Community Corner

5 Things You Should Know Today - July 4, 2011

Wow your friends with these fun facts about our nation's birthday. .

Everybody's off today, so we thought we'd start your day with five facts you may not have known about the 4th of July, courtesy the U.S. Census Bureau:

1. U.S. Population: 1776

In July 1776, an estimated 2.5 million people lived in newly formed United States. Today's population: 311.7 million. My, how we've grown.

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Source: Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970

2. United States Flags

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The U.S. imports $3.2 million worth of flags every year, the vast majority from China. We export $486,026 worth of American flags, mostly to Mexico.

Source: Foreign Trade Statistics

3. Hot Dog!

If you're eating pork hot dogs or sausages at a 4th of July cookout, they probably came from Iowa, home to 19.0 million hogs and pigs on March 1, 2011. That is one-fourth of the nation's estimated total.

Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service

4. What's in a name?

The name of our first president, George Washington, was the 138th most popular among names tabulated in the 2000 Census. Other early presidential names on the list: Adams (39th), Jefferson (594th), Madison (1,209th) and Monroe (567th).

Source: Census 2000 Genealogy

5. Patriot-ism

In all of these United States, only one place has “patriot” in its name: Patriot, IN, population 209.

Source: American FactFinder


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