29.4/85 21.1/70 365 * - U.S. highest recorded temperature: 56.7° C (134° F), at Death Valley, Calif., in 1913. U.S. lowest recorded temperature: -62.2° C (-80° F), at Prospect Creek, Alaska, in 1971. The pattern of precipitation is largely a consequence of the interaction of wind and topography. The wind system behaves with one simple goal: to equalize temperatures on earth by taking heat from the equator and carrying it to the poles. The process is grand in scope but complex in detail. Two features of global atmospheric circulation are particularly significant for the U.S. One is a current of sinking air, a gentle, but persistent, downward movement of air from the upper atmosphere. This subsidence is part of the global convection cycle and starts with updrafts of warm and humid air near the equator; the air loses moisture as it rises to the upper atmosphere and begins to move poleward. At about lat 30° N the air begins to sink, bringing hot and dry conditions to the southwestern U.S., especially in summer. The other significant component of atmospheric circulation is the jet stream, a shifting zone of fast winds blowing generally from W to E high above the ground. The path of the jet stream on any given day is a key to surface weather. In summer, the jet stream is usually near the Canadian border, although under certain circumstances it may loop as far N as Alaska or as far S as Louisiana. The jet stream brings wet Pacific air onshore in Washington and Alaska, but in other W states dry air masses from Mexico and Canada dominate. In the E, by contrast, the jet stream can pull moist air masses northward from the Gulf of Mexico all the way to Canada. In winter, the entire wind system follows the sun southward. Pacific air masses now bring clouds and rain to the coastal mountains from California to S Alaska. The jet stream usually crosses the country at the latitude of Oklahoma, and cold, dry Canadian air covers the N half of the country; however, day-to-day shifts of the jet stream may pull warm, moist Gulf air as far N as Illinois or bring Canadian air to Florida. Regional weather hazards are intimately associated with the seasonal position of the jet stream and associated fronts. Torrential rains are most common in the U.S. near the Gulf of Mexico, which is the major source of moisture for the country. Tornadoes occur in the center of the U.S., where Canadian and Gulf air masses often collide violently. Southern California has smog episodes and forest fires in late summer, when the jet stream and its associated rain is far to the N and the hot, dry sinking air from the tropical circulation dominates the weather. Hurricanes arise out of the late-summer warmth of the Atlantic Ocean and drift toward the SE states in the autumn. Heavy winter snows in the eastern U.S. are caused by the rapid cooling of the Gulf air, amplified in the Great Lakes region by local lake breezes. December and March are the major snow months in Minnesota and the Dakotas; in January there is a time of intense cold and little snowfall, because Gulf air cannot penetrate this far N in midwinter. Finally, the occasional kona (W coast) storms of Hawaii are wintertime incursions of North Pacific air that occur when the jet stream curves far to the S. Normal weather in this area consists of trade winds that cause rain only on the NE slopes of each island. Rivers and Lakes. Rivers respond to the quantity and seasonal pattern of precipitation in a region. The streams of the eastern U.S., principal among which are the Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna, Potomac, and Savannah, receive rainfall in every month and therefore are reliable avenues for waterborne commerce. Rivers of the interior, such as the Ohio, Tennessee, Illinois, and Mississippi, often flood in spring and decrease in size during the hot weeks of late summer and the snow months of winter. Some flow regulation and flood control have been achieved on these rivers through a costly and controversial system of dams and levees. Argument over river control projects is even more heated in the western U.S., where mountain snowmelt is the principal source of water for the eastward-flowing Missouri, Platte, Arkansas, and Rio Grande rivers and the westward-flowing Colorado, Sacramento, Snake, and Columbia rivers. Most of these rivers shrink in volume as they flow away from their mountain sources; some, like the Colorado, are dammed and diverted for so many urban or agricultural uses that they no longer carry water to the sea. Along the Pacific seaboard are a few coastal streams that have their seasonal peaks during the winter rainy season. In Alaska the drainage system is dominated by the Yukon, a river as long as the Rio Grande but considerably greater in volume. The surface water sources of the nation also include the five Great Lakes, which occupy an interconnected set of glacially scoured basins and together serve as a major transportation artery. Glaciers also left tens of thousands of smaller lakes throughout the northeastern U.S., the upper Midwest, and much of Alaska. Among the larger of these are Champlain, Winnipesaukee, and Cayuga in the NE and Winnebago, Red, and Mille Lacs in the Midwest. The Great Salt Lake of Utah and many smaller salt basins of the Mountain states are remnants of much larger Ice Age lakes. Many groundwater aquifers, especially those of the Great Plains, are also relics of wetter climates of the past. Soils. Soils, like landforms, are formed by the action of climate on surface material. The central Interior Plains are just far enough S to have adequate heat for rock decomposition and plant production during the growing season. The moisture balance here is also generally favorable: enough rainfall for crops but not so much that vital nutrients will be leached from the soil. Farther S, excess heat accelerates the chemical weathering and stimulates the growth of microorganisms, which consume organic residues and leave a less fertile red or yellow mineral soil. In the humid E and NE, surplus water seeps down through the soil and removes valuable nutrient salts. At the other extreme, soils in the dry climates of the W and SW can accumulate salts, often to levels that are toxic to plants. During the Ice Age, glaciers scoured material from the already thin and poor soils of the N and moved a substantial amount of earth southward. Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Ohio were the principal beneficiaries; many parts of these states had more than 30 m (100 ft) of new earth laid down as gently undulating till plain. Parts of New England, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota also gained material, but often of a more coarse and rocky nature. Meltwater floods filled many valleys in the Midwest and West with rich sediment, and upland soils were often enriched by fine windblown dust. The U.S. can thus be divided into five major soil regions that are a result of these continuing formative forces: the deep, black mollisols of the midcontinent (the country's most fertile), in an area stretching from Illinois W to Nebraska and the Dakotas; the leached red ultisols of the SE and W coast mountains, which are considerably less fertile; the coarse and acid spodosols in the northeastern U.S. and in the high W mountains; the moderately fertile gray or brown alfisols found around the Great Lakes, on the S Great Plains, and in the Central Valley of California; and the dry, salty aridsols of the desert Southwest. Superimposed on these broad patterns are local geologic exceptions, such as the black clay vertisols of Texas and the organic histosols, which are peat and muck soils found in swampy places such as the Florida Everglades or the Minnesota bogs. Younger soils, such as entisols and inceptisols, occur on shifting sand dunes, recent volcanoes, river floodplains, and steep slopes, where disturbances such as floods or landslides prevent the development of mature soil profiles. These immature soils range from barren rock outcrops in Arizona and grassy sandhills in Nebraska to fertile volcanic ash soils in Hawaii and the extraordinarily productive floodplain of the Mississippi R. Vegetation. Because plants respond directly to local climate and to a lesser degree to local topography, the indigenous vegetation of the U.S. is marked by great diversity. In regions other than those dominated by forests are a wide variety of plants that are adapted to colder or drier conditions. At the time when European settlement began, about one-half of the U.S. was covered by forests. Today, because of extensive human modification, about 32% of the country's land area is forest covered. Similarly, grasslands and other natural vegetative cover decreased in extent as the continent was settled. In the northernmost part of the U.S., in N Alaska, is found a bleak and windswept tundra, a region of lichens, mosses, and hardy low shrubs and flowering plants. Inland and to the S, the growing season lengthens and certain trees can survive. A few species of needle-leaf trees, notably spruces and firs, dominate a vast but slow-growing evergreen forest, interspersed with lichen-covered rocky areas, grassy swamps, and aspen-choked fire scars. This forest, known as the taiga, stretches SE from interior Alaska and has small outliers in N New England and the Great Lakes region. South of the taiga the growing season is still longer and more tree species can survive. Here is found a mixed forest containing both needle-leaf and broadleaf trees, and including pines, maples, elms, birches, and oaks, as well as hickory, beech, and sycamore. The mixed forest covered the region around the Great Lakes and most of the New England and Middle Atlantic states when European settlers arrived. Still farther S, the frost-free season exceeds six months, rainfall becomes more reliable, and the forest reaches its maximum diversity. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park in W North Carolina and E Tennessee contains more tree species than the entire continent of Europe. The Gulf of Mexico coast is even warmer than this mountainous area, but its plains and low hills do not support as complex a forest. Moreover, the sandy soils and hot summers encourage fires, which suppress oaks and other hardwoods and favor the fast-growing pines that now represent the major forest resource of the nation. Other species found here include southern magnolia, pecan, red gum, and black gum (tupelo). A number of subtropical and tropical trees flourish in S Florida. Along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, salt marshes and groves of cypress and mangrove help to armor the shore against the eroding forces of wind and wave. The diversity of the forest also decreases W of the Appalachian Mts. Mountaintop spruces, firs, and mountain ashes disappear while rainfall decreases and fires become more frequent. The lush bottomland hardwood forests of the Mississippi Valley dwindle in size and complexity. Oak-hickory forests give way to isolated stands of oak and then to tall grass prairies, which, before cultivation, occupied the present Corn Belt from Indiana to the E Great Plains. Farther W, the climate becomes still drier, and the tall bluestem grasses yield to shorter grama and wheatgrass ranges. The grasses of the N Great Plains grow only during the short summer and flower in late summer or early autumn. By contrast, the grasses of the S Great Plains grow rapidly in spring, flower early, and then go dormant during the hot, dry summers. Both kinds of grass become less productive as rainfall continues to diminish toward the W. Shrubby sagebrush (in the N) and mesquite and juniper (in Texas) are typical invaders on poorer grasslands that have been overgrazed or protected from fires. The transition to true desert vegetation is interrupted by the Rocky Mts. and other ranges, the elevation of which increases rainfall and decreases temperature and evaporation. Trees are prominent on the lower and middle slopes. Hardy pines and junipers dominate at lower elevations, giving way to aspens, firs, and spruces at higher elevations. Still higher, the spruces and firs become stunted and widely spaced. Above this zone is treeless tundra, similar to Arctic vegetation, although the two kinds of tundra have different patterns of solar radiation, day length, and diurnal (day-to-night) temperature changes. Shrubby low-lying deserts alternate with forested (and occasionally tundra- or ice-capped) mountains across all of the Mountain states and into the Pacific states. Only where massive investments are made in irrigation is the region productive. Death Valley, which lies below sea level, is but one of the many nearly barren lowlands. Vegetation in these regions includes such species as sagebrush, juniper, piñon, rabbitbrush, mesquite, creosote bush, and yucca; the cactus “forests” that form a popular image of deserts are actually found on the slopes of mountain ranges in the Mojave Desert of S Arizona and California. On the higher but still relatively dry Colorado Plateau are found ponderosa and piñon pines. The hot, dry summers and mild, moist winters of coastal S California produce a distinctive shrub vegetation known as chaparral. The plants here have adapted to rainy winters, dry summers, autumn fires, and thin soils. Farther N on the W slopes of the coastal hills and Sierra Nevada, the winter rainy season is longer; forests of giant sequoia and redwood occupy this favored location, where there is enough rain to permit rapid growth but a long enough dry season to discourage competition from numerous species. Still farther N, in W Oregon and Washington, a true rain forest appears as the dry periods shrink to less than a few weeks in midsummer. This luxuriant forest consists primarily of a great variety of needle-leaf trees: Douglas firs, true firs, hemlocks, cedars, spruces, and pines, each occupying its own preferred elevation zone here, and together constituting the second richest forest resource for the nation. The coastal forests of Alaska have fewer species than the rich rain forest to the S but a faster growth than the taiga to the N. The natural vegetation of Hawaii is conditioned by its isolation, which has served to limit the number of species, and by the interplay of its mountains and the moist trade winds. Forests dominated by guava trees on the windward (NE) coasts of the islands grade upward to a rich but swampy ohia rain forest at moderate elevations, where the annual rainfall may exceed 10,000 mm (394 in). The high mountains support shrub forest, and patches of tundra are found on the summits of the highest peaks, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. The dry leeward (SW) coasts are virtual deserts, with spiny koa and kiawe shrubs growing on the slightly wetter slopes. Animals. Animals depend, either directly or indirectly, on plants for their survival. Each major vegetation region thus has its own characteristic kinds of animal life. In the Arctic areas and regions of mountain tundra are found burrowing marmots, ground squirrels, mosquitoes, cold-water fish such as grayling and trout, and an occasional bear. Alaskan coastal waters are the