Travel Alert Status
Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions
Time Difference
UTC-5 (during Standard Time)
Note: the 50 United States cover six time zones
Travel Climate
Mostly temperate, but tropical in Hawaii and Florida, arctic in Alaska, semi-arid in the great plains west of the Mississippi River, and arid in the Great Basin of the southwest; low winter temperatures in the northwest are ameliorated occasionally in January and February by warm chinook winds from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
Travel Currency
1
Languages
English 82.1%, Spanish 10.7%, other Indo-European 3.8%, Asian and Pacific islands 2.7%, other 0.7%
Note: the US has no official national language, but English has acquired official status in 28 of the 50 states; Hawaiian is an official language in the state of Hawaii
Ethnic Groups
White 79.96%, black 12.85%, Asian 4.43%, Amerindian and Alaska native 0.97%, native Hawaiian and other Pacific islander 0.18%, two or more races 1.61%
Note: a separate listing for Hispanic is not included because the US Census Bureau considers Hispanic to mean persons of Spanish/Hispanic/Latino origin including those of Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican Republic, Spanish, and Central or South American origin living in the US who may be of any race or ethnic group (white, black, Asian, etc.); about 15.1% of the total US population is Hispanic
National Holiday
Independence Day, 4 July (1776)
Geographic Coordinates
38 00 N, 97 00 W
Location
North America, bordering both the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Pacific Ocean, between Canada and Mexico
Airports
5,054