1.
Household income in the United States
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Household income is an economic measure that can be applied to one household, or aggregated across a large group such as a county, city, or the whole country. It is commonly used by the United States government and private institutions to describe a households economic status or to track trends in the US. Household income is measured in various ways, one key measure is the real median level, meaning half of households have income above that level and half below, adjusted for inflation. According to the Federal Reserve, this measure was $56,516 in 2015 and this was the largest one-year percentage increase on record. However, it remained 2. 5% below the 1999 peak of $57,909, the Census Bureau estimated real median household income at $55,775 in 2015, up $2,062 or 3. 8% from the 2014 level of $53,713. Household income varies geographically and by race, the overall median has continued to rise steadily, if slowly, to $57,616 in September 2016 according to one unofficial source that reports monthly versus annually. After falling somewhat due to the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009, inequality rose again during the economic recovery, the residents of the household do not have to be related to the head of the household for their earnings to be considered part of the households income. As households tend to share an economic context, the use of household income remains among the most widely accepted measures of income. The U. S. Census Bureau reported in September 2016 that real median income was $55,775 in 2015. This was the third year with a statistically significant increase by their measure. The U. S. Census Bureau reported in September 2014 that, U. S. real median income was $51,939 in 2013 versus $51,759 in 2012. In 2013, real median income was 8.0 percent lower than in 2007. Real median household income averaged $50,781 from 1964-2013, ranging from a low of $43,558 in 1967 to a high of $56,895 in 1999, the recovery from the 2007-2009 recession had not translated into higher incomes for the typical American family. For instance, the retirement of the Baby Boom generation should push down overall median income, however, analysis of different working age groups indicate a similar pattern of stagnating median income as well. But foreign-produced goods became sharply cheaper, meaning imports climbed and production moved overseas, and computers took over for humans in many manufacturing, clerical, and administrative tasks, eroding middle-class jobs growth and suppressing wages. Another line of analysis, known as compensation, presents a more complete picture of real wages. The Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a study in 2013 which shows that employer contributions to healthcare costs went up 78% from 2003 to 2013. The marketplace has made a trade-off, expanding benefits packages vs. increasing wages, measured relative to GDP, total compensation and its component wages and salaries have been declining since 1970
2.
Wealth in the United States
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Wealth in the United States is commonly measured in terms of net worth, which is the sum of all assets, including the market value of real estate, like a home, minus all liabilities. Assuming that this household would have a $250,000 mortgage, $40,000 in car loans, subtracting the debts from the worth of this households assets, this household would have a net worth of $600,000. Net worth can vary with fluctuations in value of the underlying assets, the wealth—more specifically, the median net worth—of households in the United States is varied with relation to race and education. As one would expect, households with greater income feature the highest net worths, overall the number of wealthier households is on the rise, with baby boomers hitting the highs of their careers. In addition, wealth is distributed, with the wealthiest 25% of US households owning 87% of the wealth in the United States. U. S. household and non-profit organization net worth rose from $44.2 trillion in Q12000 to a peak of $67.7 trillion in Q32007. It then fell $13.1 trillion to $54.6 trillion in Q12009 due to the mortgage crisis. It then recovered, rising consistently to $86.8 trillion by Q42015 and this is nearly double the 2000 level. Including human capital such as skills, the United Nations estimated the wealth of the United States in 2008 to be $118 trillion. While income is seen as a type of wealth in colloquial language use, wealth. Wealth is the number of net possessions of an individual or household. Hence the change in wealth over time period is equal to the income minus the expenditures in that period. Income is a so called flow variable, while wealth is a so called stock variable, overall the percentage of households with a negative net worth declined from 9. 5% in 1989 to 4. 1% in 2001. The percentage of net worths ranging from $500,000 to one million doubled while the percentage of millionaires tripled, during this time frame, wealth became increasingly unequal, and the wealthiest 25% became even wealthier. According to US Census Bureau statistics this Upward shift is most likely the result of a housing market which caused homeowners to experience tremendous increases in home equity. Life-cycles have also attributed to the rising wealth among Americans, zhu Xiao Di notes that household wealth usually peaks around families headed by people in their 50s, and as a result, the baby boomer generation reached this age range at the time of the analysis. Household net worth fell from 2007 to 2009 by a total of $17.5 trillion or 25. 5% and this was the equivalent loss of one year of GDP. By the fourth quarter of 2010, the net worth had recovered by a growth of 1.3 percent to a total of $56.8 trillion
3.
United States Department of Education
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The United States Department of Education, also referred to as the ED for Education Department, is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. Recreated by the Department of Education Organization Act and signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on October 17,1979, the Department of Education Organization Act divided the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare into the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. The Department of Education is administered by the United States Secretary of Education and it has approximately 4,400 employees and an annual budget of $68 billion. The agencys official abbreviation is ED, because DOE instead refers to the United States Department of Energy and it is also often abbreviated informally as DoEd. The Department of Education does not establish schools or colleges and this has been left to state and local school districts. The Departments mission is, to student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence. For 2006, the ED discretionary budget was $56 billion and the mandatory budget contained $23 billion, in 2009 it received additional ARRA funding of $102 billion. As of 2011, the budget is $70 billion. A previous Department of Education was created in 1867 but was demoted to an Office in 1868. As an agency not represented in the cabinet, it quickly became a relatively minor bureau in the Department of the Interior. In 1939, the bureau was transferred to the Federal Security Agency, in 1953, the Federal Security Agency was upgraded to cabinet-level status as the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. In 1979, President Carter advocated for creating a cabinet-level Department of Education, carters plan was to transfer most of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfares education-related functions to the Department of Education. Carter also planned to transfer the education-related functions of the departments of Defense, Justice, Housing and Urban Development, however, many see the department as constitutional under the Commerce Clause, and that the funding role of the Department is constitutional under the Taxing and Spending Clause. The National Education Association supported the bill, while the American Federation of Teachers opposed it, as of 1979, the Office of Education had 3,000 employees and an annual budget of $12 billion. Congress appropriated to the Department of Education an annual budget of $14 billion and 17,000 employees when establishing the Department of Education, once in office, President Reagan succeeded significantly to reduce the budget. In the 1982 State of the Union Address, he pledged, after the Newt Gingrich-led revolution in 1994 had taken control of both Houses of Congress, federal control of and spending on education soared. The GOP platform read, The Federal government has no authority to be involved in school curricula or to control jobs in the market place. This is why we will abolish the Department of Education, end federal meddling in our schools, during his 1996 presidential run, Senator Bob Dole promised, Were going to cut out the Department of Education
4.