habitat of a number of large mammals, including the walrus and fur seal. Caribou and elk spend summers on the tundra but migrate into the conifer forest for winter. Many birds migrate even farther, going from the polar regions to the Tropics each winter. The hardwood forests of the eastern U.S. contain moose, black bear, deer, fox, raccoon, skunk, squirrel, and a diversity of small birds. Along the Gulf of Mexico coast live larger and more colorful birds such as the pelican, flamingo, and green kingfisher, as well as alligators and warmwater fish such as catfish. Also found here are several venomous snakes. The bison (buffalo) are popularly associated with the grasslands, although in fact they once ranged over most of E North America before being nearly exterminated by hunting; they now exist only in captivity or in protected areas. Gophers, rabbits, prairie dogs, ferrets, ants, and other burrowing creatures are best suited to the grasslands, which were once swept by fires. The mountainous W states, especially Alaska, are the last refuges in the U.S. of most big-game animals. Here may be found elk, pronghorn, moose, deer, bighorn sheep, mountain goat, timber wolf, and, in a few remote areas, grizzly bear. The Kodiak bear, the largest carnivore in North America, is found in Alaska. The deserts have few plants, fewer small animals, and almost no large animals. Kangaroo rats, lizards, and wide-ranging birds are typical animals in this harsh region. The animals of Hawaii include many endemic species (those not found elsewhere), but many of these have been driven to near extinction by human alteration of the habitat and by competition from introduced animals. Hawaii's only indigenous mammal is the bat. Resources and Environmental Protection. The U.S. is exceedingly well blessed with natural resources. The country's climate is favorable for a diversity of crops and forest products. The Corn Belt, a region stretching from W Ohio to central Nebraska, is the largest expanse of prime farmland in the world. Significant deposits of many important minerals, including more than a fifth of the world's coal, are present within the country's borders. Despite this wealth, the U.S. cannot produce all the resources needed by its large industrial economy. The country imports more than 90% of its aluminum, chromium, cobalt, manganese, and platinum ores; more than half of its requirement of asbestos, gold, nickel, potassium, tin, tungsten, and zinc; and more than a fourth of its iron ore, silver, and titanium. The U.S. now produces slightly more than half of its petroleum needs, but new domestic discoveries tend to be small and costly to recover, especially in the geologically complex mountain regions and the deep waters of the continental shelf. Agricultural exports have helped to pay for mineral imports, but the price is high. More than a third of the nation's topsoil has been lost to erosion. Gullies and other obvious scars common in the 1930s can now be repaired by modern heavy machinery, but soil losses by less noticeable sheet erosion are still high on more than half the nation's farmland. Many observers have also expressed concern about the rapid conversion of prime cropland to urban and other nonfarm uses. Despite these trends, the environmental picture of the U.S. is not all bleak. Because of government regulations, water pollution diminished considerably during the 1970s; forests are growing more rapidly than they are being cut in most regions; and substantial areas have been set aside as wilderness preserves and national parks. The federal government and most of the states have adopted laws that require investigation and public disclosure of the environmental impact of proposed projects. These procedures have helped to increase public awareness of the environmental costs of certain activities. In the future the questions of acid rain, toxic waste disposal, water supply, and climate change are likely to be major national environmental issues. P.J.G., PHILIP JOEL GERSMEHL, Ph.D. For further information on this topic, see the Bibliography, section 1138. U.S. in general. POPULATION The population of the U.S. is highly mobile. In the 1980s and '90s, redistribution from the Midwest and Northeast states to the South and West continued to be a major trend, as the American population became increasingly diverse in ethnic composition, living arrangements, language, and religion. According to the 2000 census, the resident population of the U.S. was 281,421,906. The population grew by 32,712,033 people during the decade from 1990 to 2000. This increase was not evenly distributed: About 11 million, or 33.7% of the growth, occurred in the states of California, Texas, and Florida. The populations of Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, North Carolina, and Washington also expanded by more than 1 million during the same period. Reversing a long-term trend, many of the nation's largest cities gained population during the 1990s. Of the ten most populous cities in the U.S., only Philadelphia and Detroit showed net losses during the decade. The other eight—New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, San Diego, Dallas, and San Antonio—all grew by at least 4%, with Phoenix and San Antonio surging by 34.3% and 22.3%, respectively. As of 2000, 80.3% of Americans lived in metropolitan areas. Ethnic Composition. The U.S. is a diverse society, both racially and ethnically. At the 2000 census, of those who identified themselves as belonging to a single race, 75.1% were whites; 12.3% were blacks; 3.7% were Asians, Native Hawaiians, or other Pacific Islanders; and 0.9% were American Indians or Alaska Natives. The remaining 8 percent were either of other races or identified themselves as multiracial. Among the more than 10.2 million Asians in the U.S., Chinese, Filipinos, and Asian Indians were the leading groups, together accounting for nearly three-fifths of the total. Hispanics (who may be of any race) comprised 12.5% of the total population. Among the nation's 35.3 million Latinos, 58.5% were Mexicans, 9.6% were Puerto Ricans, and 3.5% were Cubans. According to the 2000 census, the largest white ethnic group, comprising about 46.5 million Americans, was partly or solely of German ancestry. Other reported ancestry groups included those who were either wholly or partly the following: Irish, 33 million; English, 28.3 million; Italian, 15.9 million; French or French Canadian, 12 million; Scottish or Scotch-Irish, 10.6 million; and Polish, 9.1 million. About 45 million Americans aged 5 or over in 2000 grew up in households in which a language other than English was spoken; in about three-fifths of these cases, the other language was Spanish. During much of its history, the U.S. had an official policy of admitting more European immigrants than Asian, African, and Latin American immigrants. Changes were made in immigration policy during the 1970s that resulted in large numbers of non-European immigrants entering the country. As of 2000, according to census estimates, the U.S. foreign-born population numbered 30.5 million; of these, at least half were born in Latin America, and more than one-fourth were born in Asia. An unknown number of undocumented immigrants reside in the U.S., many of whom were not included in the 2000 census figures. In 1997 the Immigration and Naturalization Service estimated that some 5 million immigrants, more than half of them Mexicans, were living illegally in the U.S. Population Characteristics: Structure. The diverse characteristics of the U.S. population can best be understood by examining its structure and spatial distribution. As of the 2000 census, persons under 14 years of age represented 21.4% of the total population; ages 15–24, 13.9%; 25–44, 30.2%; 45–64, 22%; 65–84, 10.9%; and 85 or more, 1.5% (percentages do not add to 100 because of rounding). The median age of the U.S. population reported in 1990 was 32.9 years, showing an increase over the 30 years reported in 1980; by the 2000 census, the median age had risen to 35.3 years. Demographic estimates for 2000 indicated that the country's white population was oldest, with a median age of 37 years. Asians and Pacific Islanders constituted the second oldest group, with a median age of 32.1 years; followed by blacks, with a median age of 30.4 years. Persons of Hispanic origin had an estimated median age of 26.6 years in 2000. Based on fertility data for 2002, women in the U.S. give birth to an average of 2 children during their childbearing years between the ages of 15 and 44. Although this is somewhat below the rate of 2.1 children per woman necessary to maintain the same population level indefinitely, growth of the U.S. population well into the 21st century was nevertheless assured, due to immigration and increased numbers of women of childbearing age. The estimated annual rate of increase for the U.S. population was about 0.9% in 2002; during the so-called baby boom from 1947 to 1961, the annual rate of natural increase ranged from 1.5 to 2%. The structure of the American family continues to evolve, with the prevalence of marriage showing a decline. Between 1970 and 2000, for example, the median age at first marriage rose from 23.2 to 26.8 years among men and from 20.8 to 25.1 years among women. The proportion of women between the ages of 20 and 24 who had never married more than doubled, from 35.8% in 1970 to 72.8% in 2000; for men, the share jumped from 54.7% to 83.7%. An equally striking increase was evident among Americans aged 30–34; in this group, the proportion of those who had never married rose from 6.2% to 21.9% among women and 9.4% to 30.1% among men. As more adults are postponing marriage, or not marrying at all, so are more adults ending their marriages through divorce. As the annual marriage rate per 1000 population decreased from 10.8 to 8.5 between 1970 and 2000, the divorce rate rose from 3.5 to 4.1; after reaching a peak of 5.3 in 1981, however, the annual divorce rate actually declined somewhat during the remainder of the 1980s and the ‘90s. The number of unmarried couples among the total U.S. population approximately tripled between 1970 and 1980, to an estimated 1.56 million households shared by two unrelated adults (with or without children) of opposite sex; by 2000 the number had reached 3.8 million. Of the nation's approximately 105 million households in 2000, married couples (with or without children) accounted for 54%; single-person households represented 25.5%, up from 17.1% in 1970. The proportion of households that included married couples living with their own children declined from 40.3% in 1970 to 24.1% in 2000. One feature of the changing U.S. family structure has been an extraordinary increase in the number of births to unmarried women. Births among all unmarried women represented 11% of all births in 1970; by 1998 the overall share had grown to 31%. Among white non-Hispanic women the proportion of out-of-wedlock children in 1998 was 22%; among Hispanic women of any race, 38%; and among black women, 67%. Among females between 15 and 19 years of age, 86% of all births were out of wedlock; among women 20–24 years old, the proportion declined to 47%. Of the 70.3 million children under 18 years of age in 1995, 69% lived with two parents (compared with 85% in 1970); another 27% lived with only one parent, and 4% lived with neither parent. Of all children in one-parent homes, more than 80% lived with their mother. Because women maintaining families tended to have considerably lower incomes than their male counterparts, their families made up a disproportionate share of the poor population. Population Characteristics: Spatial Distribution. Trends in the spatial distribution of the U.S. population remained uneven during the 1990s, as above average growth occurred in the South and West at the expense of the Midwest and Northeast states. Every state in the West grew faster than the U.S. average except Hawaii, Montana, and Wyoming. The South also showed above-average growth, particularly in Texas and the South Atlantic states; an exception to this pattern was the District of Columbia, which lost population. Between 1990 and 2000 the population of the West increased by 19.7% and the population of the South by 17.3%. In 2000 the population was distributed as follows: 53.6 million persons in the Northeast, 64.4 million in the Midwest, 100.2 million in the South, and 63.2 million in the West. The average population density for the U.S. as a whole was about 28.7 persons per sq km (74.3 per sq mi). This represents a substantial increase over the average densities of 1.7 persons per sq km (4.5 per sq mi) in 1790; 3 per sq km (7.9 per sq mi) in 1850; 9.9 per sq km (25.6 per sq mi) in 1900; and 19.5 per sq km (50.6 per sq mi) in 1950. Among the total population of the U.S., the nonwhite and Hispanic-origin populations have remained highly concentrated. In 2000, for example, blacks constituted more than-one-fifth of the population in seven states, all in the South: Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, Maryland, and North Carolina. In the District of Columbia, 60% of the population was black. Nearly half of the American Indian and Alaska Native population lived in the West, and about 36% of all Asians in the U.S. lived in California. More than 65% of the 35.3 million people of Hispanic origin resided in California, Texas, New York, and Florida. At the 2000 census, residents of metropolitan areas accounted for more than 80 percent of all Americans. The largest U.S. metropolitan areas included New York City and its suburbs, with more than 21 million inhabitants; the Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County, Calif., metropolitan area, with a population of more than 16 million; and the metropolitan region comprising Chicago, Gary, Ind., and Kenosha, Wis., with more than 9 million residents. The fastest-growing metropolitan regions centered around Las Vegas, Nev., which increased in population by more than 80% between 1990 and 2000, and Naples, Fla., which grew by 65%. Overall, the number of people living in metropolitan areas expanded by 14% during the decade, while the nonmetropolitan population increased by 10%. PRINCIPAL U.S. CITIES City Population (2000) Population (1990) New York 8,008,278 7,322,564 Los Angeles 3,694,820 3,485,398 Chicago 2,896,016 2,783,726 Houston 1,953,631 1,630,553 Philadelphia 1,517,550 1,585,577 Phoenix 1,321,045 983,403 San Diego 1,223,400 1,110,549 Dallas 1,188,580 1,006,877 San Antonio 1,144,646 935,933 Detroit 951,270 1,027,974 San Jose 894,943 782,248 Indianapolis 791,926 741,952 San Francisco 776,733 723,959 Jacksonville 735,617 635,230 Columbus, Ohio 711,470 632,910 Austin 656,562 465,622 Baltimore 651,154 736,014 Memphis 650,100 610,337 Milwaukee 596,974 628,088 Boston 589,141 574,283 Washington, D.C. 570,059 606,900 Nashville 569,891 510,784 El Paso 563,662 515,342 Seattle 563,374 516,259 Denver 554,636 467,610 Charlotte 540,828 395,934 Fort Worth 534,694 447,619 Portland, Oreg. 529,121 437,319 Oklahoma City 506,132 444,719 Tucson 486,699 405,390 New Orleans 484,674 496,938 Las Vegas 478,434 258,295 Cleveland 478,403 505,616 Long Beach, Calif. 