Talk:United States

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Frequently asked questions

Q1. How did the article get the way it is?

Archives:

Article Name, Article Introduction, Human Rights, Culture

This page has archives. Sections older than 30 days may be automatically archived by when more than 4 sections are present.

Detailed discussions which led to the current consensus can be found in the archives of Talk:United States. Several topical talk archives are identified in the infobox to the right. A complete list of talk archives can be found at the top of the Talk:United States page.

Q2. Why is the article's name "United States" and not "United States of America"?

Isn't United States of America the official name of the U.S.? I would think that United States should redirect to United States of America, not vice versa as is the current case.

This has been discussed many times. Please review the summary points below and the discussion archived at the Talk:United States/Name page. The most major discussion showed a lack of consensus to either change the name or leave it as the same, so the name was kept as "United States".

If, after reading the following summary points and all the discussion, you wish to ask a question or contribute your opinion to the discussion, then please do so at Talk:United States. The only way that we can be sure of ongoing consensus is if people contribute.

Reasons and counterpoints for the article title of "United States":

"United States" is in compliance with the Wikipedia "Naming conventions (common names)" guideline portion of the Wikipedia naming conventions policy. The guideline expresses a preference for the most commonly used name, and "United States" is the most commonly used name for the country in television programs (particularly news), newspapers, magazines, books, and legal documents, including the Constitution of the United States.
- Exceptions to guidelines are allowed.

If we used "United States of America", then to be consistent we would have to rename all similar articles. For example, by renaming "United Kingdom" to "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" or Mexico to "United Mexican States".
- Exceptions to guidelines are allowed. Articles are independent from one another. No rule says articles have to copy each other.
- This argument would be valid only if "United States of America" was a particularly uncommon name for the country.

Well-established encyclopedias in the English language appear to generally use a "common name" policy for article titles. More specifically, the following use "United States" for the title of the corresponding article: MSN Encarta, World Book, Encyclopedia Americana, Columbia, Grolier, and the Micropaedia and online versions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. In our effort to make Wikipedia an "encyclopedia of the highest possible quality," (Jimmy Wales, "Wikipedia is an encyclopedia", March 8, 2005, <[email protected]>) we would do well to emulate what these well-established encyclopedias do.
- The Macropaedia version of Britannica uses "United States of America" for its article title.

With the reliability, legitimacy, and reputation of all Wikimedia Foundation projects under constant attack, Wikipedia should not hand a weapon to its critics by deviating from the "common name" policy traditionally used by encyclopedias in the English-speaking world.
- Wikipedia is supposed to be more than just another encyclopedia.

Reasons and counterpoints for the article title of "United States of America":

It is the country's official name.
- The country's name is not explicitly defined as such in the Constitution or in the law. The words "United States of America" only appear three times in the Constitution. "United States" appears 51 times by itself, including in the presidential oath or affirmation. The phrase "of America" is arguably just a prepositional phrase that describes the location of the United States and is not actually part of the country's name.

The Articles of Confederation explicitly name the country "The United States of America" in article one. While this is no longer binding law, the articles provide clear intent of the founders of the nation to use the name "The United States of America."

The whole purpose of the common naming convention is to ease access to the articles through search engines. For this purpose the article name "United States of America" is advantageous over "United States" because it contains the strings "United States of America" and "United States." In this regard, "The United States of America" would be even better as it contains the strings "United States," The United States," "United States of America," and "The United States of America."
- The purpose of containing more strings is to increase exposure to Wikipedia articles by increasing search rank for more terms. Although "The United States of America" would give you four times more commonly used terms for the United States, the United States article on Wikipedia is already the first result in queries for United States of America, The United States of America, The United States, and of course United States.

Q3. Is the United States really the oldest constitutional republic in the world?

1. Isn't San Marino older?

Yes. San Marino was founded before the United States and did adopt its basic law on 8 October 1600. (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sm.html) Full democracy was attained there with various new electoral laws in the 20th century which augmented rather than amended the existing constitution.

2. How about Switzerland?

Yes, but not continuously. The first "constitution" within Switzerland is believed to be the Federal Charter of 1291 and most of modern Switzerland was republican by 1600. After Napoleon and a later civil war, the current constitution was adopted in 1848.