United States Census Bureau
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The United States Census Bureau is a principal agency of the U. S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureaus primary mission is conducting the U. S. Census every ten years, in addition to the decennial census, the Census Bureau continually conducts dozens of other censuses and surveys, including the American Community Survey, the U. S. Economic Census, and the Current Population Survey, furthermore, economic and foreign trade indicators released by the federal government typically contain data produced by the Census Bureau. The Bureaus various censuses and surveys help allocate over $400 billion in federal funds every year and help states, local communities, the Census Bureau is part of the U. S. Department of Commerce and its director is appointed by the President of the United States. The Census Bureau now conducts a population count every 10 years in years ending with a 0. Between censuses, the Census Bureau makes population estimates and projections, the Census Bureau is mandated with fulfilling these obligations, the collecting of statistics about the nation, its people, and economy. The Census Bureaus legal authority is codified in Title 13 of the United States Code, the Census Bureau also conducts surveys on behalf of various federal government and local government agencies on topics such as employment, crime, health, consumer expenditures, and housing. Within the bureau, these are known as surveys and are conducted perpetually between and during decennial population counts. The Census Bureau also conducts surveys of manufacturing, retail, service. Between 1790 and 1840, the census was taken by marshals of the judicial districts, the Census Act of 1840 established a central office which became known as the Census Office. Several acts followed that revised and authorized new censuses, typically at the 10-year intervals, in 1902, the temporary Census Office was moved under the Department of Interior, and in 1903 it was renamed the Census Bureau under the new Department of Commerce and Labor. The department was intended to consolidate overlapping statistical agencies, but Census Bureau officials were hindered by their role in the department. An act in 1920 changed the date and authorized manufacturing censuses every 2 years, in 1929, a bill was passed mandating the House of Representatives be reapportioned based on the results of the 1930 Census. In 1954, various acts were codified into Title 13 of the US Code, by law, the Census Bureau must count everyone and submit state population totals to the U. S. President by December 31 of any year ending in a zero. States within the Union receive the results in the spring of the following year, the United States Census Bureau defines four statistical regions, with nine divisions. The Census Bureau regions are widely used. for data collection, the Census Bureau definition is pervasive. Title 13 of the U. S. Code establishes penalties for the disclosure of this information, all Census employees must sign an affidavit of non-disclosure prior to employment. The Bureau cannot share responses, addresses or personal information with anyone including United States or foreign government, only after 72 years does the information collected become available to other agencies or the general public
5.
Racial achievement gap in the United States
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The racial achievement gap in the United States refers to the educational disparities between various ethnic groups. The evidence, antecedents, implications, and successes of the achievement gap are discussed below, over the past 45 years, students in the United States have made notable gains in academic achievement. However, the achievement gap remains because not all groups of students are advancing at the same rates. The racial achievement gap has been found to exist before students enter kindergarten for their first year of schooling, at the start of kindergarten, Hispanic and black students have math and reading scores substantially lower than those of white students. While both Hispanics and blacks scores have significantly lower test scores than their counterparts, Hispanic. In a study published in 2009, Reardon and Galindo specifically examine test scores by race, the data Reardon and Galindo use comes from the ECLS-K, sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics. The ECLS-K contains data on a representative sample of approximately 21,400 students from the kindergarten class of 1998–1999. Students in the sample were assessed in reading and mathematics skills six times from 1998 to 2004, the content areas of the tests are based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress fourth-grade content areas, adapted to be age appropriate at each grade level. The assessments were scored using a three-parameter Item Response Theory model, six years later, Hispanic-white gaps narrow by roughly a third, whereas black-white gaps widen by about a third. More specifically, the Hispanic-white gap is a standard deviation in math. The trends in the Hispanic-white gaps are especially interesting because of the rapid narrowing that occurs between kindergarten and first grade, in a 2006 study published in the Review of Economics and Statistics, Clotfelter examines test scores of elementary and middle school students by race. North Carolina requires all students to take standardized achievement tests in math and reading at the end of every grade between grades 3 and 8. On this normalized scale, positive scores denote above-average performances relative to the statewide average, analysis by Clotfelter found gaps between four different racial groups, whites, Asians, Hispanics, and blacks. Essentially, while the black-white gaps are substantial, both Hispanic and Asian students tend to gain on whites as they progress in school. The white-black achievement gap in math scores is about half a standard deviation, by fifth grade, Hispanic and white students have roughly the same math and reading scores. By eighth grade, scores for Hispanic students in North Carolina surpassed those of observationally equivalent whites by roughly a tenth of a standard deviation and these differences in initial status are compounded by differences in reading gains made during high school. Specifically, between ninth and tenth grades, white students gain more than black students and Hispanic students. Between tenth and twelfth grades, white students gain at a faster rate than black students
6.
African Americans
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African Americans are an ethnic group of Americans with total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. The term may also be used to only those individuals who are descended from enslaved Africans. As a compound adjective the term is usually hyphenated as African-American, Black and African Americans constitute the third largest racial and ethnic group in the United States. Most African Americans are of West and Central African descent and are descendants of enslaved peoples within the boundaries of the present United States. On average, African Americans are of 73. 2–80. 9% West African, 18–24% European, according to US Census Bureau data, African immigrants generally do not self-identify as African American. The overwhelming majority of African immigrants identify instead with their own respective ethnicities, immigrants from some Caribbean, Central American and South American nations and their descendants may or may not also self-identify with the term. After the founding of the United States, black people continued to be enslaved, believed to be inferior to white people, they were treated as second-class citizens. The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited U. S. citizenship to whites only, in 2008, Barack Obama became the first African American to be elected President of the United States. The first African slaves arrived via Santo Domingo to the San Miguel de Gualdape colony, the ill-fated colony was almost immediately disrupted by a fight over leadership, during which the slaves revolted and fled the colony to seek refuge among local Native Americans. De Ayllón and many of the colonists died shortly afterwards of an epidemic, the settlers and the slaves who had not escaped returned to Haiti, whence they had come. The first recorded Africans in British North America were 20 and odd negroes who came to Jamestown, as English settlers died from harsh conditions, more and more Africans were brought to work as laborers. Typically, young men or women would sign a contract of indenture in exchange for transportation to the New World, the landowner received 50 acres of land from the state for each servant purchased from a ships captain. An indentured servant would work for years without wages. The status of indentured servants in early Virginia and Maryland was similar to slavery, servants could be bought, sold, or leased and they could be physically beaten for disobedience or running away. Africans could legally raise crops and cattle to purchase their freedom and they raised families, married other Africans and sometimes intermarried with Native Americans or English settlers. By the 1640s and 1650s, several African families owned farms around Jamestown and some became wealthy by colonial standards and purchased indentured servants of their own. In 1640, the Virginia General Court recorded the earliest documentation of slavery when they sentenced John Punch. One of Dutch African arrivals, Anthony Johnson, would own one of the first black slaves, John Casor
7.
