The United States of America are preparing to host their second FIFA World Cup™, one of only five other nations to host more than one world finals, including 2026 co-host Mexico.

The 1994 World Cup proved to be a seminal moment in the nation’s footballing history. In a tournament that saw Brazil lift the trophy for the first time since 1970, fans—a record total attendance of 3,587,538 spectators, in fact—gathered to witness the likes of Roberto Baggio, Romario, Hristo Stoichkov, Gheorghe Hagi, Dennis Bergkamp and many others.

The creation of its domestic club competition Major League Soccer (MLS) soon followed, with the inaugural league match taking place just two years later in the spring of 1996. Today the league is thriving, having recently celebrated its 25th season and expanded to 26 clubs (and with more planned in the future).

‘Soccer’ culture has grown immensely in the USA since the 1994 World Cup. In a country that contains a multitude of backgrounds, cultures, heritages, football has found its home and its place in society.

The country will be making more history with the 2026 World Cup by co-hosting with neighbours Canada and Mexico, the first World Cup to feature three different host nations.

With its history of having hosted a World Cup before and its growing domestic club competition and ‘soccer’ culture, USA is ready to host the greatest show on earth once again and possibly set even more spectating records.

In the grand scheme of national histories, USA is a relatively young country. While it’s true that Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland 12,000 years ago, the USA as we know it today developed from European colonisation in the 16th century. The United States were formed from the 13 British colonies on the east coast. The country celebrates its Independence Day on 4 July and now consists of 50 states.

The USA is the largest importer of goods in the world (oil being the top import as of 2010) and the second-largest exporter (transportation equipment the top export as of 2010).

The country’s currency is the United States dollar (USD).

USA is the third most populous country in the world (over 328 million), behind only China PR and India and is either the third or fourth largest country by total area—the land area of the entire country is approximately 9,841,955 kilometres. In the north it shares a border with co-hosts Canada and in the south with co-hosts Mexico. Being such a vast nation, there’s a huge variety of climate types and geography. In fact, the country contains the most amount of ecoregions in the entire world. From the Grand Canyon to Yellowstone National Park to the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges on the Pacific coast to the Appalachian Mountains and the Great Lakes, just to name a few, the USA almost has any environment you could be looking for.

As stated before, there is a wide range of climates contained in the USA. In the summers, temperatures tend to rise the further south one travels. The summer months can be quite warm dependent on where you are of course. The southeast region and the south, including Texas, tend to be more humid and hot than the northeast and northwest regions, for example.

Although there is no official language recognised by the country’s federal government, English is the most commonly spoken language (about 80 per cent of the population) while Spanish is the second-most spoken language (about 13 per cent of the population).