Only about 30% of recently built homes have basements, but it varies strongly by region. New England and the midwest have 70-85% basements. Texas has less than 1%.

The primary issue is with winter temperatures. If the ground beneath a building freezes, it lifts the building and then settles when it thaws. This tends to break up the foundation and push building out of the ground. In Minnesota, for example, the frost depth of means that the building code requires that you dig a minimum 1.5m for the foundation. If you are digging that far already, you can dig just a bit more and have a basement.

The climate also limits where you can put the plumbing and heating systems. Where I live in California, it's not unusual to have the laundry and hot water device in an unheated garage, but if you did that someplace cold it would be destroyed by freezing. The water supply lines to the house are going to be buried below the frost line, so the meter has to be kept warm as well. A basement provides a heated space for these things.

There are also many local considerations. Densely populated areas would find it more cost effective to build up and down. If you are sitting on solid bedrock, you don't build a basement. In New Orleans a basement would require constant pumping.

There certainly is a cultural component related to the overall design of houses. Architecture is always a mixture of art and engineering, and I'd love to hear about the cultural influences.

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http://eyeonhousing.org/2014/10/what-foundations-are-built-across-the-nation/