Bachelor's degree
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A bachelors degree or baccalaureate is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to seven years. In some institutions and educational systems, some bachelors degrees can only be taken as graduate or postgraduate degrees after a first degree has been completed. The term bachelor in the 12th century referred to a knight bachelor, by the end of the 13th century, it was also used by junior members of guilds or universities. By folk etymology or wordplay, the word came to be associated with bacca lauri in reference to laurels being awarded for academic success or honours. An honours degree generally requires an academic standard than a pass degree. In most African countries, the university systems follow the model of their former colonizing power, for example, the Nigerian university system is similar to the British system, while the Ivorian system is akin to the French. The degree is typically identical to the program of Frances universities, bachelors degree programs cover most of the fields in Algerian universities, except some fields, such as Medicine and Pharmaceutical Science. Bachelors degrees at the University of Botswana normally take four years, the system draws on both British and American models. Degrees are classified as First Class, Second Class Division One, Second Class Division Two and Third as in English degrees, but without being described as honours. The main degrees are named by British tradition, but in recent years there have been a numbers of degrees named after specific subjects, such as Bachelor of Library, in Morocco, a bachelors degree is referred to as al-ʾijāzah. The course of study takes three years, which are divided into two cycles. The first cycle comprises the first, or propaedeutic, year, after successfully completing their first two years, students can pursue either theoretical specialization or professional specialization. The second cycle is one long, after whose completion students receive the licence détudes fondamentales or the licence professionnelle. This academic degree system was introduced in September 2003, University admission is extremely competitive, with attendant advantages and disadvantages. Nonetheless, it takes four to five years to complete a bachelors degree, in cases of poor performance, the time limit is double the standard amount of time. For example, one may not study for more than 10 years for a five-year course, students are normally asked to leave if they must take longer. B. Arch. and other specialized undergraduate degrees, such as B. Eng, Science undergraduate degrees may require six months or a semester dedicated to SIWES but it is usually mandatory for all engineering degrees. A semester for project work/thesis is required, not excluding course work, the classifications of degrees, first-class, second-class, third-class and a pass
8.
Asian Americans
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Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The term refers to a group that includes diverse populations who have ancestral origins in East Asia, Southeast Asia, or South Asia. This includes people who indicate their race on the census as Asian or reported entries such as Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Other Asian. Asian Americans with no other ancestry comprise 4. 8% of the U. S. population, although migrants from Asia have been in parts of the contemporary United States since the 17th century, large-scale immigration did not begin until the mid-18th century. Nativist immigration laws during the 1880s-1920s excluded various Asian groups, eventually prohibiting almost all Asian immigration to the continental United States, after immigration laws were reformed during the 1940s-60s, abolishing national origins quotas, Asian immigration increased rapidly. Analyses of the 2010 census have shown that Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial or ethnic minority in the United States, starting in the first few years of the 2000 decade, Asian American earnings began exceeding all other racial groups for both men and women. For example, in 2008 Asian Americans had the highest median household income overall of any racial demographic, in 2012, Asian Americans had the highest educational attainment level and median household income of any racial demographic in the country. In 2015, Asian American men were the highest earning racial group as they earned 117% as much as white American men, once country of birth and other demographic factors are taken into account, Asian Americans are no more likely than non-Hispanic whites to live in poverty. As with other racial and ethnicity based terms, formal and common usage have changed markedly through the history of this term. Prior to the late 1960s, people of Asian ancestry were referred to as Oriental, Asiatic. Today, Asian American is the term for most formal purposes, such as government and academic research. The most commonly used definition of Asian American is the US Census Bureau definition, which all people with origins in the Far East, Southeast Asia. This is chiefly because the census definitions determine many government classifications, notably for equal opportunity programs, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, Asian person in the United States is sometimes thought of as a person of East Asian descent. In vernacular usage, Asian is often used to refer to those of East Asian descent or anyone else of Asian descent with epicanthic eyefolds. This differs from the U. S. Census definition and the Asian American Studies departments in many universities consider all those of East, before 1980, Census forms listed particular Asian ancestries as separate groups, along with white and black or negro. Asian Americans had also been classified as other, in 1977, the federal Office of Management and Budget issued a directive requiring government agencies to maintain statistics on racial groups, including on Asian or Pacific Islander. The 1980 census marked the first classification of Asians as a large group, by the 1990 census, Asian or Pacific Islander was included as an explicit category, although respondents had to select one particular ancestry as a subcategory. The 2000 census onwards separated the category into two separate ones, Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, the definition of Asian American has variations that derive from the use of the word American in different contexts
9.
