USA: +1 415 256 4347 
Sign in
Write my research paper
Title: World Human Geography
Country of analysis: United States of America
Physical Geography
The United States of America is in North America, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean to the east, North Pacific Ocean to the west, Canada to the north, and Mexico to the south. The geographic coordinates are 38 00N, 97 00W. The total area of the country is 9,826,675 square km, making it the third largest country in the world. The land mass constitutes 9,161,966 square km while the water mass constitutes 664,709 square km. US is made up of 50 states. The land boundaries of the country add up to 12, 034 km. the longest border is with Canada and Mexico. The coastline is 19,924 km. Maritime claims cover areas of territorial sea (12 nm), exclusive economic (200nm), contagious zone (24 nm), and continental shelf (unspecified).
The climate of the US is mostly temperate. However, in Hawaii, it is mostly tropical, semi-arid in the Great Plains to the west of the Mississippi, arctic in Alaska, and arid toward the southwest. The terrain comprises of mountains in the west, a vast central plain, low mountains and hills to the east, volcanic topography in Hawaii, and rugged mountains in Alaska. The lowest point is the Death Valley at 86 meters above sea level while the highest point is Mount McKinley at 6,194 meters above sea level.
The US is endowed by numerous natural resources, including coal, lead, phosphates, copper, coal, uranium, rare earth metals, nickel, silver, petroleum, mercury, iron, gold, bauxite, tungsten, and zinc. Eighteen percent of the land is in arable use, 0.21 is on permanent crops, while other uses make up for the remaining 81.79%. As of 2008, 230,000 square km was under irrigation (US Census Bureau, 2011).
Population
The Population Transition Model (PTM) entails the transition from a period of high birth as well as death rates to that of low birth and death rates. This transition manifests itself as a country moves from pre-industrial economic system to an industrialized one. It is based on the events of 1920s, when demographers developed a demographic theory based on the interpretation of a country’s demographic history.
The PTM model can be used to describe demographic trends in the US, though this would entail going back to the pre-industrial days of more than 200 years ago for comparison purposes. The US is in stage 4 of the PTM model, whereby the population is high and stable, largely because both birth and death rates are low. Some of the other countries that are alongside the US in this level include Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Figure 1: Population pyramid for the US in 2011. (Source: US Census Bureau)
In terms of distribution of a population on the basis of age and sex, the picture would best be captured through a population pyramid. In the above pyramid, the highest population is made of individuals aged between 50 and 54 years. From this age onwards, the population continues decreased at a steady rate. On the other hand, between birth and 44 years, there is no marked increase in population distribution, it remains somewhat constant. This is an indication of a country whose PTM is in stage four. The main implication of this population pyramid is a rapid growth in the size of the ageing population.
The population of the US is 313,232,044. In terms of the age structure, people aged 0-14 constitute 20.1% of the population, 15-64 constitute 66.8% of the population, while those aged 65 and above constitute 13.1 of the population (Google Demographic Indicators, 2011). The median age is 35.6 years for males and 38.2 for females. The country’s population growth rate is 0.963%. The birth rate is 13.83 births per 1000 people while the death rate is 8.38 deaths per 1000 people. The maternal mortality rate is 24 deaths per 100,000 births while infant mortality rate is 6.06 deaths per 1000 live births as at 2008. The US’s life expectancy at birth is 78.37 years; 75.92 years for males and 80.93 for females (Population Reference Bureau, 2011). The total fertility rate is 2.06 children per woman.
Migration patterns
The net migration rate in the US is 4.18 migrants per 1000 people. Between 1990 and 2000, 25.8 million people were added into the total population of the US. The US Census Bureau estimates that out of these, more than 8 million were added because of the component of net international migration. Between 1990 and 1997, international migration increased from 699,000 to 931,000. Between 1997 and 1998, international migration remained relatively stable, moving from 884,000 to 863,000.
In 2011, immigration flows were largely an indicator of response to the economic climate in the US, one of the main immigrant-receiving countries in the world. Data provided by the US and Mexican governments shows that illegal immigration from Mexico was at a standstill, a trend that was observed for the first time in 2007. Indeed, the problem of migration from Mexico constitutes one of the main problems for the US. Between 2000 and 2010, total emigration from Mexico recorded a 37% decrease, represented by fall from 1.6 million to less than 1 million immigrants.
