The U.S.A., a big galoot of a country, has a little of almost everything, and lots and lots of a lot of wonderful things, from amber waves of grain to purple mountain majesties. Blessed with a hard-working, well-meaning population, it's known for putting on a good show, from California to the New York Island, with 10,000 stops in between.

• TOTAL AREA: 9,631,420 sq km

• LAND AREA: 9,161,923 sq km

• WATER AREA: 469,497 sq km

• POPULATION: 298,444,215

• RELIGIONS: Protestant 52%, Roman Catholic 24%, Mormon 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim 1%, other 10%, none 10%

• LANGUAGES: English 82.1%, Spanish 10.7%, other Indo-European 3.8%, Asian and Pacific island 2.7%

• GOVERNMENT TYPE: Constitution-based federal republic; strong democratic tradition

• CAPITAL CITY: Washington, DC

• OFFICIAL CURRENCY: US dollar (USD)

• TIME ZONE: GMT/UTC -5 (Eastern), GMT/UTC -6 (Central), GMT/UTC -7 (Mountain), GMT/UTC -8 (Pacific Standard)