Hispanic
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The term Hispanic broadly refers to the people, nations, and cultures that have a historical link to Spain. It commonly applies to countries once colonized by the Spanish Empire in the Americas and Asia, particularly the countries of Latin America and the Philippines. It could be argued that the term should apply to all Spanish-speaking cultures or countries and it is difficult to label a nation or culture with one term, such as Hispanic, as the ethnicities, customs, traditions, and art forms vary greatly by country and region. The Spanish language and Spanish culture are the main traditions, the term Hispanic derives from Latin Hispanicus, the adjectival derivation of Latin Hispania and Hispanus/Hispanos, ultimately probably of Celtiberian origin. In English the word is attested from the 16th century, the words Spain, Spanish, and Spaniard are of the same etymology as Hispanus, ultimately. Hispanus was the Latin name given to a person from Hispania during Roman rule, in English, the term Hispano-Roman is sometimes used. The Hispano-Romans were composed of people from different indigenous tribes. A number of men, such as Trajan, Hadrian. Hispano-Roman is used to refer to the culture and people of Hispania, Hispanic is used to refer to modern Spain, to the Spanish language, and to the Spanish-speaking nations of the world and particularly the Americas. Spanish is used to refer to the people, nationality, culture, language, Spaniard is used to refer to the people of Spain. Hispania was the Roman name for the territory of the Iberian Peninsula. Initially, this territory was divided into two provinces, Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior, in 27 B. C, Hispania Ulterior was divided into two new provinces, Hispania Baetica and Hispania Lusitania, while Hispania Citerior was renamed Hispania Tarraconensis. This division of Hispania explains the usage of the singular and plural forms used to refer to the peninsula and this revival of the old Roman concept in the Middle Ages appears to have originated in Provençal, and was first documented at the end of the 11th century. In the Council of Constance, the four kingdoms shared one vote, the word Lusitanian, relates to Lusitania or Portugal, also in reference to the Lusitanians, possibly one of the first Indo-European tribes to settle in Europe. From this tribes name had derived the name of the Roman province of Lusitania, the terms Spain and the Spains were not interchangeable. Spain was a territory, home to several kingdoms, with separate governments, laws, languages, religions, and customs. Spain was not an entity until much later, and when referring to the Middle Ages. The term The Spains referred specifically to a collective of juridico-political units, first the Christian kingdoms, although colloquially and literally the expression King of Spain or King of the Spains was already widespread, it did not refer to a unified nation-state
10.
Natural-born-citizen clause
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Status as a natural-born citizen of the United States is one of the eligibility requirements established in the United States Constitution for holding the office of President or Vice President. This requirement was intended to protect the nation from foreign influence, Constitution uses but does not define the phrase natural born Citizen, and various opinions have been offered over time regarding its precise meaning. The consensus of early 21st-century constitutional scholars, together with relevant case law, is that natural-born citizens include, subject to exceptions, those born in the United States. Many scholars have concluded that those who meet the legal requirements for U. S. citizenship at the moment of birth. Many eligibility lawsuits from the 2008,2012, and 2016 election cycles were dismissed in lower courts due to the difficulty in showing that they had standing to raise legal objections. The Twelfth Amendment states, No person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States, the Fourteenth Amendment does not use the phrase natural-born citizen. It does provide, All persons born or naturalized in the United States, under Article One, representatives and senators are required to be U. S. citizens, but there is no requirement that they be natural born. The use of the natural born was not without precedent. The earliest recorded mention was in Calvins Case, albeit in terms of birth within the jurisdiction of the sovereignty of the King, statutes in Britain prior to American independence used the phrase natural born subject. For example, the British Foreign Protestants Naturalization Act 1708, another use is in the Plantation Act 1740, ll persons born out of the legience of His Majesty, His Heirs, or Successors, who have. Or shall inhabit or reside for, seven years or more in any of His Majesty’s colonies in America. Shall be deemed, adjudged, and taken to be His Majesty’s natural-born subjects of this Kingdom, jurist William Blackstone wrote in 1765 that inhabitants born within England may be natural-born subjects, Natural-born subjects are such as are born within the dominions of the crown of England. Blackstone added that offspring who are not inhabitants may also be natural born subjects, prior to Blackstone, Edward Coke offered a narrower opinion in Calvins Case. The term natural born has often used synonymously with native born. The English lexicographer Samuel Johnson wrote in 1756 that the natural means native. The phrase natural born citizen was used during this period. On June 18,1787, Alexander Hamilton submitted to the Convention a sketch of a plan of government, the sketch provided for an executive Governour but had no eligibility requirements. Max Farrand wrote that it was not submitted to the Convention and has no further value than attaches to the opinions of Hamilton
11.
White Americans
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White Americans are Americans who are considered or reported as White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those having origins in any of the peoples of Europe. Like all official U. S. racial categories, White has a not Hispanic or Latino and a Hispanic or Latino component, the term Caucasian is often used interchangeably with White, although the terms are not synonymous. Whites constitute the majority, with a total of about 246,660,710, non-Hispanic Whites totaled about 197,870,516, or 62. 06% of the U. S. population. Definitions of who is White have changed throughout the history of the United States, the term White American can encompass many different ethnic groups. Although the United States Census purports to reflect a social definition of race, the 2000 U. S. census states that racial categories generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country. They do not conform to any biological, anthropological or genetic criteria, the Census Bureau defines White people as follows, White refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East or North Africa. It includes people who indicated their race as White or reported entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Arab, Moroccan or Caucasian. In U. S. Hispanic and Latino Americans as a make up a racially diverse group. In cases where individuals do not self-identify, the U. S. census parameters for race give each national origin a racial value. Additionally, people who reported Muslim, Jewish, Zoroastrian, or Caucasian as their race in the Some other race section, the US Census considers the write-in response of Caucasian or Aryan to be a synonym for White in their ancestry code listing. In the contemporary United States, essentially anyone of European descent is considered White, the definition of White has changed significantly over the course of American history. Among Europeans those not considered White at some point in American history include Italians, Greeks, Spaniards, Irish, Swedes, Germans, Finns, Russians, early on in the United States, white generally referred to those of British ancestry or northern and northwestern European descent. David R. Roediger argues that the construction of the race in the United States was an effort to mentally distance slave owners from slaves. The process of officially being defined as white by law came about in court disputes over pursuit of citizenship. Scholars such as David Roediger, Paul Gilroy, and others have based some of their work on this notion, moreover, Whites tend to be disproportionately represented in powerful positions, controlling almost all political, economic, and cultural institutions. Whites made up 79. 8% or 75% of the American population in 2008 and this latter number is sometimes recorded as 77. 1% when it includes about 2% of the population who are identified as white in combination with one or more other races. The largest ethnic groups among White Americans were Germans, followed by Irish and English, White Americans are projected to remain the majority, though with their percentage decreasing to 72% of the total population by 2050
12.
