• Fish catch per year: 5.41m tonnes
• Oil production and reserves: 7.45m b/d (30.7bn barrels)
• Estimated livestock resources: 96.1m cattle, 86.5m turkeys, 59.5m pigs, 1.95bn chickens
• Main mineral resources: Phosphates, gypsum, oil, coal, sulfur, lead, zinc, copper, gold

Electricity generation

The US has an abundance of natural resources, including oil. The 2001 energy plan aimed to step up oil exploration and output, reducing the need for imports. There are massive deposits of coal in the western states – where almost all mining is opencast – and substantial mineral deposits in the mountains and intramontane basins.

Nuclear power is becoming increasingly important as an energy source with 28% of it generated from just three states: Illinois, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. The timber industry, forced to retreat by conservationists in the Pacific northwest, especially Washington State, has moved to the south, where great stands of pine are harvested as if they were fields of wheat. Hydropower dominates the domestic sources of renewable energy. Other sources are small-scale but growing.

In comparison with western Europe, the US is not intensively farmed. The huge size of farms in the Midwest and west has allowed both arable and livestock farming to be based on a low-input for low-output model.

Consumption and spending

Between 1945 and 1973, most Americans got richer. Since then, however, living standards have gone on rising only among those who finish high school. This "education effect" has led to noticeable class divisions, despite the long economic boom of the 1990s. The top 20% had average household incomes of $137,500 by 2000, whereas the incomes of the poorest 20% averaged only $13,000 – and were lower in real terms than in 1980.

• Total number of visitors per year: 40.4m visitors
• Tourism trend: Down 4% in 2003

Main tourist arrivals

The US as a destination for international tourism benefited greatly from the deregulation of air fares. Domestic tourism expanded just as rapidly, along with the rise in real incomes. The impact of the 2001 terrorist attacks was complex. While confidence in air travel took time to be rebuilt, the fact that US tourists put safety first meant that over 80% vacationed within the US in 2002. All the states have their attractions, and most court tourists. Top tourist destinations include Florida's Disney World and Disneyland in California, Niagara Falls, Las Vegas, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Hollywood, the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, New Orleans, Atlantic City, and Washington D.C.

Tourism's rapid expansion has also brought some problems. The parks and sites run by the National Parks Service (NPS) have been particular casualties; visitor numbers rocketed in the three decades after 1970. To try to reduce pressure on the most popular areas, there has been a significant expansion in the area of protected land under NPS management since the mid-1970s. Even so, Yellowstone Park has a continuing traffic management crisis, bumper-to-bumper cars plague other high-profile attractions, and those wanting to take a raft ride down the Grand Canyon are likely to spend many months on a waiting list.