Guns to Ghost Towns: How Many Are There in America?
The United States is a geographically vast, consumer-driven country with a mixed economy that allows for highly diverse industries, manufacturing, skill sets, tourism, cuisine, and commerce--and a wide-reaching culture, to boot.
This country holds many things, from trees and national parks to suburban sprawl and crime. This is the land of plenty (128.45 million households in 2020), and of the few (just 321 drive-in movie theaters nationwide). In its short legacy, the country has also accrued a number of failed experiments and abandoned endeavors, including more than 3,800 ghost towns, in excess of 300 demolished or abandoned amusement parks, and a whopping 450,000 brownfield sites that are home to hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants. The U.S. accounts for a little over 4% of the global population yet contains 20% of the world's prisoners and is responsible for more than 30% of the planet's waste. But what other numbers make up this country?
To find out, Stacker scoured statistics, tourism boards, national parks service websites, and various datasets to bring examples of just how many of 50 different things exist in the U.S. From guns and movie theaters to parks and Starbucks, nothing was off limits. The research spans all 3.797 million square miles of the U.S. and looks at topics including industry, business, personal finance, entertainment, and more.