Human capital flight
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Human capital flight refers to the emigration of highly skilled or well-educated individuals. Research is mixed as to whether there are net benefits, a gain, or net costs. Benefits and costs might vary per case, geographical, The flight of highly trained individuals and college graduates from their area of residence. Industrial, The movement of skilled workers from one sector of an industry to another. As with other human migration, the environment is often considered to be a key reason for this population shift. At the individual level, family influences, as well as personal preferences, career ambitions and other motivating factors, the term brain drain was coined by the Royal Society to describe the emigration of scientists and technologists to North America from post-war Europe. Another source indicates that this term was first used in the United Kingdom to describe the influx of Indian scientists, there are also other relevant phrases, brain circulation and brain waste. „Brain-drain‟ is a phenomenon where, relative to the remaining population, after all, research indicates that there may be net human capital gains, a brain gain, for the sending country in opportunities for emigration. One of the last leading figures of this group was Simplicius, a pupil of Damascius, the students of an academy-in-exile may have survived into the ninth century, long enough to facilitate the Arabic revival of the Neoplatonist commentary tradition in Baghdad. After the end of the Catholic reconquest of Spain, the Catholic Monarchs pursued a religiously uniform kingdom, Jews were expelled from the country in 1492. Before that, the Queen had also expelled them from the Kingdom of Andalusia, the war against Turks and North African Moors affected internal policy in the uprising of the Alpujarras and motivated the expulsion of the Moriscos in 1609. Despite being a minority group, they were a key part of the farming sector and their departure contributed to economic decline in some regions of Spain. This way, the conservative aristocracy increased its power over economically developed provinces, in 1685, Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes and declared Protestantism to be illegal in the Edict of Fontainebleau. Many went to the Dutch colony at the Cape, where they were instrumental in establishing a wine industry, at least 10,000 went to Ireland, where they were assimilated into the Protestant minority during the plantations. Many Huguenots and their descendants prospered, henri Basnage de Beauval fled France and settled in the Netherlands, where he became an influential writer and historian. Abel Boyer, another noted writer, settled in London and became a tutor to the British Royal Family, henry Fourdrinier, the descendant of Huguenot settlers in England, founded the modern paper industry. Augustin Courtauld fled to England, settling in Essex and established a dynasty founded the British silk industry. Noted Swiss mathematician Gabriel Cramer was born in Geneva to Huguenot refugees, sir John Houblon, the first Governor of the Bank of England, was born into a Huguenot family in London
13.
Average
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In colloquial language, an average is the sum of a list of numbers divided by the number of numbers in the list. In mathematics and statistics, this would be called the arithmetic mean, in statistics, mean, median, and mode are all known as measures of central tendency. The most common type of average is the arithmetic mean, one may find that A = /2 =5. Switching the order of 2 and 8 to read 8 and 2 does not change the value obtained for A. The mean 5 is not less than the minimum 2 nor greater than the maximum 8. If we increase the number of terms in the list to 2,8, and 11, one finds that A = /3 =7. Along with the arithmetic mean above, the mean and the harmonic mean are known collectively as the Pythagorean means. The geometric mean of n numbers is obtained by multiplying them all together. See Inequality of arithmetic and geometric means, thus for the above harmonic mean example, AM =50, GM ≈49, and HM =48 km/h. The mode, the median, and the mid-range are often used in addition to the mean as estimates of central tendency in descriptive statistics, the most frequently occurring number in a list is called the mode. For example, the mode of the list is 3 and it may happen that there are two or more numbers which occur equally often and more often than any other number. In this case there is no agreed definition of mode, some authors say they are all modes and some say there is no mode. The median is the number of the group when they are ranked in order. Thus to find the median, order the list according to its elements magnitude, if exactly one value is left, it is the median, if two values, the median is the arithmetic mean of these two. This method takes the list 1,7,3,13, then the 1 and 13 are removed to obtain the list 3,7. Since there are two elements in this remaining list, the median is their arithmetic mean, /2 =5, the table of mathematical symbols explains the symbols used below. Other more sophisticated averages are, trimean, trimedian, and normalized mean, one can create ones own average metric using the generalized f-mean, y = f −1 where f is any invertible function. The harmonic mean is an example of this using f = 1/x, however, this method for generating means is not general enough to capture all averages
14.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
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Race (human categorization)
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Race is the classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, ancestry, genetics, or social relations, or the relations between them. First used to refer to speakers of a language and then to denote national affiliations. The term was used in a general biological taxonomic sense, starting from the 19th century. Social conceptions and groupings of races vary over time, involving folk taxonomies that define essential types of individuals based on perceived traits, scientists consider biological essentialism obsolete, and generally discourage racial explanations for collective differentiation in both physical and behavioral traits. Although still used in contexts, race has often been replaced by less ambiguous and emotionally charged synonyms, populations, people, ethnic groups, or communities. A popular view in American sociology is that the categories that are common in everyday usage are socially constructed. For this reason, there is no current consensus about whether racial categories can be considered to have significance for understanding human genetic variation, when people define and talk about a particular conception of race, they create a social reality through which social categorization is achieved. In this sense, races are said to be social constructs and these constructs develop within various legal, economic, and sociopolitical contexts, and may be the effect, rather than the cause, of major social situations. Socioeconomic factors, in combination with early but enduring views of race, have led to considerable suffering within disadvantaged racial groups, as a result, racial groups possessing relatively little power often find themselves excluded or oppressed, while hegemonic individuals and institutions are charged with holding racist attitudes. Racism has led to instances of tragedy, including slavery. In some countries, law enforcement uses race to profile suspects and this use of racial categories is frequently criticized for perpetuating an outmoded understanding of human biological variation, and promoting stereotypes. Because in some societies racial groupings correspond closely with patterns of stratification, for social scientists studying social inequality. As sociological factors, racial categories may in part reflect subjective attributions, self-identities, accordingly, the racial paradigms employed in different disciplines vary in their emphasis on biological reduction as contrasted with societal construction. Groups of humans have identified themselves as distinct from neighboring groups. These features are the features of how the concept of race is used today. As Europeans encountered people from different parts of the world, they speculated about the physical, social, a set of folk beliefs took hold that linked inherited physical differences between groups to inherited intellectual, behavioral, and moral qualities. Brutal conflicts between groups have existed throughout history and across the world. In the 18th century the differences among human groups became a focus of scientific investigation, Homo sapiens europaeus was described as active, acute, and adventurous, whereas Homo sapiens afer was said to be crafty, lazy, and careless
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European Americans