Many people in the United States are told it is the oldest republic and has the oldest constitution, however one must use a narrow definition of constitution. Within Wikipedia articles it may be appropriate to add a modifier such as "oldest continuous, federal ..." however it is more useful to explain the strength and influence of the US constitution and political system both domestically and globally. One must also be careful using the word "democratic" due to the limited franchise in early US history and better explain the pioneering expansion of the democratic system and subsequent influence.

The component states of the Swiss confederation were mostly oligarchies in the eighteenth century, however, being much more oligarchical than most of the United States, with the exceptions of Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Connecticut.

Q4. Why are the Speaker of the House and Chief Justice listed as leaders in the infobox? Shouldn't it just be the President and Vice President?

The President, Vice President, Speaker of The House of Representatives, and Chief Justice are stated within the United States Constitution as leaders of their respective branches of government. As the three branches of government are equal, all four leaders get mentioned under the "Government" heading in the infobox.

Q5. What is the motto of the United States?

There was no de jure motto of the United States until 1956, when "In God We Trust" was made such. Various other unofficial mottos existed before that, most notably "E Pluribus Unum". The debate continues on what "E Pluribus Unum"'s current status is (de facto motto, traditional motto, etc.) but it has been determined that it never was an official motto of the United States.

Q6. Is the U.S. really the world's largest economy?

The United States was the world's largest national economy from about 1880 and largest by nominal GDP from about 2014, when it surpassed the European Union. China has been larger by Purchasing Power Parity, since about 2016.

Q7. Isn't it incorrect to refer to it as "America" or its people as "American"?

In English, America (when not preceded by "North", "Central", or "South") almost always refers to the United States. The large super-continent is called the Americas.

Q8. Why isn't the treatment of Native Americans given more weight?

The article is written in summary style and the sections "Indigenous peoples" and "European colonization" summarize the situation.

The contentious topics procedure applies to this page. This page is related to post-1992 politics of the United States and closely related people, which has been designated as a contentious topic.

Editors who repeatedly or seriously fail to adhere to the purpose of Wikipedia, any expected standards of behaviour, or any normal editorial process may be blocked or restricted by an administrator. Editors are advised to familiarise themselves with the contentious topics procedures before editing this page.

This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (color, defense, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

United States was one of the Geography and places good articles, but it has been removed from the list. There are suggestions below for improving the article to meet the good article criteria. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
December 15, 2005	Good article nominee	Listed
May 7, 2006	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
May 8, 2006	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
May 18, 2006	Peer review	Reviewed
July 3, 2006	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
September 21, 2006	Peer review	Reviewed
October 19, 2006	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
June 19, 2007	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
July 9, 2008	Good article reassessment	Kept
June 27, 2009	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
September 6, 2009	Peer review	Reviewed
January 19, 2011	Peer review	Reviewed
March 18, 2012	Good article reassessment	Delisted
August 10, 2012	Good article nominee	Not listed
January 21, 2015	Good article nominee	Listed
February 22, 2020	Good article reassessment	Delisted
December 19, 2020	Peer review	Reviewed
A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on February 3, 2015. The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that the United States* accounts for 37% of all global military spending?*
A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "On this day..." column on July 4, 2008.
Current status: Delisted good article

United States: Government Top‑importance

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States articles
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by WikiProject U.S. Government.
	This article was a past U.S. Collaboration of the Month.

North America Top‑importance

	North America portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject North America, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of North America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.North AmericaWikipedia:WikiProject North AmericaTemplate:WikiProject North AmericaNorth America articles
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the importance scale.

Countries

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Countries, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of countries on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CountriesWikipedia:WikiProject CountriesTemplate:WikiProject Countriescountry articles

WikiProject Countries to-do list:

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests : Check out the article alerts; see if anything catches your fancy.
Cleanup : clean-up listing for Countries
Stubs : de-stub articles in Category:Stubs by region.
Other : add {{WPCountries}} to talk pages of related articles, and assess.

This article has been mentioned by multiple media organizations:

"The 50 most-viewed Wikipedia articles in 2009 and 2008". The Daily Telegraph. August 17, 2009.
"Topics that spark Wikipedia 'edit wars' revealed". BBC News. July 18, 2013. Retrieved July 18, 2013.

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This article has been viewed enough times to make it onto the all-time Top 100 list. It has had 237 million views since December 2007.

This article has been viewed enough times in a single year to make it into the Top 50 Report annual list. This happened in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.

