How Old is the United States of America?
How Old is America?
If we start to count from the date when the Declaration of Independence was adopted (July 4, 1776) by the United States of America, it is going to complete 245 years in the year 2020. For more informational maps related to USA, check our Thematic Maps section.
It is with the approval of the Declaration of Independence by the thirteen original colonies that the United States ceased to be a British colony, and found its political identity as a sovereign country and an independent nation. The nation-building process was indeed a long and challenging task. Still, the strength of the US is in its ability to evolve and adapt to new global and domestic challenges continually.
If we look at the existence of the human population in the Americas, we have to head back to over 30,000 years. Many believe that the first migration to North America came by way of Siberia through a land bridge that connected the eastern fringe of Asia with Alaska at the time.
Christopher Columbus’ ‘discovery’ of the New World (October 12, 1492), brought European attention to North America, but this was well before the birth of the United States. This was 525 years ago.
Several other significant political events have shaped the US. The constitution of a country forms the basis of its legal and administrative systems, and the law of the land.
Ratification of the Constitution of the United States was done on June 21, 1788 – the day New Hampshire ratified it. New Hampshire was the last state that had to approve the constitution for it to be adopted across the country.
Some argue that although the Declaration of Independence was adopted in 1776, the Union ceased to exist with the secession of the Southern States before the American Civil War. It is with the end of the Civil War (May 1865) that the country was recreated, one may say. With this theory, the US is 154 years old as of May 2019.
Regardless of these historical events and dates, the commonly accepted date of the birth of the USA is July 4, 1776.
While we may pick any one of these historical events to determine the birth of the United States, the commonly accepted date of the country’s birth remains July 4, 1776.
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