The Most Amazing Things About America Today

The United States is the third largest country in the world by landmass — nearly as big as the entire continent of Europe.

American athletes have won more Olympic medals than athletes from any other country.

The United States is the only country that has all of Earth’s five climate zones: tropical, dry, temperate, continental, and polar.

The United States is the third most visited country by international tourists after Spain and France.

Lake Superior, on the United States-Canada border, is the largest body of freshwater in the world by surface area. The lake covers 31,700 square miles.

The Pentagon — the headquarters of the Department of Defense — is the world’s largest office building by floor area.

The only people to have walked on the moon’s surface were Americans.

The United States is home to nearly 45 million immigrants — more than any other country in the world.

Much of the music the world listens to — jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, hip-hop, country, folk, R&B, soul, and gospel — comes out of the United States.

The U.S. film industry is the largest, oldest, and most profitable in the world. According to film data platform The Numbers, American films grossed over $12.1 billion worldwide in 2021 – more than every other country combined.

More than nine in every 10 Americans have eaten pizza in the last month. According to some estimates, Americans consume the equivalent of about 100 acres of pizza every day.

Nearly one-third of all land in the United States — or about 640 million acres — is federally owned.

On any given day in the United States, about 84.8 million adults — 37% of the adult population — consume fast food, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to the USDA, foreign investors own at least 28.3 million acres of U.S. farmland, an area about the size of Ohio.

The United States was the first nation to use the title of “President” for its head of state.

The United States is at the center of global invention. Airplanes, computers, cellphones, potato chips, and the light bulb are just a few examples of American ingenuity.

There are an estimated 76.8 million dogs in the United States, more than double the number in Brazil, the country with the second most dogs.

Though the United States is home to less than 5% of the world’s population, it accounts for approximately 25% of global economic output.

The country produced 18.6 million barrels of oil per day in 2020, or about 20% of the world’s total. This is well above the daily production of Saudi Arabia, the world’s second-biggest oil producer. Oil includes crude oil, all other petroleum liquids, and biofuels.

The United States is also the world’s largest consumer of oil. Gasoline, distillate fuel oil, hydrocarbon gas liquids, and jet fuel consumption combine for a total of 20.5 million barrels of oil consumed daily.

The current iteration of the American flag was designed by a high school student.

There are more guns than people in the United States — about 120.5 for every 100 people, according to the Small Arms Survey. The country with the next highest ownership rate is Yemen, where there are 52.8 guns for every 100 people.

Approximately 40.4 million Americans identify as ancestrally German, more than any other nationality.

The United States is one of only three countries that have not officially switched to the metric system. Liberia and Burma are the other two.

The typical wage or salary worker in the United States has been with his or her current employer for 4.3 years.

The government chose to color U.S. currency green as an anti-counterfeiting strategy. When the color was adopted in the 19th century, cameras could only take black and white photographs, making imitation bills difficult to produce.

Over half of the U.S. population lives in just nine states: California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia, and North Carolina.

The number of U.S. passports issued in 2021 totalled 15.5 million.

According to a recent Pew Research Center study, 57% of Americans believe that individuals control their own success in life, the largest share of any country surveyed.

The United States is one of the most mobile nations on Earth. According to a Gallup poll, 24% of U.S. adults reported moving within the country in the past five years.

Three out of every four tornadoes in the world occur in the United States.

The United States was awarded more Nobel Prizes than any other country.

The United States ranks among the top 10 countries in the world for the number of mammal, reptile, fish, and vascular plant species.

The United States has nearly 1.3 million square miles of forest land, the fourth most after Canada, Brazil, and Russia.

Super Bowl LVI in 2022 drew in 112.3 million viewers, making it one of the highest viewed Super Bowl broadcasts ever.

New Census Bureau projections predict the United States will be “minority white” – 49.7% – by 2045.

An estimated 93% of Americans use the internet, compared with about 60% of the global population.

The United States has about 95,439 miles of coastline, more than all but eight other countries worldwide.

Founded in Arkansas in 1962, Walmart is the world’s largest private sector employer, employing 2.2 million people.

Manhattan’s Chinatown is home to more Chinese residents than anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere.

The United States has the world’s most popular higher education system for foreign students, drawing over a million international students a year, the most of any country.

Good news for beer lovers. The Brewers Association said the number of brewers in the United States climbed to 8,884 in 2020 from just 89 in 1978, fueled by the craft beer surge.

Seven of the 10 largest companies in the world by market capitalization are based in the United States. Most of the top 100 companies by market cap (59) are American.

More than half of the states — 26 — have names with native American origins.

Americans bought 944.3 million pounds or about $2.8 billion worth of hot dogs in supermarkets in 2020. Los Angeles is top dog for franks, consuming about 30 million pounds a year.

A Pew Research Center study found that about 41% of Americans said religion was very important in their lives, and 33% said it was somewhat important.

While baseball may be America’s national pastime, it borrows heavily from the British game of cricket. Similarly, football is based largely on the British sport of rugby. Invented in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1891, basketball is the most popular uniquely American game.

The United States shares the world’s longest land border with its neighbor to the north, Canada, at over 5,500 miles. The border is split between the northern edge of the lower 48 states, and the eastern border of Alaska.

The United States produces more corn than any other country in the world, accounting for over 383 million metric tons in the 2018-2019 season. The next closest country, China, trailed U.S. corn production by over 100 million metric tons.

Of the 2,000 world’s largest companies, 590 are U.S.-based, according to Forbes. China and its special administrative region of Hong Kong are home to 291 of the 2,000 biggest businesses.

Being such a large country, the United States has plenty of room to build top-of-the-line golf courses. Of Golf Advisor’s top 100 golf courses in the world, 52 are located in the United States.

The New York Times reported the United States is home to far more billionaires than any other country, with 745. Eight of the world’s 10 richest people are American.