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Hedges & Company  there are 289.5 million registered cars in 2021, and projects 290.8 million in 2022. The year 2016 marked the first time globally in a year (72,105,435, to be exact). Electric cars remain a small portion of all cars driven but are making inroads. In 2020, there were almost in the U.S., a three-fold increase from 2016.

While there isn't an organization that tracks up-to-date figures on the number of U.S. congregations, the estimates that there were . The number has been vacillating up and down over the years, increasing and decreasing rather than showing any overarching trend one way or another.

There are 63 in the United States, some of the most famous of which include the Great Smoky Mountains, Grand Canyon, Zion, Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Joshua Tree. In 2020, three parks—Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Blue Ridge Parkway, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park—each enjoyed in excess of . California and Alaska are the states with the most parks—nine and eight, respectively.  

According to the , which analyzes gun data from 230 countries worldwide, there are more than 393 million civilian-owned firearms in America. Analysis by The Washington Post a cache large enough for "every man, woman and child to own one and still have 67 million guns left over." At roughly 120.5 guns per every 100 residents, the United States has double the ratio of Yemen, the next-highest country on the list, where there are an estimated 52.8 guns for every 100 residents.

Although the Department of Agriculture licenses a much smaller number are considered true zoos and are accredited as such. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums as of April 2021. The figure includes zoos, aquariums, nature centers, aviaries, butterfly houses, safaris, and theme parks.

There are spread across America, each of which routes mail to its appropriate destination. The numbers range from 00501 (the lowest one for the Internal Revenue Service in Holtsville, New York) to 99950 (the highest one in Ketchikan, Alaska). Perhaps the easiest zip code to remember, according to USPS, is 12345, which belongs to General Electric in Schenectady, New York.

As of 2020, there were in the United States. West Virginia carries the distinction of having the of the fast-food chain, with 5.8 stores per 100,000 residents. After that, the next most McDonald's-populated states include Arkansas, Kentucky, Michigan, and Ohio. On the opposite end, Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York, and California have the fewest McDonald's per capita.

If you tally up all of the elementary, secondary, and combined schools throughout the United States, there were a total of 98,469 public schools in operation during the 2017-18 school year, . The number gradually increased between the '80s and late '00s, going from 85,982 schools in the 1980–81 school year to 98,916 in 2007–08. The total peaked that year and has gradually declined since.

Despite all of the lawyer jokes, Americans actually love lawyers—or at least they produce a lot of them. There were 1,328,692 licensed and active attorneys in the United States in 2020. This was a 1.7% decrease since 2019, only the second decrease since the American Bar Association started recording data in 1878.

Known as "14ers" among mountain climbers and outdoor enthusiasts, the United States is home to in elevation. Of those, 53 are found in Colorado and 29 are found in Alaska. The other mountains are all found in Washington and California. Alaska holds the 16 highest peaks, with Mt. Denali being the tallest at 20,320 (and the only one to surpass 20,000 feet).

According to from 2021, the United States is home to 724 billionaires. The 50 wealthiest people on that list as half of the United States, and since the COVID-19 pandemic tanked the economy in March 2020, America's billionaires have grown their wealth by —more than the last $900 billion relief bill.

There are thousands of unsolved mysteries throughout America every year, many of which are homicides. Although it's impossible to arrive at an exact number of serial killers, officials at the Murder Accountability Project (MAP) . "There are more than 220,000 unsolved murders since 1980, so when you put that in perspective, how shocking is it that there are at least 2,000 unrecognized series of homicides?" MAP's Thomas Hargrove asked Live Science. A serial killer is defined as anyone who has murdered two or more people.

In 2020, the United States comprised of approximately , defined as a group of people living in a single housing unit. The housing unit could be a house, apartment, or room, as long as that room is meant to be a separate residence. The figure has doubled since 1970 when there were only 63 million households in the country. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average household size is now 2.53 people.

In June 2021, reported there were 462 commercial casinos operating in the United States, down from  in 2019. In Nevada alone, there are in annual revenue. Even with institutions numbering in the mere hundreds, gambling is a huge industry. In 2017, for instance, commercial gaming raked in in revenue. The casino industry was hard-hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, and high numbers of coronavirus cases in Nevada were .

About 580,466 people were homeless on one single night in the United States in 2020, . The agency's Annual Homeless Assessment Report indicated that roughly 0.17% of the population was homeless on any given night. The figure represents the first increase since 2010, with Los Angeles and New York City being among the cities most affected. With unemployment and an ongoing eviction crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people experiencing homelessness in 2021 is .