This article has been viewed enough times in a single week to appear in the Top 25 Report 46 times. The weeks in which this happened:

Daily pageviews of this article

A graph should have been displayed here but graphs are temporarily disabled. Until they are enabled again, visit the interactive graph at pageviews.wmcloud.org

Section sizes

Section size for United States (50 sections)
Section name	Byte count	Section total
(Top)	22,303	22,303
Etymology	3,010	3,010
History	113	57,000
Indigenous peoples	2,398	2,398
European settlement (from 1492) and the Thirteen Colonies (1607–1776)	8,210	8,210
American Revolution and the early republic (1776–1815)	5,789	5,789
Westward expansion and Civil War (1815–1865)	11,951	11,951
Post–Civil War era (1865–1917)	9,615	9,615
Rise as a superpower (1917–1945)	5,602	5,602
Cold War (1945–1991)	6,507	6,507
Contemporary (1991–present)	6,815	6,815
Geography	7,142	17,858
Climate	3,531	3,531
Biodiversity and conservation	7,185	7,185
Government and politics	3,679	42,291
National government	10,269	10,269
Political parties	2,197	2,197
Subdivisions	2,280	2,280
Foreign relations	11,381	11,381
Military	5,106	5,106
Law enforcement and criminal justice	7,379	7,379
Economy	22,594	44,902
Science, technology and energy	8,424	8,424
Transportation	13,884	13,884
Demographics	63	36,382
Population	6,740	6,740
Language	5,100	5,100
Immigration	3,217	3,217
Religion	6,565	6,565
Urbanization	1,815	1,815
Health	5,829	5,829
Education	7,053	7,053
Culture and society	15,199	71,237
Literature	6,369	6,369
Mass media	5,431	5,431
Theater	2,703	2,703
Visual arts	2,770	2,770
Music	7,992	7,992
Fashion	3,732	3,732
Cinema	6,337	6,337
Cuisine	10,914	10,914
Sports	9,790	9,790
See also	84	84
Notes	459	459
References	30	14,188
Sources	14,158	14,158
External links	504	2,857
Government	496	496
History	552	552
Maps	1,305	1,305
Total	312,571	312,571

Excessive references

I like this article, but in my opinion the number of references (565; 579 on 26 July 2024) is excessive. JacktheBrown (talk) 15:45, 19 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The large number of references is unavoidable, even inevitable. The article "United States" is the most-read country article in English Wikipedia. In other Wikipedia languages, it often ranks second (after the main country that speaks that language). The U.S. is very powerful and has many detractors, so all statements and assertions—especially the positive ones—must be supported. They are otherwise challenged and can become full-blown disputes. Mason.Jones (talk) 18:46, 19 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Mason.Jones: Russia and China are also very powerful, but this doesn't justify the huge amount of sources in the U.S. and Russia articles. JacktheBrown (talk) 10:57, 27 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Mason.Jones: the Italy article last year had 151 more references. It seems strange to me that the number of references here has increased compared to last year. JacktheBrown (talk) 19:05, 19 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not surprising, as "United States" has become far more prone to disputes, reverts, and disruption than other country articles. Editors have learned to back up even general statements with a firm source, including thorough documentation. Mason.Jones (talk) 20:22, 19 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Compiling bibliographies and updating sources is a major activity of historians and scholars here on Wikipedia. Moxy🍁 11:53, 27 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Our purpose.....Wikipedia, like other encyclopedias, provides overviews of a topic and indicates sources of more extensive information. Moxy🍁 18:54, 19 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This is a pretty good problem to have. Around 10k words is fairly large for a Wikipedia article, and United States is the most-linked article on the English Wikipedia,[1] so it gets more scrutiny than others. Rjjⁱⁱⁱ (talk) 23:00, 20 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Rjjiii: totally agree. JacktheBrown (talk) 11:08, 22 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Rjjiii: the United States page is important and it's a pity that it isn't handled as such with regard to references. JacktheBrown (talk) 13:40, 26 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Rjjiii: and it's strange that with so many Americans this page hasn't been condensed. JacktheBrown (talk) 13:48, 26 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think it needs to be condensed, it is far below the limit of 15,000 words. What is the issue with having lots of references? Alexanderkowal (talk) 13:52, 26 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

15k words isn't "the limit", really that number is there so people who do not understand that articles are not meant to be the length of a book can have something in policy pointed out to them. I'll grant that 10k seems alright for this article.