There are wide variations in migration trends in each of the 50 states in the US. However, a trend that was shared during the 1990s was that every state gained a significant size of population. Census 2000 data shows that the largest rates of interstate migration were recorded in California and New York. Between 1995 and 2000, some 308,000 US individuals migrated from New York to Florida. A substantial number of migrations within states entail movement of retirees. There is also a trend whereby there are large flows from cities such as New York and Washington D.C to suburbs in California, Nevada, and New Jersey. The main push factor in this regard is high population in large cities while the main pull factor has been low population and the exclusiveness of suburbs. By and large, immigration rates have been higher in the US compared to emigration rates. The consequence of this trend has been a rapid increase in the country’s population.
Ethnicities
The largest percentage of the population is made up of whites (79.9%), followed by blacks (12.85%), and Asians (4.43) (CIA Factbook, 2011). The other ethnic categories include Amerindian and Alaskan natives (0.97%), Hawaiians and Pacific islanders (0.18%) and other races (1.61%). These data estimates are for July 2007.
The Hispanic population also constitutes a significant portion of the US ethnic mix. However, in terms of percentage for ethnicities, the listing for Hispanics is normally included separately because of the US Census Bureau’s tradition of considering Hispanic to mean people of Hispanic/Spanish/Latino origin (Saenz, 2010). This includes those of Cuban, Mexican, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rican, Central/South American, or Spanish origin living in the US. Such persons may be of any ethnic group or race, such as Asian, white, black, and so on.
Today, the diversity of the US population is taking shape from the perspective of race and Hispanic origin. The population is expected to become more diverse in respect of race and Hispanic origin. American Indian, Hispanic-origin, Asian and Pacific Islander, Black, Eskimo, and Aleut populations are increasing their proportions of the entire population. On the other hand, the non-Hispanic population is decreasing. The effect of this has been a reduction in the influence of the cultural notions of white-supremacy in the US.
Languages
According to the 2000 Census, 82.1% of the population speaks English while 10.7% speak other indo-European languages. Speakers of Asian and Pacific island languages constitute 2.7% of the population while 0.7% of the population speaks other languages. The official language of the state of Hawaii is Hawaiian. At the federal, the US has no official language, although English is assumed to be. English is the de facto official language as opposed to a de jure language. Over the years, many efforts have been made to formally make English the official language. These efforts are normally made in almost every session of Congress. Nevertheless, the English language remains the official language of 30 US states, including California, New York, and Illinois.
However, disputes have in recent times arisen out of controversies over translation of official forms into various languages. For example, at one time, the welfare agency of New York faced a lawsuit for failing to enforce the Equal Access to Human Services Act 2003, which requires the city’s authorities to have all their official documents available in Chinese, Arabic, Korean, Spanish, Haitian Creole, and Russian.
In terms of the linguistic family, the typology of all US languages is rather difficult to define mainly because of the issue of diversity and the problem of linguistic isolation. In 1990, 9.6% of the US population spoke non-English language. Ever since, this percentage has increased substantially, in line with the general trend towards increased diversity. Many of these non-English language speakers are said to be influenced a great deal by the problem of linguistic isolation, whereby their languages are neither given much formal recognition nor openly appreciated. The influence of acculturation upon US languages, especially the minority ones in cosmopolitan areas has been so far-reaching that it cannot be assumed that all languages that exhibit similarities have to be considered as branches of one linguistic family. This is especially the case with the languages of Native Americans.
Religions
In the US, 51.3% of the population is Protestant, 23.9 is Roman Catholic, and 1.7% is Mormon. Other Christian denominations account for 1.6% of the population while 1.7% comprises of Jews. Moreover, as per the 2007 statistics provided by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Buddhists make up 0.7%, Muslims make up 0.6%, 12.1% are unaffiliated, while 4% fall on the ‘none’ category. Since the 1950s, the US Census Bureau has not posed any questions regarding religion. However, for more than a century before, the federal administration had been gathering some information regarding the religions of its citizens.
Protestantism traces its origin in the US in the early 17th century, when people from England sailed towards the New World, that is, the US, with the then official religion of England, The Church of England or the Anglican Church. Roman Catholicism had arrived earlier on when the first Roman Catholic arrived in the US. Today, Roman Catholicism is the largest Christian denomination in the US with 25.6 million members. These two denominations have a history of intergroup conflicts. These conflicts have persisted since the time the nation was being founded.
Another name for Mormon is Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Its origins are traceable to its founder, Joseph Smith in 1830 in New York. Mormonism developed as a sectarian ideology during the period of religious turbulence in the US history. The Jewish religion, known as Judaism, on the other hand, is found in many states in the US, including California, Arizona, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Florida, and New Jersey. The history of Jews in the US can be traced back to 1654 when the first 23 Jews arrived in New Amsterdam. Two years later, the first Jewish cemetery was established. In 1658, more Jews arrived in Newport. In 1730, the first synagogue was established in the US. The Portuguese inquisition of 1720 played a big role in spurring immigration of Jews into the US. More recent activities relating to Judaism include the setting up of the first Jewish labor in 1934, establishment of Camp David accord in 1978, and the opening up of the Holocaust Memorial in US in 1993. In 2004, the Jewish community commemorated the 350th anniversary of introduction of Judaism in the US.