461,522 429,433 Albuquerque 448,607 384,736 Kansas City, Mo. 441,545 435,146 Fresno, Calif. 427,652 354,202 Virginia Beach, Va. 425,257 393,069 Atlanta 416,474 394,017 Sacramento 407,018 369,365 For further information on this topic, see the Bibliography, section 1147. Ethnic groups in the U.S.. Language. English is the main language of the U.S. and is spoken by the great majority of U.S. residents. At the 2000 census, nearly 45 million U.S. residents five years old or above spoke a language other than English at home. Of this total, approximately 60% spoke Spanish, making Spanish the second most widely spoken language in the U.S. Other languages frequently spoken included Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Arabic, Italian, French, German, Polish, Greek, Portuguese, and American Indian languages. Religion. The religious affiliations of the inhabitants of the British colonies that formed the nucleus of the U.S. varied from region to region. Throughout the New England area the dominant faith was CONGREGATIONALISM, (q.v.), established by Separatist and Puritan groups who were dissidents from the CHURCH OF ENGLAND (q.v.); settlers of the South Atlantic region adhered officially to the Church of England; and the Middle Atlantic region was a haven for a variety of sects and creeds. The New England Separatists and Puritans came to the New World in order to worship in their own way, without interference from the Church of England. The first group to reach New England were the Separatists called the PILGRIM FATHERS, (q.v.), who in 1620 founded the Plymouth Colony. The colony, with its church, was absorbed eventually by the more powerful Massachusetts Bay Colony, which was founded in 1629 by Puritans. The churches of the Puritans were organized as separate congregations, each bound together by a covenant taken by its members; the name of the Puritans' organized church was derived from this emphasis on congregationalism. Religion was the focal point of social and political life in New England. Until 1691 the Massachusetts Bay Colony was a theocracy, in which church attendance was compulsory, and church membership a qualification for voting and holding office. Non-Congregationalist denominations, notably the BAPTISTS, (q.v.) and Quakers (see FRIENDS, SOCIETY OF,), were regarded with hostility and often persecuted by the colonial government. Noteworthy among those who rebelled against this alliance between church and state was Roger Williams, who in 1636 left the Massachusetts Bay Colony and founded the community of Providence, located in what is now the state of Rhode Island. Williams, whose colony became a haven for persons of many creeds, established the first Baptist church in America in 1639. In the South Atlantic coastal region, which comprised Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, the Church of England was the established church, and all settlers were required to pay taxes for its support. Clergy of non-Anglican denominations—for example, Baptist and Presbyterian—were frequently prohibited from preaching and from performing marriage ceremonies. The Middle Atlantic colonies provided a more congenial climate for freedom of religion than did the New England and South Atlantic colonies. The first European settlers of the Middle Atlantic region were the Dutch, who first founded trading posts along the Hudson R. about 1613. They founded the colony of New Netherland in 1625, bringing to it the beliefs and practices of the Reformed church (see REFORMED CHURCH IN AMERICA,). The first organized group of Jewish settlers in North America arrived in New Amsterdam, the capital of New Netherland, in 1654. After New Netherland was seized (1664) by the British, the Church of England became influential there, and by the beginning of the 18th century it was the established church of the four most populous counties of New York. Delaware and New Jersey, which had been parts of New Netherland, maintained a complete separation of church and state. The territory now comprising Maryland was granted in 1632 to the Calvert family, who were English Roman Catholics. Members of the family colonized the region in 1634 with the aim of providing a haven for their persecuted coreligionists; eventually, Anglicanism was made the established religion of Maryland. Pennsylvania, under the terms of a charter granted in 1681, was founded by the English Quaker William Penn as a haven for adherents of all religions. LUTHERANISM, (q.v.) was established during the colonial period in Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware. PRESBYTERIANISM, (q.v.) was introduced on a large scale into the Middle Atlantic colonies by Scottish and Scotch-Irish settlers during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Methodists settled in the Middle Atlantic region, notably in New York, during the latter half of the 18th century (see METHODISM,; UNITED METHODIST CHURCH,). A liberalizing influence on the religion of colonial America was the revivalist movement known as the Great Awakening, which developed in the middle of the 18th century. Inspired by the evangelical preaching of several ministers, most prominently the Congregationalist clergyman Jonathan Edwards in New England, the Presbyterian minister Gilbert Tennent in the Middle Atlantic region, and the visiting British evangelist George Whitefield, the movement spread eventually to all the colonies. The general effect of the Great Awakening was to increase the strength of the Methodist and Baptist de-nominations, and to pave the way for the separation of church and state when the U.S. was founded as an independent nation. See REVIVALS, RELIGIOUS,. The ratification in 1788 of the U.S. Constitution marked the beginning of a new era in American religion. The 1st Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” After the adoption of the Constitution those states with established religions gradually eliminated their church-state ties; the last state to do so was Massachusetts, which disestablished its church in 1833. During the first half of the 19th century the population of the U.S. was overwhelmingly Protestant; it included relatively few Catholics and Jews, and almost no adherents of such non-Christian religions as Islam and Buddhism. The first Roman Catholic bishop in the U.S. was John Carroll, bishop of Baltimore. The number of Roman Catholics was increased greatly beginning about 1820 by the arrival of large numbers of Irish immigrants; as a result of potato famines more than 1 million persons emigrated from Ireland to the U.S. between 1845 and 1855 (see ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH,). Following the unsuccessful popular uprisings of 1848 in Germany, large numbers of German Lutherans migrated to the U.S. In the latter half of the century most of the immigration was from countries in S and E Europe—notably Italy, Austria, Hungary, and Russia—from which came large numbers of Catholics and Jews. Among the religious developments of the 19th century was the founding of several indigenous American denominations, among which were the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known popularly as the Mormons (see MORMONISM,), the Church of Christ, Scientist (see CHRISTIAN SCIENCE,); the Seventh-day Adventist Church (see ADVENTISTS,); and JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES, (q.v.). Within the major denominations, slavery and other social questions were important issues in church affairs, resulting in sectional divisions and fragmentation of church bodies. During the first two decades of the 20th century, migration from Europe continued to be heavy and included a large percentage of Jews and Roman Catholics. Beginning in 1921, however, Congress passed a series of laws that sharply curtailed immigration from S central and E Europe (see IMMIGRATION,). Thereafter, the religious composition of the U.S. population ceased to be modified significantly by immigration and tended to become stabilized. The denominational divisions of the 19th century were reversed in many instances as the 20th century continued (see see ECUMENICAL MOVEMENT,). The U.S. today is primarily Christian, but other religions and a large variety of denominations and sects add religious diversity. Although members of the various Protestant churches are most numerous, the largest single American religious group consists of Roman Catholics, representing about 22% of the U.S. population and about 44% of all U.S. religious adherents, according to a 2000 survey conducted by the Glenmary Research Center in Nashville, Tenn. Among the other major religious denominations were the Southern Baptist Convention (7.1% of the U.S. population), United Methodist Church (3.7%), Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (1.8%), Mormons (1.5%), Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (1.1%), Assemblies of God (0.9%), Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (0.9%), and Episcopal Church (0.8%). Other religions with large followings included various branches of the Orthodox Church, Judaism (2.2%), Islam (0.6%), Buddhism, and Hinduism. Overall, according to the 2000 survey, religous adherents represented about half of the total U.S. population. Regionally, Roman Catholics are concentrated in the East and Midwest and more frequently in metropolitan areas. Most Baptists live in the South and in rural areas. Methodists are about equally represented in the East, Midwest, and South, and more than half live in rural areas. More than half of all Lutherans live in the rural Midwest. Almost two-thirds of Jews live in the East, and about half in the largest metropolitan areas. Presbyterians are more evenly distributed regionally, but live primarily in rural areas. The Jewish population centers around major metropolitan areas in the Northeast and Middle Atlantic States, Florida, and California. Mormons are concentrated in the West in the states of Utah and Idaho. Cooperative work among the churches in the U.S. is carried on by various interdenominational bodies, among them the NATIONAL COUNCIL OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, (q.v.). Some churches belong to the WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, (q.v.), which is an organization that works on the international and interdenominational levels. J.T.D., JOE T. DARDEN, M.A., Ph.D. For further information on religion in the U.S. see separate articles, for example, FUNDAMENTALISM,; MISSIONARY MOVEMENTS,. For further information on this topic, see the Bibliography, sections 110. North American religion, 111. Cults and new religions. EDUCATION AND CULTURE In the U.S., education, cultural activities, and the communications media exert a tremendous influence on the lives of individuals. Through these means, knowledge and cultural values are generated, transmitted, and preserved from one generation to the next. In most of the U.S. illiteracy has been virtually eliminated: The illiteracy rate fell from 11.3% in 1900 to 0.6% in 1980. By the late 1990s, virtually the entire adult population was literate; among about one-fourth of adults, however, reading and writing skills were no better than rudimentary. More of the population has received more education than ever before. Among Americans aged 25 and above in the late 1990s, more than 80% had completed high school, as compared with only about one-fourth as recently as 1940. More than 25% of the population held a bachelor's degree or higher in the late 1990s; over 40% of Asian-Americans were college graduates, but only about 15% of African-Americans and 11% of Hispanics. The general trend toward increased accessibility and usage applies not only to U.S. education but also to America's cultural institutions, which have continued to thrive even when the economy is troubled. Education. In the U.S., education is offered at all levels from prekindergarten to graduate school by both public and private institutions. Elementary and secondary education involves 12 years of schooling, the successful completion of which leads to a high school diploma. Although public education can be defined in various ways, one key concept is the accountability of school officials to the voters. In theory, responsibility for operating the public education system in the U.S. is local. In fact, much of the local control has been superseded, and state legislation controls financing methods, academic standards, and policy and curriculum guidelines. Because public education is separately developed within each state, variations exist from one state to another. Parallel paths among states have developed, however, in part because public education is also a matter of national interest. Public elementary and secondary education is supported financially by three levels of government—local, state, and federal. Local school districts often levy property taxes, which are the major source of financing for the public school systems. One of the problems that arises because of the heavy reliance on local property tax is a disparity in the quality of education received by students. Rich communities can afford to pay more per student than poorer communities; consequently, the disparity in wealth affects the quality of education received. When public education was established in the American colonies in the mid-17th century, it was viewed by many as an instrument that would break down the barriers of social class and prejudice. Public schools were intended for all creeds, classes, and religions. In addition to the development of individuals, public schools were to promote social harmony by equalizing the conditions of the population. Most students attended private schools, however, until well into the 19th century. Then, in the decades before the American Civil War, a transition took place from private to public school education. This transition was to provide children of all classes with a free education. The idea of free public education did, however, encounter opposition. The nonwhite population, which consisted primarily of blacks, was either totally denied an education or allowed to attend only racially segregated schools. School segregation. Before the Civil War, public school segregation was common both in the South and in the North. In every southern state except Kentucky and Maryland, laws existed that forbade the teaching of reading and writing to slaves. In 1867, after the end of the Civil War, schools for blacks began to be established in various parts of the South. For nearly a century, until 1954, most education facilities in the southern states remained racially segregated by state laws. Not only were schools segregated, but, in schools for blacks, the physical conditions and facilities were poor, transportation to such schools was meager or nonexistent, and expenditures per black pupil fell below those per white pupil. In the northern states during this same period, most black children also attended separate schools. Sometimes this was the result of state laws; more often it was the result of policy decisions, either officially acknowledged or clandestine. Examples of the latter are gerrymandered