The point here is that every claim in an article should be sourced: some claims require multiple sources, most are fine with just one. It scans to me that this article likely could use someone economizing the number of different sources used for all its claims. Remsense ‥ 诉 08:23, 18 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Countries are big and complex with various aspects. A good, encyclopedic summary should still be long to cover that variety, but it should link to articles on individual subtopics. I would think most country articles should be similar in size to this one and have a similar number of citations. United Kingdom has 550, Brazil has 519, Italy has 451, Egypt has 316. These seem appropriate to me. If anything, it's articles like Gabon with 68 or Togo with 97 that need help to become more adequate summaries, although you could say they are also fine at the length they are. IndigoManedWolf (talk) 07:57, 18 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Pueblo settlement image

Hi there, I want to suggest that we maybe exchange the Cliff Palace image with an image of a still populated Native American settlement, e.g. like the Sky City of Acoma Pueblo. The Cliff Palace image is in principle nice, but I find it more comprehensive to show an image that shows an ancient settlement AND one of contemporary Native Americans at the same time in one image. I now have edited the image caption of the Cliff Palace trying to point towards this. What do you think? Nsae Comp (talk) 19:52, 30 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 7 August 2024

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Please change the second source in reference footnote 18 from

U.S. Insular Areas: application of the U.S. Constitution Archived November 3, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, November 1997, pp. 1, 6, 39n. Both viewed April 6, 2016.

to

U.S. Insular Areas: application of the U.S. Constitution Archived from the original November 3, 2013, November 1997, pp. 1, 6, 39n. Both viewed April 6, 2016.

or similar because the link is dead. McYeee (talk) 18:24, 7 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Done and reference formatted with cite templates. Recon rabbit 20:18, 7 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 7 August 2024 (2)

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Please change [[Policies of states in the United States|is given to states and several territories]] to [[Federalism in the United States|is given to states and several territories]] in the lede. The article currently linked doesn't seem as related and is a stub. McYeee (talk) 18:40, 7 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Done – Dhtwiki (talk) 06:47, 8 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 7 August 2024 (3)

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Please change cite-note [d] in the infobox to be superscript. McYeee (talk) 18:46, 7 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Done – By placing efn on infobox line meant for area footnotes. Didn't see any other way (and efn wasn't displaying properly where it was). Dhtwiki (talk) 07:19, 8 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Forgetting about something

You forgot to put and U.S.A! — Preceding unsigned comment added by NinjaMiura (talk • contribs) 22:55, 11 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

With regard to what, the initials given in the lead? See MOS:USA, which deprecates the use of periods in that and similar abbreviations. Dhtwiki (talk) 05:12, 14 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Update

It's been bugging me for awhile. On the (Top) section, it says the US economy accounted for 15% of the global economy in 2023. But then, on Economy section, it says the economy constituted for over 25% of global economy and 15% of purchasing power parity in 2023. Can we fix on the (Top) section so that it says the US economy accounted for over 25% of global economy and 15% of purchasing power parity in 2023?

Also, on the Sports subsection under Culture and society section, since the Paris Olympics ended almost week ago, shouldn't it be updated to say U.S. athletes won 3,094 medals (1,219 of them golds) since in Paris, Team USA won 126 medals, 40 of them golds? Hopefully, someone with authority for the article can fix this. Sorry for the inconvenience. Ryumikhail (talk) 19:24, 16 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 21 August 2024

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38.25.16.57 (talk) 17:28, 21 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Stop Calling the USA @America@, America is a continent with 3 sub continents: South, North and Central America. USA is USA. Everybody living in any subcontinent of America is american. Stop hijacking the term.

Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{Edit extended-protected}} template. Remsense ‥ 论 17:29, 21 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Oh no, not this again! I suggest that you read American (word) which explains why "America" refers to the US in English. The anglosphere regards the Americas as two separate continents: North and South America, and only one country in the Americas, the United States of America, has "America" directly in its name. Because of that, only those from the US are considered "American" in the English language. As this is the English Wikipedia, we refer to the US as "America" and people from the US as "Americans". -- Rockstone^{Send me a message!} 21:53, 21 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Also, see FAQ question number 7 on this page, as well as the numerous previous talk page threads in the archives that deal with this issue. Dhtwiki (talk) 01:25, 22 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]