History and political geography
The United States is governed as a federation, whereby the constitution defines a federal government at the national level and semi-autonomous governments at the state level. The country operates on a written constitution, and it attained its independence in 1776. The constitution is made up of a preamble, some seven short articles, although it has been amended 27 times. It is on the basis of this constitution that the federal government was established. There are three branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The legislative branch is made of the Congress, which makes the country’s laws. The Congress is made by the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The Executive branch is headed by the President who has the power to execute, enforce, and administer the country’s laws. In the executive branch, there is also a long-winding bureaucracy. The judicial branch is made by the federal courts and the Supreme Court. This branch has the role of applying the country’s laws through the cases that are brought before the courts. The Supreme Court also has the crucial role of determining whether specific laws are constitutional or not.
In terms of political history, an excellent starting point may be the start of the struggle for independence prior to 1776. After independence, the new nation grappled with the problem of slavery almost a whole century. In 1865, slavery was abolished after five years of the famous American Civil War. After the war, President Abraham Lincoln emerged as the hero of the war and a champion of the war against slavery. The abolishment influenced the start of women’s suffrage movement, which went on to influence politics in the early 20th century.
The early 20th century was a period of technological change and the industrial revolution, and many changes occurred to both corporations and cities across the country in equal measure. Between 1914 and 1919, the US fought in the World War I on the side of the Allies, which ended with the signing of a treaty known as the League of Nations. After a period of momentary prosperity and political stability of the 1920s, the US encountered the greatest economic recession in the early 1930s, famously known as the Great Depression. This situation was made worse by the post-war political unrest of the 1930s.
In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt brought in some sense of confidence by rallying the people towards his program, which he called the New Deal. The politics of the day presented sentiments of opposition to laissez-faire capitalism and reversion back to the regulatory policies of the railroad system that were dominant in the 1880s. The New Deal was a success and it transformed the country’s politics in the run-up to the World War II. During this war, the US joined in the efforts of the Allied powers, and it was part of the winning side in 1945.
Since 1945, the US emerged as a superpower together with Russia, and this bi-polar arrangement in the increasingly globalized international relations led to the Cold War, which ended with the break-up of the Soviet republics in 1991. During the Cold War, the US was involved in many wars, notably Vietnam, Iran, and Afghanistan. The Cold War era also shaped the country’s political rhetoric, and it influenced the course of wars as well as the nuclear arms race.
At the beginning of the 21st century, the most significant political situation was the 9/11 terror attack. This attack has influenced the country’s political atmosphere, particularly security issues and foreign policy. A notable change of tact has been the launch of the global war on terror by President George W. Bush. Following the 9/11 attack, the US invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban-led government. In 2003, the US went into war with Iraq and a few months later, it toppled the decades-long rule of Saddam Hussein. Political overtones against these two wars have been widely expressed, and they constituted a major source of influence for the defeat of Democrats and the rise to power of President Barrack Obama, a democrat. Indeed, these two main parties in US politics continue to differ in major issue affecting the US economy. For instance, the recent economic recession, which started in 2007, has been blamed on Republicans, who are accused of starting too many foreign wars and overburdening the country’s economy.
Urbanism (Cities)
The Census estimates of July 2006 put New York as the largest city in the US with a population of 8,214,426. It is followed by Los Angeles, California, with 3,849,378 people, and Chicago, Illinois with a population of 2,833,321. The fourth biggest city is Houston, Texas, with a population of 2,144,491. The fifth largest city is Phoenix, Arizona, with 1,512,986 people, while the sixth position is taken by Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with 1,448,394 people. Along this scale, the list goes on to include San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, San Jose, Detroit, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, San Francisco, Columbus, Austin, Memphis, Fort Worth, Baltimore, and Charlotte, in that order.
New York, the largest city, is situated in the state of New York. In New York, there has been an acceleration of the trend towards suburbanization and dispersion. The Census results of 2010 indicate a massive wave of increased preference for suburbs, leading to a massive expansion of the city’s metropolitan area. A similar trend has been noted in Los Angeles, Illinois, Phoenix, Dallas, San Jose, San Francisco, and Indianapolis. In the largest US cities, trends of both urban-to-rural and rural-to-urban migration are normally observed. The former type of migration is common with young people while the latter type is preferred mostly by retirees.
