Disputes: maritime boundary disputes with Canada; US Naval Base at Guantanamo is leased from Cuba and only mutual agreement or US abandonment of the area can terminate the lease; Haiti claims Navassa Island; has made no territorial claim in Antarctica (but has reserved the right to do so) and does not recognize the claims of any other nation
Climate: mostly temperate, but varies from tropical (Hawaii) to arctic
(Alaska); arid to semiarid in west with occasional warm, dry chinook wind
Terrain: vast central plain, mountains in west, hills and low mountains in east; rugged mountains and broad river valleys in Alaska; rugged, volcanic topography in Hawaii
Natural resources: coal, copper, lead, molybdenum, phosphates, uranium, bauxite, gold, iron, mercury, nickel, potash, silver, tungsten, zinc, crude oil, natural gas, timber
Land use: 20% arable land; NEGL% permanent crops; 26% meadows and pastures; 29% forest and woodland; 25% other; includes 2% irrigated
Environment: pollution control measures improving air and water quality; acid rain; agricultural fertilizer and pesticide pollution; management of sparse natural water resources in west; desertification; tsunamis, volcanoes, and earthquake activity around Pacific Basin; continuous permafrost in northern Alaska is a major impediment to development
Note: world's fourth-largest country (after USSR, Canada, and China)
- People
Population: 250,410,000 (July 1990), growth rate 0.9% (1990)
Birth rate: 15 births/1,000 population (1990)
Death rate: 9 deaths/1,000 population (1990)