Civics question 103 of 128
What was the Great Depression?
Official answer
- Longest economic recession in modern history
Source: official USCIS question list for the 2025 version of the civics test. This site is independent and not affiliated with USCIS.
Background
The Great Depression was the longest economic recession in modern history, which is the phrasing the official answer uses. It began in 1929 and lasted through the 1930s in the United States, with unemployment reaching about a quarter of the workforce, thousands of banks failing, and industrial production falling by nearly half. Farm families in the southern plains faced drought and dust storms on top of collapsed prices and left their land by the hundreds of thousands. The federal response, the New Deal, built much of what people now take for granted: Social Security, bank deposit insurance, securities regulation, and large public works. Economists still argue about what ended it, though war production from 1940 onward plainly finished the job.
This background section is written by US Citizenship Test Practice to explain the civics fact. It is not part of the USCIS question list, and the official answer above is the one to give at the interview.
Where this question sits
It is part of Recent American History and Other Important Historical Information, inside the American History section of the test.
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