Development policies
The US has the largest and the most powerful economy in the world. Its per-capital GDP is $47,200. The economy is market-oriented, and private businesses have to make most of their decisions. The state and federal governments buy most of the products that they require from the private market place. US firms are normally on the leading edge of technological innovation and advances, especially in the fields of computing, military, aerospace, medical care, and computers. The federal government traditionally endeavors to ensure that there is always financial stability in firms, as witnessed in the recent efforts to bail out corporations that had nearly collapsed following the economic recession of 2007-2009.
The GDP of the US is $14.66 trillion while its growth rate is 2.8%. The GDP composition by sector is as follows: agriculture 1.2%, services 76.6%, industry 22.2%, and the remaining percentage, equivalent to $153.9 million, goes to the country’s labor force. The unemployment rate is 9.6% while the proportion of the population living below the poverty line is 15.1%. The highest 10% share of household income goes to 2% of the population while the lowest 10% of household income or consumption in terms of percentage goes to 30% of the population.
Agriculture
Agriculture constitutes 1.2% of the GDP of the US, an indication that it is not a very key sector of the country’s economy. The main cash crops in the US are corn, soybeans, hay, vegetables, apples, wheat, grapes, cotton, rice, tobacco, oranges, sugar-beets, sorghum, sugarcane, cottonseed, barley, peaches, peanuts, and beans.
The different farm production regions of the US differ in terms of terrain, soil, distance to market, climate, as well as marketing facilities. On the northeastern region, most states are milk producers while both broiler and fruit farming is mainly concentrated in Maryland, Maine, and Delaware. Tobacco is mainly produced in the Appalachian region. Beef and broilers are common in the Southeast region. This region is also famous for sugarcane and citrus groves production. In areas close to the pacific coast, wheat, potato, fruit, and cotton farming is common.
Industries and services
Industry and services are the greatest contributors to the US economy. The services sector brings in 76.6% of the national GDP while the industry sector makes up for 22.2% of the GDP. The most productive areas within the service sector are accommodation and food services, arts and entertainment, finance and insurance, education, administrative and support, information, real estate and renting/leasing, retail trade, utilities, transportation and warehousing, and management of enterprises and companies.
In industry, the main contributors to the economy are manufacturing, extraction, and construction. The aspects of manufacturing that the Census Bureau focuses on most include export-oriented manufactured goods, areas relating to the energy sector, and manufacturing activities that are inspired by business research. For construction, the main areas include new residential construction, new residential sales, manufactured homes, residential improvements, construction spending, and construction research. Across the sector divide, some of the main industrial establishments are those dealing in computers and peripheral equipment, telecommunications, fertilizers and other related chemicals, and metalworking machinery.
Environmental concerns
The main natural hazards in the US include volcanoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornadoes. The main environmental issue is air pollution, whereby the country the single largest carbon dioxide emitter in the world. As a result, the US is party to numerous international environmental agreements, notably Ozone Layer Protection, Air Pollution, Tropical Timber 94, and Marine Dumping treaties.
Globalization trends
As a superpower, the US has been a big source of influence for globalization. The aspects of today’s globalization may be traced to the 1940s. During this time, there was a trend towards pluralism in all aspects of life as well as liberalism. This approach to life paved way for the era of information technology that was to be heralded a few decades later, when the internet stopped being the preserve of the US military. As an industry leader in information and communication technology, the US has been a major driving force behind globalization.
During the last half-a-century, many US corporations have expanded to become multinationals with operations across the world. Some of the most renowned US multinationals include Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Emerson Electric, Pfizer, IBM, Ford, General Electric, and United Technologies.
Bibliography
CIA Factbook (2011) North America: United States, retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html on December 16, 2011.
Google Demographic Indicators (2011), Eurostat, Demographic Indicators, retrieved from http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=mo4pjipima872_ on December 16, 2011.
Population Reference Bureau (2011) Trends in Life Expectancy in the United States, Denmark, and the Netherlands: Rapid Increase, Stagnation, and Resumption, retrieved from http://www.prb.org/Reports/2011/aging-trends.aspx on December 16, 2011.
Saenz, R. (2010) Latinos and the Changing Face of America, retrieved from http://www.prb.org/Articles/2004/LatinosandtheChangingFaceofAmerica.aspx?iframe=true&width=100%&height=100% on December 16, 2011.
US Census Bureau (2011) Business & Industry, Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/briefroom/BriefRm on December 16, 2011.
©Copyright 2000-2018. All Rights Reserved. TermPaperChampions.com: The most reliable provider of custom academic papers. Our writers are here to help you complete papers from all disciplines and academic levels . You can always trust us to deliver.