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European Americans are Americans with ancestry from Europe. The Spanish were the first Europeans to establish a presence in what is now the United States. Martín de Argüelles born 1566, St. Augustine, Spanish Florida, was the first known person of European descent born in what is now the United States. Twenty-one years later, Virginia Dare, born in 1587 on Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina, was the first child born in the Thirteen Colonies to English parents. 8% of the total population, European Americans are included in the category of White. White is defined by the United States Census Bureau as a person having origins in any of the peoples of Europe. According to the US Census, European Americans are a subset of White Americans, the term Non-Hispanic White is often used as a proxy for European Americans, although that also includes a small fraction of peoples of Middle Eastern descent. In 1995, as part of a review of the Office of Management,15, a survey was conducted of census recipients to determine their preferred terminology for the racial/ethnic groups defined in the Directive. For the White group, European American came third, preferred by 2. 35% of panel interviewees, the term is used interchangeably with Caucasian American, White American, and Anglo American in many places around the United States. Also, whereas the terms White American and Caucasian American carry somewhat ambiguous definitions, depending on the speaker, European American has a specific definition. According to linguist Janet Bing, the term European American has increased a little in use, the term is used by some to emphasize the European cultural and geographical ancestral origins of Americans, in the same way as is done for African Americans and Asian Americans. A European American awareness is still notable because 90% of the classified as white in the U. S. Census knew their European ancestry. Historically, the concept of an American originated in the United States as a person of European ancestry, thus excluding African Americans, as a linguistic concern, the term is sometimes meant to discourage a dichotomous view of the racial landscape between the white category and everyone else. Margo Adair suggests that the recognition of specific European American ancestries allows certain Americans to become aware that they come from a variety of different cultures, since 1607, some 57 million immigrants have come to the United States from other lands. Approximately 10 million passed through on their way to other place or returned to their original homelands. Prior to 1960, the majority came from Europe or European descent from Canada. In 1960 for example,75. 0% of foreign-born population in the United States came from the region of Europe. Before 1881, the vast majority of immigrants, almost 86% of the total, arrived from northwest Europe, principally Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, the years between 1881 and 1893 the pattern shifted, in the sources of U. S. Between 1894 and 1914, immigrants from southern, central, some people of colonial stock, especially in the Mid-Atlantic states, are also of Dutch, German and Flemish descent
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Racial wage gap in the United States
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In the United States, despite the efforts of equality proponents, income inequality persists among races. Asian Americans have the highest average income, followed by White Americans, Latino Americans, African Americans, when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, it became illegal for employers to discriminate based on race, however, income disparities have not flattened out. As of 2009, the weekly wage for African American and Hispanic workers was about 65 percent and 61 percent that of White workers. Asian workers median wage was about 101 percent that of white workers, overall, minority womens wages in comparison to those of white women are better than minority mens wages when compared to those of white men. Knowing the inequalities in the wages of various races is useful for understanding the overall racial inequality in the United States because of the role that wages play. The factors contributing to the gaps for various races and the degree to which they affect each race varies. Education is one of the most influential determinants of wage, varying education levels among races lead to different wages for various racial groups. Education affects wages because it allows access to occupations of higher status that offer greater earnings, when the education of different groups becomes more equal, wage gaps decrease, though they do not disappear. The way in which races are distributed throughout occupations affects the wage gap. White and Asian Americans, who have the highest median incomes, are concentrated more in professional, executive, occupational distribution varies for women of various races as well. White and Asian women are likely to work in managerial and professional occupations, while black, Hispanic. Thus, because certain races are more likely to have lower-paying jobs, a study conducted by Kenneth Couch and Mary Daly found that the occupational distribution between blacks and white improved between 1970 and the 1990s. In 1968, a male was only 20 percent as likely to be employed as a manager as a white male. In 1998, the percentages increased to 50% and 70 percent, despite this improvement, however, occupational distribution differences still exist between blacks and whites. In 1998, a male was still more likely than a white male to work in lower-skills jobs. The globalization of the United States economy in the 1970s and 1980s caused a shift in the U. S. income distribution, as the United States joined the global market economy, three outcomes occurred. Those who possessed financial and human capital, such as education, succeeded in the new economy because the money and those who possessed only labor did not fare well because cheap, physical labor was in oversupply in the global market. The increase in wage inequality created by the new economys lower demand for physical labor disproportionately affected minorities as well
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Simpson's paradox
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It is sometimes given the descriptive title reversal paradox or amalgamation paradox. This result is often encountered in social-science and medical-science statistics and is particularly confounding when frequency data is unduly given causal interpretations, the paradoxical elements disappear when causal relations are brought into consideration. Many statisticians believe that the public should be informed of the counter-intuitive results in statistics such as Simpsons paradox. Martin Gardner wrote an account of Simpsons paradox in his March 1976 Mathematical Games column in Scientific American. Edward H. Simpson first described this phenomenon in a paper in 1951, but the statisticians Karl Pearson et al. in 1899. The name Simpsons paradox was introduced by Colin R. Blyth in 1972, one of the best-known examples of Simpsons paradox is a study of gender bias among graduate school admissions to University of California, Berkeley. The admission figures for the fall of 1973 showed that men applying were more likely than women to be admitted, but when examining the individual departments, it appeared that six out of 85 departments were significantly biased against men, whereas only four were significantly biased against women. In fact, the pooled and corrected data showed a small, the data from the six largest departments is listed below. The research paper by Bickel et al, the conditions under which the admissions frequency data from specific departments constitute a proper defense against charges of discrimination are formulated in the book Causality by Judea Pearl. This is an example from a medical study comparing the success rates of two treatments for kidney stones. The numbers in parentheses indicate the number of cases over the total size of the group. In this example, the variable is the severity of the case. Which treatment is considered better is determined by an inequality between two ratios, doctors tend to give the severe cases the better treatment, and the milder cases the inferior treatment. Therefore, the totals are dominated by groups 3 and 2, the lurking variable has a large effect on the ratios, i. e. the success rate is more strongly influenced by the severity of the case than by the choice of treatment. Therefore, the group of patients with large stones using treatment A does worse than the group with small stones, based on these effects, the paradoxical result is seen to arise by suppression of the causal effect of the severity of the case on successful treatment. The paradoxical result can be rephrased more accurately as follows, When the less effective treatment is applied frequently to less severe cases. The low birth weight paradox is an apparently paradoxical observation relating to the birth weights, as a usual practice, babies weighing less than a certain amount have been classified as having low birth weight. In a given population, babies with low birth weights have had a higher infant mortality rate than others
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Blue-collar worker
