The USA is home to several of the world's most exciting cities, some truly mind-blowing landscapes, a strong sense of regionalism, a trenchant mythology, more history than the country gives itself credit for and, arguably, some of the most approachable natives in the world.

The US was fashioned from an incredibly disparate population who, with little in common apart from a desire to choose their own paths to wealth or heaven, rallied around the ennobling ideals of the Declaration of Independence to forge the richest, most inventive and most powerful country on earth.

So much of the country has been filmed, photographed, painted and written about that you need to peel back layers of representation to stop it from looking like a stage setting. This can make the country seem strangely familiar when you first encounter novelties like 24-hour shopping, bottomless cups of coffee, 'have a nice day', drive-thru banks, TV evangelists, cheap gasoline and newspapers tossed onto lawns. But you'd be foolish to read too much into this surface familiarity, since you only have to watch Oprah for half an hour to realize that the rituals and currents of American life are as complex, seductive and bewildering as the most alien of cultures.

Full country name: United States of America (USA)
Area: 9.63 million sq km
Population: 290 million
Capital City: Washington DC
People: Caucasian (71%), African American (12%), Latino (12%), Asian (4%), Native American (0.9%)
Language: English, Spanish, Native American languages
Religion: Protestant (56%), Roman Catholic (28%), Jewish (2%), Muslim (1%)
Government: constitution-based federal republic
Head of State: President George W Bush

GDP: US$10.45 trillion
GDP per capita: US$36,300
Inflation: 2.2%
Major Industries: Oil, electronics, computers, automobile manufacturing, aerospace industries, agriculture, telecommunications, chemicals, mining, processing and packaging
Major Trading Partners: Canada, Japan, Mexico, the EU
Member of EU: No