The United States The United States of America is located in the middle of the North American continent. The 48 states of the conterminous United States stretch from the Atlantic Ocean in the east, where the country has a 6,000-km-long (3,700-mi) coastline--including the Gulf of Mexico--to the Pacific Ocean, where the coast stretches for 2,100 km (1,300 mi). The United States shares borders with only two other countries. In the north the border extends across the width of both Canada and the United States and between Alaska (the 49th state) and Canada for 8,900 km (5,500 mi); in the south the shorter border with Mexic