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In English-speaking countries, a blue-collar worker is a working class person who performs non-agricultural manual labour. Often something is physically being built or maintained, in contrast, the white-collar worker typically performs work in an office environment and may involve sitting at a computer or desk. A third type of work is a worker whose labour is related to customer interaction, entertainment. Many occupations blend blue, white or pink industry categorizations, blue-collar work is often paid hourly wage-labor, although some professionals may be paid by the project or salaried. There is a range of payscales for such work depending upon field of specialty. Industrial and manual workers wear durable canvas or cotton clothing that may be soiled during the course of their work. Navy and light blue colors conceal potential dirt or grease on the clothing, helping him or her to appear cleaner. For the same reason, blue is a color for boilersuits which protect a workers clothing. Some blue collar workers have uniforms with the name of the business or the name embroidered or printed on it. Historically the popularity of the color blue among manual labourers contrasts with the popularity of white shirts worn by people in office environments. The blue collar/white collar color scheme has socio-economic class connotations, however, this distinction has become blurred with the increasing importance of skilled labour, and the relative increase in low-paying white-collar jobs. The term blue collar was first used in reference to trades jobs in 1924, Alden, a higher level academic education is often not required for many blue-collar jobs. However, certain fields may require specialized training, licensing or certification as well as a school diploma or GED. With the information revolution, Western nations have moved towards a service, many manufacturing jobs have been offshored to developing nations which pay their workers lower wages. This offshoring has pushed formerly agrarian nations to industrialized economies and concurrently decreased the number of jobs in developed countries. Due to this economic osmosis, the rust belt has experienced high unemployment, poverty, blue-collar can be used as an adjective to describe the environment of the blue-collar worker such as a blue-collar neighborhood, restaurant, or bar
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Agriculture
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Agriculture is the cultivation and breeding of animals, plants and fungi for food, fiber, biofuel, medicinal plants and other products used to sustain and enhance human life. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of human civilization. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science, the history of agriculture dates back thousands of years, and its development has been driven and defined by greatly different climates, cultures, and technologies. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture farming has become the dominant agricultural methodology, genetically modified organisms are an increasing component of agriculture, although they are banned in several countries. Agricultural food production and water management are increasingly becoming global issues that are fostering debate on a number of fronts, the major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers, fuels, and raw materials. Specific foods include cereals, vegetables, fruits, oils, meats, fibers include cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax. Raw materials include lumber and bamboo, other useful materials are also produced by plants, such as resins, dyes, drugs, perfumes, biofuels and ornamental products such as cut flowers and nursery plants. The word agriculture is a late Middle English adaptation of Latin agricultūra, from ager, field, Agriculture usually refers to human activities, although it is also observed in certain species of ant, termite and ambrosia beetle. To practice agriculture means to use resources to produce commodities which maintain life, including food, fiber, forest products, horticultural crops. This definition includes arable farming or agronomy, and horticulture, all terms for the growing of plants, even then, it is acknowledged that there is a large amount of knowledge transfer and overlap between silviculture and agriculture. In traditional farming, the two are often combined even on small landholdings, leading to the term agroforestry, Agriculture began independently in different parts of the globe, and included a diverse range of taxa. At least 11 separate regions of the Old and New World were involved as independent centers of origin, wild grains were collected and eaten from at least 105,000 years ago. Pigs were domesticated in Mesopotamia around 15,000 years ago, rice was domesticated in China between 13,500 and 8,200 years ago, followed by mung, soy and azuki beans. Sheep were domesticated in Mesopotamia between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago. From around 11,500 years ago, the eight Neolithic founder crops, emmer and einkorn wheat, hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax were cultivated in the Levant. Cattle were domesticated from the aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey. In the Andes of South America, the potato was domesticated between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago, along with beans, coca, llamas, alpacas, sugarcane and some root vegetables were domesticated in New Guinea around 9,000 years ago. Sorghum was domesticated in the Sahel region of Africa by 7,000 years ago, cotton was domesticated in Peru by 5,600 years ago, and was independently domesticated in Eurasia at an unknown time
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Northeastern United States
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The Northeast is one of the four regions defined by the Census Bureau for the collection and analysis of statistics. The Census Bureau-defined region has an area of 181,324 sq mi with 162,257 square miles of that being land mass. Though lacking a unified identity, the Northeastern region is the nations most economically developed, densely populated. Of the nations four census regions, the Northeast is the second most urban, with 85 percent of its residing in urban areas. The region is subdivided into New England and the Mid-Atlantic States and this definition has been essentially unchanged since 1880 and is widely used as a standard for data tabulation. C. Similarly, the Geological Society of America defines the Northeast as these same states but with the addition of Maryland, the narrowest definitions include only the states of New England. Other more restrictive definitions include New England and New York as part of the Northeast United States, States beyond the Census Bureau definition that other entities include in the Northeast United States are, Delaware, Maryland, and Washington, D. C. Delaware, Maryland, Washington, D. C. and West Virginia Delaware, Maryland, Washington, most did not settle in North America until the 17th century. Among the many tribes that inhabited this area were those made up the Iroquois nations. In the United States of the 21st century,18 federally recognized tribes reside in the Northeast, the two cultural and geographic regions that form parts of the Northeastern region have distinct histories. The first Europeans to settle New England were Pilgrims from England, the Pilgrims arrived by the Mayflower ship and founded Plymouth Colony so they could practice religion freely. Ten years later, a group of Puritans settled north of Plymouth Colony in Boston to form Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1636, colonists established Connecticut Colony and Providence Plantations, Providence was founded by Roger Williams, who was banished by Massachusetts for his beliefs in freedom of religion, and it was the first colony to guarantee all citizens freedom of worship. Anne Hutchinson, who was banished by Massachusetts, formed the town of Portsmouth. Providence, Portsmouth, and two towns consolidated to form the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Although the first settlers of New England were motivated by religion, in recent history. In a 2009 Gallup survey, less than half of residents in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts reported religion as an important part of their daily life. In a 2010 Gallup survey, less than 30% of residents in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, New England played a prominent role in early American education
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Western United States