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The  there were 5,798 movie theaters open for viewings in the United States in 2020. Of those, 5,477 were regular indoor cinemas and 321 were drive-ins. Theaters were among the hardest-hit businesses in the COVID-19 pandemic, with some of the largest chains closing indefinitely and suffering enormous losses in 2020.

America is a veritable paradise for bird lovers far and wide. There are , and 1,147 in total. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, no less than 10 billion birds . That number approaches 20 billion during fall migrations.

There were sprinkled across the United States in 2020. Worldwide, there were a total of 32,646 Starbucks stores at that time. Starbucks boasts a of coffee chains in the U.S. Its closest competitor is Dunkin', with a 26% market share.

Although times have changed and the age of cell phones has mostly replaced landlines and pay phones, there are still a few lone booths hiding out in random nooks and crannies of America. According to the Federal Communications Commission, there were still in the United States in 2018. New York is home to roughly one-fifth of those phones, which brought in $286 million in revenue in 2015.

Americans love to read, and there's no shortage of places to do it given the . One author suggests that , and should be funded accordingly.

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The Pew Research Center defines in the United States: Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Atheist, Agnostic, Other World Religion, and Other Faith (Unitarian, New Age, and Native American religions). Within each main group, there are dozens of families and denominations. 

The United States is currently home to . At the top of the list is New York, followed by Los Angeles and Chicago. The other cities on the 1 million-plus list include Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, and San Jose.

With in 2019, Subway is the largest restaurant chain in America. The number dwarfs McDonald's, which had . However, the number doesn't necessarily mean the sandwich chain is experiencing total success—the number of Subway stores has decreased in the last few years, and in 2020, Subway  restaurant chains in the U.S. Those more-profitable chains are Burger King, Taco Bell, Chick-fil-A, Starbucks, and McDonald's.

From coast to coast, there were serving drinks in America as of July 2021. The industry had previously experienced negative growth of . Those statistics show the impact of COVID-19, which shuttered most of the industry in 2020 and made for a dismal year for bars and nightclubs.

America's wild and scenic rivers are famous worldwide for their beauty. Although the exact number is unknown, there are . They total more than 3.5 million miles—enough to stretch to the moon and back seven times. The longest river in the country is the Missouri River at 2,341 miles in length, although the volume of the Mississippi River is greater due to its depth.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics indicates that, in 2016, there were throughout the United States. The number includes tribal police but does not include sheriffs' offices, which are typically run by counties or other state subdivisions rather than local governments. The number of full-time officers in 2019 was 697,195, compared to a high of 708,569 in 2008.

There were  in 2021. Since 1965, have climbed significantly, but have stayed more consistent in recent years.

There were 2,504 inmates on death row as of the spring of 2021, down from 2,553 inmates in the fall of 2020, according to an . However, executions, sentence reversals, and deaths by other causes have resulted in . More than 55% of those facing execution in 2020 were Black or Latinx, and a majority of  in 2% of U.S. counties. 

Although they once roamed in giant herds numbering up to , today there are only about in America. It's still a number that impresses many citizens, though, given they only reside in national parks and refuges in Wyoming, Montana, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa, and Colorado. The animals, which are the , are called bison in the Americas and Europe, and buffalo in Africa and Asia.

In 2019, the  indicated that there were approximately 17.4 million veterans living in America. That number has since risen, according to , which indicated in 2021 that there are around 19 million veterans in the United States. The Department of Veterans Affairs, which has , serves roughly 9 million veterans. The agency offers services such as mental health treatment, physical therapy, prosthetics, dental exams, urology, and vision care.

Linguistically speaking, America is a strikingly diverse place where hundreds of languages converge. A  that at least 350 languages are spoken in the United States. After English, the Spanish language is the , with about 40.5 million speakers, or one in five U.S. residents, as of 2018. The next most common languages are Chinese (including Mandarin and Cantonese), Tagalog (including Filipino), Vietnamese, Arabic, French, and Korean.

Nowhere is it more true that dogs are everyone's best friend than in the United States, where have at least one dog. When tallied up, the total number of dogs as companion pets in the United States is more than 76 million.

Also prevalent and beloved in the U.S. are cats, which number more than 58 million. Slightly over a quarter of U.S. households contain at least one cat. Vet visits and vet bills are both lower for cats than for dogs. 

There are . Each time zone is one hour apart from the next, beginning in Hawaii and getting later as you move east. There's also daylight saving time: Some are .