school districts and pupil transfer systems. The result, in the South and the North, was a dual system of education for blacks and whites. In 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court declared racial segregation in schools illegal, in its landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision. Since then progress has been made toward desegregation; however, widespread de facto segregation still exists today in both suburban and urban areas. Overall, minority enrollment from kindergarten through high school (grades K–12) increased from 22% in the early 1970s to 38% in the late 1990s. Hispanics, who accounted for 6% of all K–12 students in the early 1970s, represented 16% of the U.S. total by the late 1990s; in the western states, Hispanics represented nearly one-third of all K–12 students by the end of the decade. Elementary and secondary enrollments. In the late 1990s some 62,700 public elementary and 21,700 public secondary schools were in operation in the U.S. Enrollment in public schools in 2000 was estimated at about 33.5 million pupils in grades K–8 and 13.5 million in grades 9–12. In addition, private elementary and secondary schools together enrolled an estimated 5.9 million students in 2000; some 850,000 students were being home schooled in the late 1990s. The largest system of private education in the U.S. is that of the Roman Catholic church, with some 2.5 million students in the late 1990s. In public schools, the average estimated expenditure per pupil in the U.S. during the 2000–01 school year was $7079, ranging from a low of $4372 in Utah to a high of $10,787 in New Jersey. Higher education. The first American colleges were small and attended by an aristocratic student body. The earliest institutions were established in the U.S. between the mid-17th and mid-18th centuries: Harvard University, the College of William and Mary, Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Columbia University, Brown University, Rutgers University, and Dartmouth College. These private institutions initially prepared students for careers in theology, law, medicine, and teaching—a curriculum too narrow for a country experiencing a rapid expansion of its territory, industry, and industrial population. An important development occurred in 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act (see LAND-GRANT COLLEGES,), which donated public lands to the several states and territories to provide colleges to teach such branches of learning as agriculture and the mechanical arts. The Morrill Act was designed to promote the liberal and practical education of the new industrial population. Based on the act, each state was granted 30,000 acres (12,141 ha) of federal land for each member it had in Congress. In addition to creating colleges, the Morrill Act extended education to groups that would benefit from higher education regardless of financial background and greatly accelerated the admission of women to institutions of higher learning. Some of the larger institutions that were established as a result of the Morrill Act include the University of Arizona, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Florida, the University of Illinois, Purdue University, the University of Maryland, Michigan State University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Wisconsin. For information on any of the colleges and universities mentioned here, and many that are not, see articles on the individual institutions. Higher education, like elementary and secondary education, has historically been racially segregated in the U.S. Before 1954 most blacks gained access to higher education only by attending colleges and universities established for blacks, nearly all of which were located in the southern states. With the gradual dissolution of most traditional racial barriers, more and more blacks enrolled in institutions where whites made up the majority of the student body. By the mid-1990s only about 16% of all black students were enrolled in the 103 historically black colleges and universities. Accreditation. A unique feature of higher education in the U.S. is the device known as accreditation, which includes voluntary self-evaluation by a school and appraisal by a group of its peers. This process operates through nationally recognized accrediting agencies and associations and certain state bodies. These agencies or associations have established educational criteria to evaluate institutions in terms of their own objectives and to ascertain whether programs of educational quality are being maintained. They provide institutions with continued stimulus for improvement, to ensure that accredited status may serve as an authentic index of educational quality. Costs of higher education. The cost of higher education varies by type of institution. Tuition is highest at private 4-year institutions, and lowest at public 2-year institutions. The private 4-year colleges doubled their average charges for tuition, room, and board between the mid-1980s and the late 1990s. For private 4-year colleges, tuition, room, and board for the 1999–2000 academic year averaged about $20,800, compared with about $8265 at public 4-year colleges. An increasing number of students finance their college educations through loans, grants, and part-time employment. Between 1990 and 2000 the annual volume of student loans more than doubled, from $16.4 billion to $37.5 billion. As of 2000, bachelor's degree recipients left school with a median cumulative debt of $15,375 per graduate at public colleges and universities and $17,250 at private institutions. Most graduates were able to sustain that debt burden because of the significantly enhanced earning power that higher education brings. Enrollment trends. In 2000 an estimated 67.9 million persons were enrolled in elementary and secondary schools and institutions of higher education, about 7.6 million more than the number enrolled in 1990. Nursery school enrollment increased sharply between 1970 and 1998, from about 1.1 million to about 4.6 million children. This rise in nursery school enrollment may have occurred because of the increasingly recognized value of preprimary education as well as the growth in employment of women with young children. College and university enrollment also increased substantially, from some 8.6 million students in 1970 to nearly 15 million in 2000. The increase in enrollment in institutions of higher education was due in part to the rapid growth in attendance by women, who now comprise about 56% of college and university students. Of the total school enrollment in the late 1990s, whites constituted about 65% (down from 83% in 1980), blacks about 16%, and Hispanic Americans (who may be of any race) about 13% (up from 7% in 1980); there has also been a substantial increase in enrollment by Asian-Americans. For more information on American education, see EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES,. Cultural Life and Institutions. The diverse and vital cultural life of the U.S. is evidenced by the many concert halls and performing arts centers across the nation, the technical mastery and variety of contemporary dance companies, the creativity of American novelists, poets, playwrights, sculptors, painters, and filmmakers, and modern American architecture's search for many bold new directions. Numerous Americans have achieved international celebrity in motion pictures, rock music, and other popular arts. According to a 1997 survey, 35% of adult respondents reported visiting an art museum at least once during the previous 12-month period; other cultural activities included attendance at a musical play (25%), nonmusical play (16%), classical music performance (16%), jazz performance (12%), ballet (6%), or opera (5%). Support for the arts from the federal government has traditionally been low. The U.S. government annually spends less than $3 per capita on the arts, and grant funds available through the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities were cut in half between the early 1980s and the late ‘90s. To make up for the lack of federal funding, arts organizations have turned to state governments, private benefactors, foundations, and the marketplace. Charitable contributions to artistic and cultural organizations totaled $11.5 billion in 2000. Performing arts. The first settlers in North America brought their native music with them. The first American symphony orchestra, the Philharmonic Society of New York, was established in 1842; the first classes in a music conservatory were held at Oberlin College in 1865. In the 20th century major American composers such as Charles Ives, Virgil Thomson, Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, and John Cage won international fame. Negro spirituals, the blues, and jazz were African-American creations. Jazz gained worldwide attention through performers such as Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, and Miles Davis. Pop stars such as Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and Madonna have extended U.S. cultural influence worldwide. Domestic sales of recorded music and music videos were valued at nearly $15 billion in 1999. See AMERICAN MUSIC, POPULAR MUSIC,. Major symphony orchestras at the close of the 1990s included the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony. In addition to these large orchestral ensembles, a growing number of chamber groups such as the Juilliard String Quartet, Emerson String Quartet, Guarneri String Quartet, and Kronos Quartet were flourishing in universities and communities throughout the country. Major opera companies served dozens of cities. Leading organizations included the Metropolitan Opera of New York City, the New York City Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the San Francisco Opera, the Washington Opera, the Santa Fe Opera, and the Houston Grand Opera. See OPERA,. The New York City Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre, both founded in the 1930s, exert an important creative influence on contemporary American dance. Other major groups include the traveling companies of Merce Cunningham and Paul Taylor, the San Francisco Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, the Tulsa Ballet, the Boston Ballet, and the Pennsylvania Ballet in Philadelphia. Dance audiences have burgeoned in recent decades, and numerous smaller, experimental companies exist. Well-known choreographers in the U.S. have included Martha Graham, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Merce Cunningham, Alvin Ailey, Twyla Tharp, and Mark Morris. See DANCE,; POPULAR AND SOCIAL DANCE,. New York City is the center for commercial theater in the U.S. Shows playing on Broadway, the city's main theater district, rely heavily on revivals, long-running hit musicals, and stage spectaculars in addition to new plays; more experimental work thrives in smaller venues away from Broadway. Outside New York, theaters are concentrated most heavily in major metropolitan areas, but professional as well as amateur companies are also active in smaller cities across the country. Prominent nonprofit theater companies include the Joseph Papp Public Theater, the Manhattan Theatre Club, and the Roundabout Theater Company in New York City; the Steppenwolf, Goodman, and Victory Gardens theater companies in Chicago; A Contemporary Theatre in Seattle; the Alley Theatre in Houston; the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.; the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis; the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Conn.; and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, Neil Simon, John Guare (1938– ), Terrence McNally (1939– ), Sam Shepard, and David Mamet are among the best-known contemporary playwrights. Musical comedies, although not uniquely an American invention, have flourished in the U.S. under the influence of a number of creative teams, including Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. Stephen Sondheim has also won international recognition for his contributions to musical theater. See DRAMA AND DRAMATIC ARTS.; MUSICAL,. Literature. The first major American novelist was James Fenimore Cooper, with The Last of the Mohicans (1826), The Prairie (1827), and other works about the frontier. The romantic period of American literature, from about 1830 to 1865, introduced important novelists such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of the Seven Gables (1851), in which he probed New England's Puritan heritage; and Herman Melville, author of Moby-Dick; or The White Whale (1851), a complex and poetic novel of the sea. Realism in American literature, prominent from the close of the Civil War until about the beginning of the 20th century, was the product of a new mass audience and the experience of industrialization. Major figures of this time included writers as diverse as the humorist Mark Twain, with his classic tales of boyhood The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884); and Henry James, a stylistic innovator whose works, such as The Portrait of a Lady (1881) and The Ambassadors (1903), were landmarks in the development of the novel. Theodore Dreiser, whose Sister Carrie (1900) and An American Tragedy (1925) describe in an awkward but compelling style how spiritually empty industrial America had become, marked the new age of naturalism, which ran until about 1930. This was a rich period of American letters; important novelists during this period included Edith Wharton (Ethan Frome, 1911; The Age of Innocence, 1920); F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby, 1925); Sinclair Lewis (Main Street, 1920; Babbitt, 1922), the first American Nobel Prize winner in literature, 1930; Ernest Hemingway, also a Nobel Prize winner (1954), perhaps most highly praised today for his terse, carefully crafted short stories collected in In Our Time (1924), Men Without Women (1927), and Winner Take Nothing (1933); and William Faulkner, whose innovative techniques and thoughtful characterizations in such novels as The Sound and the Fury (1929), Light in August (1932), and Absalom, Absalom! (1936) won him the Nobel Prize in 1949. Hemingway and Faulkner remained leading writers into the 1950s; they were joined by John Steinbeck (The Grapes of Wrath, 1939), who won the Nobel Prize in 1962; Robert Penn Warren (All the King's Men, 1946); James Jones (From Here to Eternity, 1951); James Baldwin (Go Tell It on the Mountain, 1953); Norman Mailer (The Naked and the Dead, 1948; The Executioner's Song, 1979); and Vladimir Nabokov (Lolita, 1955; Pale Fire, 1962). Novelists of contemporary note include Eudora Welty (The Ponder Heart, 1954; The Optimist's Daughter, 1969), known also for her short stories; 1976 Nobel laureate Saul Bellow (The Adventures of Augie March, 1953; Humboldt's Gift, 1975); Philip Roth (Portnoy's Complaint, 1969; American Pastoral, 1997); Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (Slaughterhouse Five, 1969); John Updike (Rabbit, Run, 1960); Toni Morrison (Beloved, 1987), who won the Nobel Prize in 1993; and Alice Walker (The Color Purple, 1982). Distinctive American poetry first appeared