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The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West, the Far West, or simply the West, traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because European settlement in the U. S. expanded westward after its founding, prior to about 1800, the crest of the Appalachian Mountains was seen as the western frontier. Since then, the frontier moved westward and eventually lands west of the Mississippi River came to be referred to as the West. The West contains several major biomes, the Western U. S. is the largest region of the country, covering more than half the land area of the United States. Given this expansive and diverse geography it is no wonder the region is difficult to specifically define, a majority of the historian respondents placed the eastern boundary of the West east of the Census definition out on the eastern edge of the Great Plains or on the Mississippi River. The survey respondents as a whole showed just how little agreement there was on the boundaries of the West, within a region as large and diverse as the Western United States, smaller areas with more closely shared demographics and geography have developed as subregions. Meanwhile, the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington can be considered part of the Northwest or Pacific Northwest, West Texas in the Chihuahuan Desert may be considered as part of the Western U. S. Fort Worth has long laid claim to be Where the West Begins, the West is still one of the most sparsely settled areas in the United States with 49.5 inhabitants per square mile. Only Texas with 78.0 inhabitants/sq mi, Washington with 86.0 inhabitants/sq mi. and California with 213.4 inhabitants/sq mi. exceed the national average of 77.98 inhabitants/sq mi. The entire Western region has also strongly influenced by European, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Native Americans. African and European Americans, however, continue to wield a stronger political influence because of the rates of citizenship and voting among Asians. The West also contains much of the Native American population in the U. S. particularly in the reservations in the Mountain. The Western United States has a sex ratio than any other region in the United States. Because the tide of development had not yet reached most of the West when conservation became an issue, agencies of the federal government own. National parks are reserved for activities such as fishing, camping, hiking, and boating, but other government lands also allow commercial activities like ranching, logging. The largest city in the region is Los Angeles, located on the West Coast, Other West Coast cities include San Diego, San Bernardino, San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, Bakersfield, Sacramento, Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland. Prominent cities in the Mountain States include Denver, Colorado Springs, Phoenix, Tucson, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Boise, El Paso, and Cheyenne. Along the Pacific Ocean coast lie the Coast Ranges, which and they collect a large part of the airborne moisture moving in from the ocean
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Southern United States
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The Southern United States, commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South, is a region of the United States of America. The South does not fully match the geographic south of the United States, arizona and New Mexico, which are geographically in the southern part of the country, are rarely considered part, while West Virginia, which separated from Virginia in 1863, commonly is. Some scholars have proposed definitions of the South that do not coincide neatly with state boundaries, while the states of Delaware and Maryland, as well as the District of Columbia permitted slavery prior to the start of the Civil War, they remained with the Union. However, the United States Census Bureau puts them in the South, usually, the South is defined as including the southeastern and south-central United States. The region is known for its culture and history, having developed its own customs, musical styles, and cuisines, the Southern ethnic heritage is diverse and includes strong European, African, and some Native American components. Since the late 1960s, black people have many offices in Southern states, especially in the coastal states of Virginia. Historically, the South relied heavily on agriculture, and was rural until after 1945. It has since become more industrialized and urban and has attracted national and international migrants, the American South is now among the fastest-growing areas in the United States. Houston is the largest city in the Southern United States, sociological research indicates that Southern collective identity stems from political, demographic, and cultural distinctiveness from the rest of the United States. The region contains almost all of the Bible Belt, an area of high Protestant church attendance and predominantly conservative, indeed, studies have shown that Southerners are more conservative than non-Southerners in several areas, including religion, morality, international relations and race relations. Apart from its climate, the experience in the South increasingly resembles the rest of the nation. The arrival of millions of Northerners and millions of Hispanics meant the introduction of cultural values, the process has worked both ways, however, with aspects of Southern culture spreading throughout a greater portion of the rest of the United States in a process termed Southernization. The question of how to define the subregions in the South has been the focus of research for nearly a century, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, the Southern region of the United States includes sixteen states. As of 2010, an estimated 114,555,744 people, or thirty-seven percent of all U. S. residents, lived in the South, the nations most populous region. Other terms related to the South include, The Old South, the New South, usually including the South Atlantic States. The Solid South, region largely controlled by the Democratic Party from 1877 to 1964, before that, blacks were elected to national office and many to local office through the 1880s, Populist-Republican coalitions gained victories for Fusionist candidates for governors in the 1890s. Includes at least all the 11 former Confederate States, Southeastern United States, usually including the Carolinas, the Virginias, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. The Deep South, various definitions, usually including Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, occasionally, parts of adjoining states are included
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Midwestern United States
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It was officially named the North Central region by the Census Bureau until 1984. Illinois is the most populous of the states and North Dakota the least, a 2012 report from the United States Census put the population of the Midwest at 65,377,684. The Midwest is divided by the Census Bureau into two divisions, the East North Central Division includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, all of which are also part of the Great Lakes region. Major rivers in the include, from east to west, the Ohio River, the Upper Mississippi River. Chicago is the most populated city in the American Midwest and the third most populous in the entire country, other large Midwest cities include, Indianapolis, Columbus, Detroit, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Omaha, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Wichita and St. Louis. Chicago and its suburbs form the largest metropolitan area with 9.8 million people, followed by Metro Detroit. Paul, Greater St. Louis, Greater Cleveland, Greater Cincinnati, Kansas City metro area, the term Midwestern has been in use since the 1880s to refer to portions of the central United States. A variant term, Middle West, has used since the 19th century. Another term sometimes applied to the general region is the heartland. Other designations for the region have fallen out of use, such as the Northwest or Old Northwest, the Northwest Territory was one of the earliest territories of the United States, stretching northwest from the Ohio River to northern Minnesota and upper-Mississippi. The upper-Mississippi watershed including the Missouri and Illinois Rivers was the setting for the earlier French settlements of the Illinois Country, economically the region is balanced between heavy industry and agriculture, with finance and services such as medicine and education becoming increasingly important. Its central location makes it a crossroads for river boats, railroads, autos, trucks. Politically the region swings back and forth between the parties, and thus is heavily contested and often decisive in elections, after the sociological study Middletown, which was based on Muncie, Indiana, commentators used Midwestern cities as typical of the nation. The region has a higher ratio than the Northeast, the West. Traditional definitions of the Midwest include the Northwest Ordinance Old Northwest states, the states of the Old Northwest are also known as Great Lakes states and are east-north central in the United States. The Ohio River runs along the section while the Mississippi River runs north to south near the center. Many of the Louisiana Purchase states in the west-north central United States, are known as Great Plains states. The Midwest lies north of the 36°30′ parallel that the 1820 Missouri Compromise established as the line between future slave and non-slave states