The retail giant has that employ almost 1.5 million people. Of those stores, 3,570 are considered "supercenters," while the rest are broken down into discount stores, neighborhood markets, small-format stores, and Sam's Clubs. In the fiscal year 2021, Walmart's global net sales totaled more than $555 billion. A found Walmart to be the retailer engaging in the most wage theft against its employees, with $1.4 billion in total settlements and fines going to employees who were affected. Wage theft includes such practices as forcing employees to work "off the clock," refusing to pay overtime wages, violating minimum wage laws, and requiring workers to buy clothing for work without compensation.

There were , 205,600 public charter school teachers, and 509,200 private school teachers in the 2017-18 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Teaching remains a career dominated by women—about 77% of teachers were women in the 2017-18 school year.

Smith is one of the oldest surnames in the U.S., so perhaps it's no surprise that it's the nation's most common last name. In the 2010 Census, there were  recorded in the United States. After Smith, the next most common names included Johnson, Williams, Brown, and Jones.

Americans love dining out, a fact evidenced by the for business in the United States in the spring of 2018. COVID-19 wrought devastation to the restaurant industry. More than about one year after the pandemic started.

The United States is covered in trees, which adorn its open space from coast to coast. There were throughout the country in 2015. That number makes the U.S. fourth on the list worldwide, after Russia, Canada, and Brazil. Common species in the U.S. include oak trees, maples, Douglas firs, balsam firs, aspens, and dogwoods.

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Ghost towns in the U.S. vary in nature but typically , when frontiersmen went in search of gold, silver, oil, and other valuable resources. The exact number is unknown, but one report by Geotab estimates there are at least 3,800 ghost towns spread across the United States. "Americans know them as vivid reminders of the country's compressed, dynamic and turbulent past," Peter Ling, professor of American studies at the University of Nottingham, .

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With a criminal justice system holding nearly 2.3 million people, the U.S. has spread across all 50 states. The facilities are divided into state prisons, federal prisons, juvenile correctional facilities, local jails, immigration detention facilities, and Indian Country jails. Beyond this number, there are additional sites where people are detained, such as military prisons and civil commitment centers.

According to the ride-hailing company, there were in the U.S. at the end of 2019. Uber due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Uber Eats, which delivers food, for the company during the pandemic, though workers and restaurant owners have pushed back against the model.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) plays an important role in daily American life, a fact that's highlighted by the fact that there are more than  that exist throughout the country. The U.S. postal service is one of the largest and most complex in the world, handling almost half of the world's mail volume. In 2019, the agency's operating revenue was $71.1 billion.

In 2016, there were roughly , ranging from small, family-owned pumps to major chain operations like ARCO and ExxonMobil. In September 2020, approximately 926,200 people were employed in the , including service station attendants, cashiers, food preparation workers, and station managers.

The U.S. contains stunning coastlines, many of which are decorated with old, historical lighthouses. There are decorating the United States, the first of which was the , built on Little Brewster Island in 1716. It was reconstructed in 1783 after being destroyed by the British. The oldest lighthouse in existence that's never been rebuilt is , which was constructed in 1764 and still stands.

When a commercial site gets contaminated by some sort of chemical, pollutant, or other hazardous substance, the Environmental Protection Agency labels it a "brownfield" (nicknamed after the agency's Brownfields Program, which helps clean up or mitigate the situation). In the United States, there are currently . Common contaminants at the sites include pesticides, asbestos, lead, and other hazardous materials.

The number of nuns in the United States reached its highest in 1965 when they numbered 181,421, and their population has been shrinking ever since. In 2019, data from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate . Still, there's a of women taking vows.

The  was at 7.4 million in February 2021, up from 6.5 million in November 2020. Unemployment rates have during the pandemic, where women were most affected.  are forecast to account for a significant number of new jobs forecast between 2019 and 2029, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

There are in the United States, according to 2019 data. The American Hospital Association offers about bed occupancy and locations of community hospitals.

As the national emblem of the country, the bald eagle was chosen to represent the U.S. due to its  Former President John F. Kennedy later said that the "fierce beauty and proud independence of this great bird aptly symbolizes the strength and freedom of America." 

Over the years, however, the real-life bird—which once numbered over 100,000—struggled to survive. It was placed on the Endangered Species List in 1967 and another updated version in 1973 but was removed in 2007 after officials said it was no longer needed. Recent counts suggest there are now over in the lower 48 states.