in the 19th century, with the musical and highly rhythmic works of Edgar Allan Poe, the experimental democratic chant of Walt Whitman (Leaves of Grass, 1855), and the tightly wrought lyrical verse of Emily Dickinson. Modern American poetry began in the early 20th century with the lyrics and dramatic poems of the New England poet Robert Frost; the Cantos of Ezra Pound, the founder of imagism; the prairie realism of Carl Sandburg; and The Waste Land (1922) and other revolutionary works by the American-born English poet T. S. Eliot, who won the Nobel Prize in 1948. Modern American poetry continued to be enriched by such gifted poets as Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell, Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, Allen Ginsberg, Howard Nemerov, Richard Wilbur, and Adrienne Rich. For more information on American prose and poetry, see AMERICAN LITERATURE,. Motion pictures. Not only has Hollywood been one of the most influential and productive international motion picture capitals, but the films produced there and shown theatrically or distributed, sometimes illicitly, on videotape and DIGITAL VIDEO DISC (q.v.; DVD) or over the INTERNET, (q.v.), have familiarized much of the world with American cultural values. The article MOTION PICTURES, HISTORY OF, (q.v.) describes the many influential films, directors, and stars of American cinema. Contemporary motion pictures in the U.S. often tend to be escapist, aimed at capturing mass audiences and focusing on action formulas and imaginative and sophisticated production techniques rather than on solid content; at the same time, many contemporary films (especially those from independent filmmakers), function as a medium of social criticism or artistic expression intended to reach more sophisticated audiences. Recent film stars, such as Jack Nicholson, Jodie Foster, Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman, Robert DeNiro (1945– ), and Meryl Streep, have tended to portray characters more humanly flawed than their classic Hollywood predecessors, such as Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, Jimmy Stewart, and Marilyn Monroe. Another recent trend is the upsurge in the production of American documentary films, many of them funded by public broadcasting or by cable televison services such as Home Box Office (HBO). U.S. movie ticket sales exceeded $8 billion in 2001. Architecture. During the colonial period and the early years of the U.S., American architecture in the main followed the trends of British architecture. The first true American contribution to international architecture was the skyscraper, pioneered in Chicago in the late 19th century by architects such as Louis Sullivan. Subsequent developments incorporated European modernism to produce the box-shaped, glass-curtainwall skyscraper common in American cities from the 1950s into the '80s, and first exemplified by the Secretariat Building of the UNITED NATIONS (q.v.; UN) in New York City. In the 1980s new forms emerged that borrowed stylistic elements freely and eclectically from various periods in the history of architecture, incorporating them into buildings that also made use of the newest technology. Examples of this so-called postmodern architecture included Philip Johnson's AT&T Building in New York City, a skyscraper topped with a pediment; and the Portland Building (1979–82), in Portland, Oreg., which incorporated romantic and classical elements. Frank Gehry's designs for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (1991–97), in Bilbao, Spain, and the Experience Music Project (1995–2000) in Seattle, Wash., marked him as a leading architectural innovator as the 1990s ended. See AMERICAN ART AND ARCHITECTURE,; MODERN ART AND ARCHITECTURE, . Art. Portraits were the first paintings to be produced in significant numbers in America, including those of famous historical figures by John Singleton Copley in the 18th century. Landscape paintings, such as those of Asher B. Durand of the Hudson River school and the dramatic seascapes of Winslow Homer, were prominent during the 19th century. Thomas Eakins achieved a striking realism in his portraits toward the end of that century. European modernism, introduced all at once at an exhibition of avant-garde works in 1913 (see ARMORY SHOW,), influenced many American artists, such as John Marin and Georgia O'Keeffe, and became embodied in the collections and philosophy of the Museum of Modern Art, founded in 1929 in New York City. Following World War II, New York supplanted Paris as the leading center of the art world; innovative painting exhibited and often produced there has included works by the abstract expressionist painters Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Robert Motherwell and the sculptor David Smith; and by the pop art painters Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein and sculptor George Segal. Other important contemporary American painters include Ellsworth Kelly, Helen Frankenthaler, and Frank Stella. See PAINTING,; SCULPTURE. Museums. Many works by leading American artists can be viewed in major American art museums, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, which has come to represent the “establishment” in modern art; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., which also houses modern art; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Museums that house extensive collections of art objects, paintings, and sculpture from all parts of the world from prehistory to the present include the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the M. H. de Young Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The U.S. has more than 7000 museums, including many historical, science, and art museums. Among the more prominent U.S. museums of science are the American Museum of Natural History in New York City; the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.; the Field Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Science and Industry, both in Chicago; the Academy of Natural Sciences and the Franklin Institute, both in Philadelphia; the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh; the Maryland Science Center and the National Aquarium, both in Baltimore; and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Although the states of New York, California, Massachusetts, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Ohio contain more than one-third of the museums in the U.S., museums are nevertheless spread across the country, particularly historic buildings that have opened their doors. Virtually all major U.S. museums now have sites on the Internet. For more information on museums and historical sites contained in a particular state, see the articles on individual states. See also MUSEUM,. Libraries. In the late 1990s the U.S. had more than 37,500 libraries. Approximately 43% of these were public libraries and their branches, and about 4700 were community college, college, and university libraries. Foremost among American libraries is the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Other libraries with vast collections include the public libraries of New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Portland, Oreg., and the libraries at academic institutions such as Harvard University, Stanford University, Yale University, the University of Michigan, Columbia University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Texas at Austin. Many of these libraries contain special and rare book collections, such as those of the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; other noted collections include those of the Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif.; the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City; and the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. See also LIBRARY,. For additional information, see articles on many of the individuals and institutions in this overview. Communications. With more than 38,000 post offices, stations, and branches in the late 1990s, the U.S. Postal Service, an independent agency within the executive department of the U.S. government, carried more than 200 billion pieces of domestic mail annually. During the 2001 fiscal year, the Postal Service registered a loss of $1.7 billion, based on revenues of $65.8 billion and expenditures of $67.5 billion. The agency has faced increased competition in recent decades from electronic mail and from private carriers such as the United Parcel Service and Federal Express. It is estimated that the volume of electronic mail sent out by North American businesses increased from 40 billion in 1995 to 1.4 trillion in 2001. U.S. telecommunications systems are among the most developed in the world. In the late 1990s the U.S. had about 180 million main telephone lines, 85 million cellular telephone subscribers, 124 million personal computers, 231 million television sets, and 575 million radios. According to a survey conducted in 2000, nearly 113 million adults had access to the Internet either at work or at home, and more than 86 million had used the Internet within the last 30 days. The telecommunications industry is highly decentralized, with hundreds of firms providing local, long-distance, and wireless services; operating revenues exceeded $280 billion annually in the late 1990s. All radio and television broadcasting stations in the U.S. must be licensed by the FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (q.v.). As of 2001, the U.S. had about 1300 commercial television stations and some 375 noncommercial stations, most of them part of the public television broadcasting system. A growing number of U.S. households (estimated at 66.5 million in 2000) subscribed to cable television. More than 98% of U.S. households had at least one television set, and about 85% of U.S. households owned a videocassette recorder in the late 1990s. Commercial radiobroadcasting stations as of 2001 included more than 4700 AM stations and nearly 8300 FM stations. See BROADCASTING, RADIO AND TELEVISION,. There were 1483 daily newspapers published in the U.S. in 1999, 15% fewer than the 1748 published in 1970. Daily newspapers had a circulation of approximately 56 million copies in 1999, a drop of 10% since 1970; the decline in newspaper readership was 30% when measured on a per capita basis. The top daily newspapers in the U.S. according to circulation in 2000 were the Wall Street Journal (published in New York City), USA Today (published in Arlington, Va.), the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times, Other leading newspapers, each with a daily circulation of more than 500,000, included the Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, Newsday (published on Long Island, N.Y.), and the Houston Chronicle. Major newspapers also maintained sites on the Internet, in most cases making daily content available without charge to online readers. Nearly 10,000 periodicals were published annually in the late 1990s. These ranged from specialized journals reaching only a small number of professionals to major newsmagazines such as Newsweek, with a circulation of about 3.1 million a week in 2000, and Time, with a weekly circulation of about 4.1 million; to mass publications with vast audiences, such as the weekly TV Guide (9.9 million) and the monthly Reader's Digest (12.6 million). In 1998 more than 56,000 new books and new editions were published; the leading categories were sociology and economics, fiction, medicine, and juvenile. Americans bought some 1.6 billion books at a total cost of $12.6 billion in 2000. J.T.D., JOE T. DARDEN, M.A., Ph.D. GOVERNMENT For information on the departments and major agencies of the U.S. government, see separate articles on the individual departments and agencies. For additional information on the three major branches of government, see CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES,; PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,; SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES,. The supreme law of the land is the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, (q.v.). The Constitution was drafted by a convention in 1787, was ratified by the required two-thirds of the states by June 1788, and was put into effect in 1789. The Constitution may be amended by a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress or by a special national convention called for the purpose, subject to ratification by vote of three-fourths of the legislatures of the states or state conventions. The first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, were adopted in 1791. These provide for freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, the right to assemble, the right to petition the government, and various due process and criminal procedure rights for individuals. Seventeen additional amendments were adopted between 1795 and 1992, abolishing slavery, providing for an income tax, and giving women the right to vote, among other purposes. The Constitution provides for a union of states, now numbering 50, each with its own constitution, republican form of government, and reserved powers, within a federal system. The national government is responsible for external affairs, and has concurrent powers with states, commonwealths, and self-governing territories over domestic matters. The chief of state is the president of the U.S. and the seat of government is the District of Columbia, which has limited home rule and no voting representation in the national legislature. The Constitution establishes three separate branches of government: the legislative, executive, and judicial. Each branch has its own area of authority. These areas overlap, making it necessary for the three branches to share in, and compete for, the power to govern effectively. Each branch has some constitutional authority that it can use to impede the functioning of the other branches, creating a system of checks and balances. The purpose of this somewhat cumbersome machinery of government, as intended by the framers of the Constitution, is to prevent the concentration of power in a small group of politicians, which could lead to tyranny. Since the adoption of the Constitution, the national government has increased its functions in economic and social matters and has shared more responsibilities with the states. The executive has eclipsed Congress as the most important branch of the national government. Executive. Article II of the Constitution provides for a president and vice-president chosen by a majority of voters in the ELECTORAL COLLEGE, (q.v.), for a fixed term of four years. The 22d Amendment (1951) limits presidents to two terms in office. By state law, electors are chosen by a plurality of the popular vote in each state and in the District of Columbia. In almost all cases the winner of the popular vote is elected president. Since 1960, when nearly 63 percent of the voting-age population cast ballots for president, voter participation in presidential elections has generally declined to between 50 and 55 percent of the electorate. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RETURNS FROM 1789 TO THE PRESENT * (F) Federalist; (D) Democratic; (R) Republican; (DR) Democratic-Republican; (IR) Independent Republican; (NR) National Republican; (W) Whig; (P) People's; (Pr) Progressive; (S) Socialist; (SR) States' Rights; (A) American; (Al) American Independent; (Rf) Reform; (G) Green; (Ind) Independent. Year President Elected Popular Vote Electoral Vote Defeated Candidate(s) Popular Vote Electoral Vote 1789 George Washington (No party) Unknown 69 No opponent1 1792 George Washington (F) Unknown 132 No opponent1 1796 John Adams (F) Unknown 71 Thomas Jefferson (DR)1 68 1800 Thomas Jefferson (DR) Unknown 73 Aaron Burr (DR)1 John Adams (F) 73 65 1804 Thomas Jefferson (DR) Unknown 162 Charles Pinckney (F) 14 1808 James Madison (DR) Unknown 122 Charles Pinckney (F) 47 1812 James Madison (DR) Unknown 128 De Witt Clinton (F) 89 1816 James Monroe (DR) Unknown 183 Rufus King (F) 34 1820 James Monroe (DR) Unknown 231 John Quincy Adams (IR) 1 1824 John Quincy Adams (NR)2 108,740 84 Andrew Jackson (D) Henry Clay (DR) William H. Crawford (DR) 153,544 47,136 46,618 99 37 41 1828 Andrew Jackson (D) 647,286 178 John Quincy Adams (NR) 508,064 83 1832 Andrew Jackson (D) 687,502 219 Henry Clay (NR) 530,189 49 1836 Martin Van Buren (D) 765,483 170 William H. Harrison (W) Hugh L. White (W) Daniel Webster (W) 739,7953 73 26 14 1840 William H. Harrison (W) 1,274,624 234 Martin Van Buren (D) 1,127,781 60 1844 James K. Polk (D) 1,338,464 170 Henry Clay (W) 1,300,097 105 1848 Zachary Taylor (W) 1,360,967 163 Lewis Cass (D) 1,222,342 127 1852 Franklin Pierce (D) 1,601,117 254 Winfield Scott (W) 1,385,453 42 1856 James C. Buchanan (D) 1,832,955 174 John C. Frémont (R) Millard Fillmore (A) 1,339,932 871,731 114 8 1860 Abraham Lincoln (R) 1,865,593 180 Stephen A. Douglas (D) John C. Breckinridge (D) 1,382,713 848,356 12 72 1864 Abraham Lincoln (R) 2,206,938 212 George B. McClellan (D) 1,803,787 21 1868 Ulysses S. Grant (R) 3,013,421 214 Horatio Seymour (D) 2,706,829 80 1872 Ulysses S. Grant (R) 3,596,745 286 Horace Greeley (D) 2,843,446 1876 Rutherford B. Hayes (R)4 4,036,572 185 Samuel J. Tilden (D) 4,284,020 184 1880 James A. Garfield (R) 4,453,295 214 Winfield S. Hancock (D) 4,414,082 155 1884 Grover Cleveland (D) 4,879,507 219 James G. Blaine (R) 4,850,293 182 1888 Benjamin Harrison (R) 5,447,129 233 Grover Cleveland (D) 5,537,857 168 1892 Grover Cleveland (D) 5,555,426 277 Benjamin Harrison (R) James Weaver (P) 5,182,690 1,029,846 145 22 1896 William McKinley (R) 7,102,246 271 William J. Bryan (D) 6,492,559 176 1900 William McKinley (R) 7,218,491 292 William J. Bryan (D) 6,356,734 155 1904 Theodore Roosevelt (R) 7,628,461 336 Alton B. Parker (D) 5,084,223 140 1908 William H. Taft (R) 7,675,320 321 William J. Bryan (D) 6,412,294 162 1912 Woodrow Wilson (D) 6,296,547 435 Theodore Roosevelt (Pr) William H. Taft (R) 4,118,571 3,486,720 88 8 1916 Woodrow Wilson (D) 9,127,695 277 Charles E. Hughes (R) 8,533,507 254 1920 Warren G. Harding (R) 16,143,407 404 James M. Cox (D) Eugene V. Debs (S) 9,130,328 919,799 127 0 1924 Calvin Coolidge (R) 15,718,211 382 John W. Davis (D) Robert M. LaFollette (Pr) 8,385,283 4,831,289 136 13 1928 Herbert Hoover (R) 21,391,993 444 Alfred E. Smith (D) 15,016,169 87 1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) 22,809,638 472 Herbert Hoover (R) 15,758,901 59 1936 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) 27,752,869 523 Alfred Landon (R) 16,674,665 8 1940 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) 27,307,819 449 Wendell L. Willkie (R) 22,321,018 82 1944 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) 25,606,585 432 Thomas E. Dewey (R) 22,014,745 99 1948 Harry S. Truman (D) 24,179,345 303 Thomas E. Dewey (R) Strom Thurmond (SR) Henry A. Wallace (Pr) 21,991,291 1,176,125 1,157,326 189 39 0 1952 Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) 33,936,234 442 Adlai E. Stevenson (D) 27,314,992 89 1956 Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) 35,590,472 457 Adlai E. Stevenson (D) 26,022,752 735 1960 John F. Kennedy (D) 34,226,731 3036 Richard M. Nixon (R) 34,108,157 219 1964 Lyndon B. Johnson (D) 43,129,566 486 Barry Goldwater (R) 27,178,188 52 1968 Richard M. Nixon (R) 31,785,480 301 Hubert H. Humphrey (D) George C. Wallace (Al) 31,275,166 9,906,473 191 46 1972 Richard M. Nixon (R) 47,170,179 5207 George S. McGovern (D) John J. Schmitz (Al) 29,171,791 1,090,673 17 0 1976 James Earl Carter (Jr.) (D) 41,426,405 297 Gerald R. Ford (R) Eugene J. McCarthy (Ind) 39,147,402 749,400 2408 0 1980 Ronald W. Reagan (R) 43,899,248 489 Jimmy Carter (D) John Anderson (Ind) 35,481,435 5,719,437 49 0 1984 Ronald W. Reagan (R) 54,450,603 525 Walter F. Mondale (D) 37,573,671 13 1988 George H. W. Bush (R) 48,886,097 426 Michael S. Dukakis (D) 41,809,074 1129 1992 William J. (Bill) Clinton (D) 44,908,254 370 George H. W. Bush (R) H. Ross Perot (Ind) 39,102,343 19,741,065 168 0 1996 William J. Clinton (D) 47,401,185 379 Bob Dole (R) H. Ross Perot (Rf) 39,197,469 8,085,294 159 0 2000 George W. Bush (R) 50,455,156 271 Al Gore (D) Ralph Nader (G) 50,992,335 2,882,897 26610 0 * - Presidents not listed are John Tyler (1841–45), Millard Fillmore (1850–53), Andrew Johnson (1865–69), Chester Arthur (1881–85), and Gerald R. Ford (1974–77), who attained the presidency through the death or resignation, in the case of Ford, of their predecessors and who were never elected to the office. Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry S. Truman, and Lyndon B. Johnson, who also completed unfinished terms, were elected following those terms. 1 - Prior to the election of 1804, each elector voted for two candidates for president; the one receiving the highest number of votes, if a majority, was declared president, the next highest, vice-president. This provision was modified by the adoption of the 12th Amendment, which was proposed by the 8th Congress, in 1803, and declared ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states in a proclamation of the secretary of state, Sept. 25, 1804. 2 - No candidate had a majority in the electoral college, and the election was decided in the House of Representatives. Party designations of candidates were not definite. 3 - Whig tickets were pledged to various candidates in various states. The popular vote was divided among them. 4 - Hayes's election was decided by an electoral commission appointed by Congress when the electoral votes of three states were protested. The commission awarded the votes to Hayes by a vote among its members in which Hayes received one more vote than Tilden. 5 - One Democratic elector voted for a circuit judge, Walter B. Jones of Alabama. 6 - Fourteen Democratic electors and one Republican elector voted for Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia. 7 - One Republican elector voted for Professor John Hospers of California. 8 - One Republican elector voted for former Governor Ronald W. Reagan of California. 9 - One Democratic elector voted for Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas. 10 - One Democratic elector from the District of Columbia cast a blank vote to protest the district's lack of a voting representative in Congress. The American president typically has a greater range of functions than prime ministers in parliamentary governments because the president serves as ceremonial chief of state as well as head of government. Unlike most presidents in other nations, the American president is also the head of his or her party, an important legislative leader, and the chief executive. The Constitution makes the president commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces. The president defends the nation against invasion or attack and may order American armed forces into combat. The president's authority to deploy forces on his or her own initiative is regulated by Congress under Article I, Section 8, which reserves to Congress the power to declare war, and under provisions of the War Powers Resolution of 1973. The president's diplomatic powers include negotiation and ratification of treaties, with the consent of two-thirds of the Senate; the appointment of ambassadors to foreign nations, also with the consent of the Senate; and the reception of foreign ambassadors. The president negotiates, on his or her own authority, executive agreements with leaders of other nations. By law the president prepares an executive budget and an economic report, which are submitted to Congress each year. The president submits requests for legislation, the most important of which usually regard taxation and other economic and military matters. The president also exercises executive authority over the various government departments and agencies. An extensive advisory system serves the president. Aides in the White House, where the president resides and has offices, provide advice, manage press relations, schedule appointments and travel, and communicate with Congress, government departments, lobbying groups, and the president's political party. Staff agencies in the executive office include the Office of Management and Budget, which prepares presidential budget requests and controls spending; the National Security Council, which is concerned with the nation's defense; and the Council of Economic Advisers. The president's CABINET, (q.v.) also serves as a source of information and advice. It consists of the heads of the governmental departments and a few other officials, such as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. ambassador to the UN. The cabinet has no power of its own. The executive branch of the government comprises 15 departments: the departments of State, Treasury, Defense, Justice, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security. Some government agencies are not directly supervised by the president. These include independent establishments such as the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Election Commission, and the Federal Reserve System. Legislature. All legislative powers granted by the Constitution in Article I are exercised by the U.S. Congress. Congress consists of two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate contains 100 senators, two representing each state—a provision of the Constitution not subject to amendment. The 435 members of the House are elected by the different states on the basis of their population at the most recent U.S. census. In accordance with the 2000 census, California has the largest number of representatives, 53; several states, such as Delaware and Vermont, have only 1. Representatives serve 2-year terms, and senators 6-year terms. Every two years all 435 members of the House are elected, and one-third of the senators. In presidential election years, about 45 percent of eligible adults vote for members of Congress; in other election years, only some 35 percent vote. The Senate and House are organized by the majority party in each chamber, which chooses the presiding officer, the majority leader, and the chairpersons of each committee. Through much of American history the party controlling the White House did not control both houses of Congress. This situation, known as divided government, can lead to reduced output of legislation and an increase in presidential vetoes of bills passed by Congress. Unlike the chief executives of parliamentary systems in other countries, the U.S. president neither resigns nor calls for new elections, even when majorities in Congress reject the president's programs. Congress has extensive powers in domestic affairs, including the power to tax, borrow money and pay debts, coin money and regulate its value, and regulate commerce among the states. Congress helps to establish and oversees the departments and agencies of the executive branch; it also establishes the lower federal courts and determines their jurisdiction. Congress has the power to declare war, raise and maintain the armed forces, establish tariffs, and regulate commerce with foreign nations. A bill is passed by Congress by majority vote of those present in each chamber; it is then sent to the president. The president may sign the bill, to indicate approval, or allow the bill to become law without signing it; or may veto the bill and return it to Congress, giving reasons for this action. The president's veto can be overridden by a two-thirds vote of the members of Congress voting in each chamber. Each house of Congress has some distinct powers. Revenue measures must originate in the House of Representatives. The House, with a majority vote, can initiate proceedings to impeach (charge with misconduct) the president. If the Electoral College cannot produce a majority to elect a president, the House chooses one of the top three contenders. If both the president and the vice-president die, are incapacitated, or are removed from office, the Speaker of the House becomes president. The Senate advises and consents to presidential treaties and to nominations for major executive officials, ambassadors, justices of the Supreme Court, and federal judges. The Senate tries all impeachments, with a two-thirds vote necessary to convict. In the event of a deadlock in the Electoral College, the Senate chooses the vice-president from the two top contenders. The president pro tempore of the Senate comes after the Speaker of the House in the line of succession to the presidency. The legislative branch also includes agencies such as the Congressional Budget Office, the General Accounting Office, the Library of Congress, and the Government Printing Office. Judiciary. The federal court system derives its powers from Article III of the Constitution. The system includes the Supreme Court, established by the Constitution; and 12 courts of appeal (sometimes called circuit courts), 91 district courts, and special courts such as the Tax Court, the Claims Court, and the Court of Veterans Appeals, all established by Congress. See COURTS IN THE UNITED STATES,. The federal courts perform two constitutional functions. First, they interpret the meaning of laws and administrative regulations; this is known as statutory construction. Second, the courts determine whether any law passed by Congress or state legislatures, or any administrative action taken by the national or state executive branches, violates the U.S. Constitution; this is known as judicial review. Federal courts can declare null and void laws or actions, at the national and state levels, that violate the Constitution. This power of judicial review exists in a few other nations, but in none is it so significant in resolving important issues or in checking and balancing branches of government. The nine justices of the Supreme Court and the other federal judges are nominated by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate. The president, in making district court nominations, usually follows the recommendations of senators from the president's party. All federal judges and justices of the Supreme Court serve on good behavior for life. They may be removed from office only through the process of impeachment, which has been used fewer than 20 times, and never successfully against a Supreme Court justice. Decisions of the Supreme Court that involve the statutory construction of laws may be overturned by Congress. Decisions involving judicial review may be checked and balanced in either of two ways. The president and Senate may deliberately fill vacancies on the Supreme Court with new justices who can be expected to overturn the decision; or the Constitution can be amended, as was the case after the Supreme Court ruled the income tax unconstitutional. State and Local Government. The U.S. Constitution provides for a federal system, with those powers not exercised by the national government retained by the states. States are denied the power to conduct foreign relations, enter into treaties or alliances, or lay tariffs. They may not coin currency, levy taxes on interstate commerce, or prevent the movement of persons across their borders. States may cooperate with one another through creation of interstate compacts, which require the approval of Congress. These often involve water resources, navigation, pollution control, or port development. The national government and states are closely linked in an administrative system of cooperative federalism. This includes categorical grant programs, in which the national government establishes operating standards and pays up to 90 percent of the cost of programs administered by the states; block grants for general purposes such as education or community development; and revenue sharing, whereby the national government distributes money to states and localities each year. The major functions of the states include qualified control of voter eligibility requirements, administration of state and national elections, supervision of municipal and county government, promotion and regulation of commerce, industry, and agriculture, and maintenance of highways, prisons, hospitals, and mental health facilities. The states also support extensive systems of higher education. They share with local units of government the responsibility for welfare, medical care for indigents, employment services, and other social services. Almost all states are divided into territorial units called counties. According to the census of governments, the U.S. had 3043 counties in 1997. Louisiana is divided into parishes, which are similar to counties, and Alaska is divided into boroughs. In a number of states, such as Connecticut, counties have virtually no governmental function. In several states, notably Virginia, one or more cities are independent of any county organization and thus constitute primary divisions of the state. In relatively heavily populated areas, communities are organized into municipalities, which include cities, towns, villages, and other local units. Municipalities, which number more than 19,300, generally provide basic services, including police, sanitation, and fire protection. Education at the elementary and secondary levels usually is supervised by school boards, which share authority over finance, curriculum, and teacher certification with state government; the U.S. had 13,726 school districts in 1997, down from 108,579 in 1942. Also important are so-called special districts, which are independent, limited-purpose local government units dealing with water supply, flood control, fire protection, community development, housing, and other matters. The U.S. had 34,683 special districts in 1997, up from 8299 in 1942. For further information on this topic, see the Bibliography, sections 262. U.S. government, 271. State and local government, 272. States' rights, 273. Municipal government. Political Parties. Two major parties dominated American politics as the 21st century began. The DEMOCRATIC PARTY, (q.v.) was founded in the 1790s as a coalition orginally called the Republican party, became the DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY, (q.v.) in 1801, and was renamed the Democratic party in 1828. The REPUBLICAN PARTY, (q.v.) was founded in 1854 as a third party and became one of the two major parties in 1860. Parties other than the Democratic and Republican parties are of minor importance in most national and state elections, and no third-party candidate has ever won the presidency. Third parties have played only a minor role in Congress. From the end of World War II through the 1980s, the Democrats were split into two major factions. The northern Democrats as a rule favored national action to solve social problems, emphasized government regulation of the economy, and favored strong action to aid minorities. The southern Democrats were more conservative in fiscal, economic regulation, and social matters. By the end of the 1990s these Democratic factional divisions were much less pronounced, largely because Republicans had replaced Democrats in many conservative southern districts. Especially since the early 1980s, Republicans have tended to favor a more relaxed approach to economic regulation, reductions in social spending, and tax cuts to stimulate industrial development. Divisions among Republicans have occurred on such issues as environmental protection, abortion, and civil rights, however. See POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES,. Social Services. Through cooperative federalism, the national and state governments provide social services to individuals. The Social Security Act of 1935 provides financial protection to wage earners and their families when the wage earner retires, becomes disabled, or dies. Contributions are financed through payroll taxes and employer contributions, and benefits are indexed against the effects of inflation. See SOCIAL SECURITY,. The national government and states also help fund unemployment insurance programs. Health programs include Medicare, a health insurance program for senior citizens, and Medicaid, a program of assistance to the poor (see MEDICARE AND MEDICAID,). The U.S. has extensive medical facilities of the highest quality, but gaining access to them remains a problem for a substantial segment of the population. In the late 1990s, some 44 million Americans had no private health insurance coverage and did not qualify for Medicare or Medicaid; a large number of other Americans either had inadequate basic coverage or did not have adequate coverage for catastrophic illness. Federal, state, and local grants provide income assistance for the blind, disabled, and elderly poor, and assistance to poor families. School lunch programs for needy children and a food stamp program for poor families are also provided. Defense. The president is commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces. The president's orders commanding these forces are passed through the office of the secretary of defense to the various military commands. The military heads of the army, navy, air force, and marines serve as the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whose chairperson is designated by the president. The Joint Chiefs of Staff advise the president and Congress on military strategy and recommend expenditure levels and weapons systems. Although the Selective Service System registers all male citizens over the age of 18, since 1973 the armed forces have been composed entirely of men and women volunteers. In 2001 the armed forces consisted of about 1,376,900 full-time active-duty military personnel, including some 478,900 in the army, 172,800 in the marines, 373,300 in the navy, and 351,900 in the air force. About 18% of U.S. military personnel were stationed abroad, principally in Germany, Japan, and South Korea. Defense expenditures of more than $300 billion annually in the early 2000s provided the U.S. with military capabilities far more advanced than those of any other country. The U.S. coordinates its defense policy with the NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION (q.v.; NATO) and is bound by NATO's collective-security provisions. International Organizations. In addition to its participation in NATO, the U.S. is a member of the UN and has a permanent seat on the SECURITY COUNCIL, UNITED NATIONS, (q.v.). It also belongs to many UN agencies such as the INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT, the INTERNATIONAL LABOR ORGANIZATION, and the INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (qq.v.). The U.S. is also a participant in the North American Free Trade Agreement and plays a major role in numerous other international organizations including the ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES, ORGANIZATION FOR ECONOMIC COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT, the ORGANIZATION FOR SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE, the ORGANIZATION FOR SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE, and the WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (qq.v.). R.P., RICHARD M. PIOUS, M.A., Ph.D. ECONOMY The U.S. has been the world's leading industrial nation since early in the 20th century. Until the second half of the 19th century, agriculture remained the dominant U.S. economic activity. After the Civil War, great advances were made in the production of basic industrial goods. By the time of World War I, exports of manufactured goods had become more important than the export of raw materials; as manufacturing grew, agriculture became increasingly mechanized and efficient, employing fewer and fewer workers. The most important development in the economy since World War II has been the tremendous growth of service industries, such as government services, professional services, trade, and financial activities. As the 21st century began, service industries were the most important sector of the economy, employing about three-fourths of the work force. Manufacturing employed approximately 15% of the labor force and agriculture less than 3% of the workers. Beginning in the 1930s, the government of the U.S. played an increasingly active role in the economy. Even though the U.S. economy in the 2000s was based on free enterprise, the government regulated business in various ways. Some government regulations were drawn up to protect consumers from unsafe products and workers from unsafe working conditions; others were designed to reduce environmental pollution. Government also exerts tremendous influence on the economy through the jobs it provides and the money it spends. Government employs about 15% of all the workers in the nation. The federal budget for fiscal year 2000–01 included net expenditures of $1.864 trillion, or about 18% of the nation's gross national product (GNP)—the value of all goods and services produced. Net revenues in 2000-01 totaled $1.991 trillion. That left a surplus for the 2000-01 fiscal year of about $127 billion. The U.S. consistently recorded annual budget deficits of $100 billion or more from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s; a robust economic expansion during the second half of the decade encouraged analysts in early 1999 to forecast budget surpluses for the next ten years. By the end of 2001, however, the combined effects of an economic slowdown, federal tax cutting, and the terrorist attack of September 11 had plunged the federal budget back into deficit. The proposed federal budget submitted in early 2003 forecast deficits of more than $300 billion annually for the 2002–03 and 2003–04 fiscal years, and annual deficits of more than $200 billion for the two years following. The gross federal debt increased from $909 billion in 1980 to about $5.8 trillion in 2001; during the same period, annual net interest payments by the federal government rose from $52.5 billion to nearly $360 billion, or about 21% of all federal outlays. National Output and Income. The U.S. economy consists of three main sectors—the primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary economic activities are those directly involving the natural environment, including agriculture, forestry, fishing, and mining. The primary sector usually contributes about 3% of the yearly GNP. Secondary economic activities involve processing or combining materials into new products, and include manufacturing and construction. Each year the secondary sector accounts for approximately 21% of the GNP. Tertiary economic activities involve the output of services rather than goods. Examples of tertiary activities include wholesale and retail trade, banking, government, and transportation. The tertiary is the most important sector by far and accounts for about 76% of the annual GNP. In the early 2000s the U.S. led all nations of the world in the yearly value of its economic production. The nation's annual GNP reached $9.86 trillion in 2000. With a per capita GNP of $34,950 in 2000, the people of the U.S. had one of the world's highest standards of living. Within the U.S., however, income was not equally distributed. In 1998, for example, median income for all U.S. households was $38,885; the median was $46,637 for Asian and Pacific Islander households and $40,912 for white households, but only $25,351 for black households. Households headed by women earned far less than households headed by men; among nonfamily households, female householders in 1998 had incomes nearly 40 percent below those of their their male counterparts. When the effect of inflation (rising prices) is not considered, per capita income has increased at a high rate, nearly tripling between 1980 and 2000. When the impact of inflation is taken into account, however, the rate of economic growth over the same 20-year period has been about half that figure. Between 1992 and 2000 the annual rate of economic growth, based on dollars adjusted for inflation, ranged between 2 and 4 percent. Although some of the poorest Americans experienced a substantial increase in income during this period, the income received by the richest Americans grew at an even faster rate. As of 2000, about 11.3% of all Americans lived below the poverty line (about $17,600 for a family of four), the lowest such percentage since the early 1970s. At the same time, the 5% of American households with the highest incomes in 2000 earned 21.5% of total U.S. income (up from 15.8% in 1980), while the 60% of American households on the lower rungs of the income ladder earned a combined share of 27.3% of the total (down from 31.5% in 1980). As the 21st century began, the U.S. had the widest income disparity between rich and poor of any industrialized nation. Labor. The U.S. in mid-2001 had a total employed civilian labor force of about 135.4 million; in addition, about 6.4 million unemployed persons were seeking jobs. Efficient technology makes possible a large volume of production with a comparatively small number of employees in the primary and secondary sectors of the economy. Primary occupations in agriculture, forestry, fishing, and mining engage only about 3% of the employed population, and secondary occupations in manufacturing and construction employ about 21%. The service activities in the large tertiary sector employ 76% of the workers. By the end of the 1930s the labor union movement in the U.S. had become widely accepted, and in the early 2000s organized labor was still one of the most powerful economic forces in the country. The AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR AND CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS (q.v.; AFL-CIO) was the leading grouping of unions and encompassed the overwhelming majority of U.S. union members. The largest AFL-CIO unions in the early 2000s included the AMERICAN FEDERATION OF STATE, COUNTY, AND MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES; the AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS (qq.v.); the Communications Workers of America; the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers; the International Brotherhood of Teamsters; the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; the Laborers' International Union of North America; the Service Employees International Union; the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America; the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America; the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union; the United Mine Workers of America; and the United Steelworkers of America. The labor movement has helped achieve a higher standard of living for U.S. workers. In the 1990s workers on the whole earned higher wages, worked shorter hours, and received more fringe benefits than in the past. In recent decades, however, the percentage of workers belonging to labor unions has declined, and since the late 1970s there has also been a marked decrease in membership in manufacturing unions. In 1945 about 36% of all nonfarm employees belonged to labor unions; fewer than 14% were members at the close of the 1990s. See TRADE UNIONS IN THE UNITED STATES,. Agriculture. Farming accounts for less than 2% of the annual GNP and employs fewer than 3% of U.S. workers. Yet the nation leads the world in many aspects of agricultural production. Farmers produce not only enough to meet domestic needs, but also enough to enable the U.S. to export more farm products per year than any other nation in the world. Gross farm income increased from about $149 billion in 1980 to $230 billion in 2000. Net farm income, which varies considerably from year to year, was about $57.5 billion in 2000. The small subsistence farm on which the farmer produced primarily to meet personal needs has virtually disappeared from the American scene. Less than 1% of the total farm output by value is consumed by households on the farms where it is produced. Most agricultural products are grown on large commercial farms for shipment to urban and industrial markets. Increased mechanization and widespread use of scientific farming practices have led to a decrease in the number of farms and farmers and an increase in the size of farms. The number of farms in the U.S. decreased from more than 5.6 million in 1950 to fewer than 2 million in the late 1990s. At the same time, average farm size increased from 86 ha (213 acres) to 197 ha (487 acres). As of 2000, farmers in the U.S. received $193 billion for the products they marketed. Livestock and livestock products accounted for about 51% of the value of all farm marketings, and crops for the other 49%. During that same year, government payments provided another $23 billion to farmers. California led all states in the yearly value of farm receipts; it was followed by Texas, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, North Carolina, Illinois, and Florida. Beef cattle rank as the most valuable product of the nation's farms, accounting for more than one-fifth of total annual farm sales. Many of the cattle are raised on large ranches in SW states. Texas produces more beef cattle than any other state, and Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Iowa also raise many cattle. Dairy products represent about 11% of the yearly value of farm marketings; California, Wisconsin, New York, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota are leading dairy states. Hogs and broilers are other major livestock raised on U.S. farms. More than half of the hogs are produced in Iowa, North Carolina, and Minnesota. The states of Georgia, Arkansas, Alabama, North Carolina, and Mississippi together account for about 60% of U.S. broiler chicken output. Other major livestock and livestock products include chicken eggs, turkeys, and sheep and lambs. Soybeans and corn are the nation's most valuable crops, together accounting for about 30% of the value of all crops sold. Soybeans are grown primarily in the Midwest, especially in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, and Indiana; during the 1970s the cultivation of soybeans expanded rapidly into the lower Mississippi Valley and other parts of the South. Corn is a major crop in many parts of the U.S., but most is produced in the Midwest, where it is the main feed for the cattle and hogs raised there. Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Indiana, and Minnesota together produce more than 60% of the annual U.S. corn crop. Wheat is another important U.S. crop. Kansas and North Dakota are the leading wheat-producing states, followed by Montana, Washington, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Idaho, and Minnesota. For more than a century and a half, cotton was the predominant cash crop in the South. Today, however, it is no longer important in some of the traditional cotton growing areas E of the Mississippi R. Cotton growing is now concentrated in relatively flat areas amenable to large-scale mechanization, such as the lower Mississippi Valley, the plains of Texas, and the valleys of California and Arizona. Texas produces nearly one-fourth and California almost one-fifth of the nation's annual cotton harvest. Tobacco remains an important cash crop. The leading tobacco-producing states are North Carolina, which accounts for more than one-third of the national output, and Kentucky, which annually produces between one-fourth and one-third. Other leading crops include oranges, potatoes, grapes, tomatoes, and apples. More than two-thirds of the oranges are produced in Florida; roughly one-fourth of the potatoes are grown in Idaho and one-sixth in Washington; more than 90% of the grapes and more than 50% of the tomatoes are raised in California; and at least half the commercial apples come from orchards in Washington. Additional major crops grown on U.S. farms are sugar beets, sugarcane, rice, hay, sorghum grain, dry beans, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, celery, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, green peppers, mushrooms, cantaloupes, and watermelon. Other valuable fruit crops include grapefruit, lemons, cherries, peaches, pears, plums and prunes, and strawberries. Major nut crops include almonds, pecans, and walnuts. U.S. PRODUCTION AND VALUE OF RECEIPTS FROM SALES OF SELECTED CROPS (2000) Crop Quantity * Value Corn 342.6 $15.1 billion Soybeans 75.4 $12.5 billion Wheat 60.5 $5.5 billion Cotton 3.7 $4.6 billion Hay 138.1 $3.4 billion Grapes 6.9 $3.1 billion Potatoes 23.4 $2.5 billion Tobacco 0.5 $2.3 billion Oranges 11.2 $,2.1 billion Lettuce 3.8 $1.9 billion Tomatoes 11.5 $1.8 billion Apples 4.8 $1.5 billion Rice 8.7 $1.2 billion Sugar beets 29.5 $1.2 billion * - Million metric tons Forestry. Forests cover a little less than a third of the U.S., or about 302 million ha (about 746 million acres). About 210 million ha (518 million acres) produce commercially valuable trees for making lumber, paper, and other wood products. These trees contain about 24 billion cu m (about 860 billion cu ft) of usable wood. About 69% of the commercial forestland is privately owned by farmers, lumber companies, paper mills, and other wood-using industries. The remaining 31% is owned by federal, state, and local governments. Approximately 413 million cu m (about 14.6 billion cu ft) of forest products are produced annually. Nearly half the timber output is used for making lumber, and about 40% is converted to pulpwood, which is subsequently used to manufacture paper. Most of the remaining output goes into plywood and veneer. Douglas fir and southern yellow pine are the primary softwoods used in making lumber, and oak is the most important hardwood. About 40% of the nation's lumber comes from the forests of the Pacific states, an area dominated by softwoods. In addition to the Douglas fir forests in Washington and Oregon, this area includes the famous California redwoods and the Sitka spruce along the coast of Alaska. Forests in the South supply about one-fourth of the lumber, a growing proportion of the pulpwood and plywood, and almost all the turpentine, pitch, resin, and wood tar produced in the U.S. Longleaf, shortleaf, loblolly, and slash pine are the most important trees of the S coastal plain. Commercially valuable hardwood trees, such as gum, ash, pecan, and oak, grow in the lowlands along the rivers of the South. The Appalachian Highland and parts of the Great Lakes area have excellent hardwood forests. Hickory, maple, oak, and other hardwoods removed from these forests provide fine woods for the manufacture of furniture and other products. Forests in the Mountain states of the West cover a relatively small area, yet they account for 15% of the nation's volume of sawtimber. Ponderosa pine is the most important species cut from the forests of this area. Fishing. In 2000 the U.S. had an annual commercial fish catch (excluding most fish raised on farms) of about 4.1 million metric tons, with a value of approximately $3.55 billion. The U.S. usually is fifth among the nations of the world in weight of total catch, ranking behind China, Peru, Japan, and Chile. In addition to commercial fishing, sport fishing is popular in many states. Marine species dominate U.S. commercial landings, with freshwater fish representing only a small portion of the total catch. Shellfish account for only about 14% of the weight of the total catch but 54% of the value. Finfish represent 85% of the weight but only about 45% of the value; sea urchins and other marine products account for the remaining 1% of the volume and value. Alaskan pollock makes up about 29% of all landings by weight but less than 5% of the catch by value; menhaden, a species used in the manufacture of oil and fertilizer, accounts for about one-fifth of the tonnage landed but only about 3% of the value. The most valuable species caught are shrimp (19% of the total catch), crabs (11%), and salmon (8%). Other important species include lobster, clams, scallops, flounder, oysters, and tuna. Alaska leads all states in both the volume and value of the catch; important species caught at Alaska ports include salmon and pollock. Other leading fishing states, ranked by value, are Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maine, and Texas. Measured by value of the catch, New Bedford, Mass., is the nation's leading fishing port. Important species caught in the New England region include lobster, scallops, clams, oysters, and cod; in the Chesapeake Bay, crabs; and in the Gulf of Mexico, menhaden and shrimp. Much of the annual U.S. tonnage of commercial freshwater fish comes from farms. The most important species raised on farms are catfish, trout, salmon, oysters, and crawfish. In the 1970s catfish farming became important in the states along the lower Mississippi R.; by the late 1990s, annual U.S. catfish production was 288,000 metric tons, valued at about $465 million. Mississippi leads all states in the production of catfish on farms, accounting for nearly three-fourths of the U.S. total. Freshwater fish caught in the Great Lakes include carp, lake herring, and whitefish. Mining. The U.S. ranks among world leaders in value of annual mineral production. Although mining accounts for a relatively small share of the nation's economic output, it has been essential to its industrial development. Coal and iron ore are the basis for the steel industry. Steel is fabricated into automobiles, appliances, machinery, and other basic products. Petroleum is refined into gasoline, heating oil, and petrochemicals used to make plastics, paint, drugs, and synthetic fibers. Minerals are produced in all states, but the five leading states of Texas, Louisiana, Alaska, Oklahoma, and California typically account for more than half the value of the nation's annual mineral production. The nation's three chief mineral products are fuels. In order of value, they are natural gas, petroleum, and coal. In the late 1990s the U.S. produced 23% of the world's natural gas, 22% of its coal, and 9% of its crude oil. Natural gas accounted for nearly half of U.S. fuel production and about one-third of the annual value of all minerals produced in the U.S. Natural gas output is dominated by Texas and Louisiana, which together produce nearly 60% of the U.S. total. Texas, Alaska, California, and Louisiana, the four leading oil producers, together yield nearly three-fifths of the nation's petroleum. Coal, the third leading mineral, accounts for approximately one-sixth of the yearly value of all U.S. mining output. Much of the nation's coal is produced in mines in the Appalachians. Wyoming, the leading coal-mining state, produces about 30% of the U.S. total; the other important coal-producing states are West Virginia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania, which together account for another one-third of U.S. output. Nuclear energy, which is used to supplement petroleum, natural gas, and coal, is produced from uranium. Colorado and Wyoming are the centers of the U.S. uranium mining and processing industry. Important nonfuel minerals in the U.S. include copper, gold, iron ore, clays, phosphates, lime, zinc, salt, and building materials such as stone, cement, and sand and gravel. In the late 1990s the U.S. produced about 40% of the world's molybdenum, 39% of its magnesium, 31% of its phosphate rock, 30% of its mica, 25% of its lead, 20% of its elemental sulfur, 17% of its aluminum, 15% of its copper, and 15% of its gold. Most of the nation's iron ore comes from the Lake Superior district, especially the Mesabi Range of NE Minnesota. Minnesota and Michigan together produce virtually all of the country's domestic output of iron ore each year. Nearly all of the nation's copper output is mined in Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Montana. Phosphate rock is mined in large quantities in Florida and North Carolina, which together account for 85% of U.S. output. Idaho, Arizona, Montana, New Mexico, and Utah are the sources of molybdenum, a mineral that is mixed with steel to make it strong and corrosion resistant. Missouri and Alaska rank among the nation's leading producers of lead and zinc. More than 70% of the nation's potash is produced in New Mexico. Nevada is the leading source of gold and silver. U.S. PRODUCTION OF SELECTED MINERALS, 2000 Mineral Quantity * Value † Natural gas 538 billion cu m $69.9 billion Petroleum (crude) 2.1 billion bbl $56.8 billion Coal 976 million $27.2 billion Stone (crushed) 1.6 billion $8.7 billion Cement 91 million $7.2 billion Sand and gravel (construction) 1.2 billion $5.7 billion Gold 330 $3.0 billion Copper 1,450,000 $2.8 billion Iron ore 61 million $1.7 billion Clays 41 million $1.6 billion Lime 20 million $1.2 billion Phosphate rock 40 million $1.1 billion Salt (common) 45 million $1.0 billion Zinc 860,000 $973 million * - In metric tons unless otherwise indicated † - Estimated