States by land area

Alaska and Texas at the top

Alaska covers 571,242 square miles of land, the largest in the nation. That is more than twice the land area of Texas (261,259 square miles) and more than Texas, California (155,859 square miles) and Montana (145,550 square miles) put together. Texas is the only state outside the West in the top ten; it is larger than every bordering state (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma)¹.

After the first two the steps get smaller. New Mexico (121,313 square miles), Arizona (113,655 square miles), Nevada (109,860 square miles) and Colorado (103,637 square miles) each have more than a hundred thousand square miles of land. Wyoming (97,089 square miles) and Oregon (95,997 square miles¹) complete the ten largest.

The map shows a clear east–west divide. The largest state in each Census region:

• West: Alaska (571,242 square miles).
• South: Texas (261,259 square miles).
• Midwest: Kansas (81,759 square miles), only the 13th largest state overall.
• Northeast: New York (47,123 square miles), which ranks 22nd smallest¹ among the 50 states and DC.

The smallest states: a sharp drop after West Virginia

Rhode Island has 1,034 square miles of land, the smallest of any state (the District of Columbia is lower), and it is smaller than every bordering state (Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York). Delaware (1,949 square miles), Connecticut (4,842 square miles), Hawaii (6,423 square miles) and New Jersey (7,355 square miles) come next. The District of Columbia, listed with the states in Census Bureau tables, has 61 square miles¹.

The small end of the list has a sharp break. West Virginia has 24,041 square miles of land and is the 11th smallest; the next state down, Maryland, has 9,711 square miles¹. Every state below that line except Hawaii is in the Northeast or on the Atlantic side of the South: Maryland, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island.

Florida sits exactly in the middle of the ranking: it is the 26th largest state, and its 53,655 square miles¹ of land is the median of the 50 states and DC.

Area is not population

A large state is not necessarily a populous one. The table below sets land area beside the population on July 1, 2025 and the number of residents per square mile of land.

• Wyoming is the 9th largest state but has the smallest population (589,000) and is the 2nd least densely populated.
• Alaska has about 737,000 residents, or 1.3 people per square mile: the least densely populated in the nation, 99% below the US figure (96.7 people per square mile).
• Montana, the 4th largest state, is the 3rd least densely populated.
• California and Texas are large on both counts: California is the 3rd largest state and the largest by population, Texas 2nd largest and 2nd largest.
• New Jersey is the 6th smallest state by land area, yet the 11th largest by population and the most densely populated among the 50 states; only the District of Columbia is denser.
• Rhode Island has 1,114,521³ residents on its 1,034 square miles¹ and is the 2nd most densely populated among the 50 states⁴.

Density divides population by land area, so the ranking on this page is the denominator of the population density ranking.

Counting water changes the order

The table's second column is total area: land plus inland lakes and rivers, coastal water, the Great Lakes and territorial sea. Nationally, water is 7.1% of the total (3,802,784 square miles in all, against 3,533,467 square miles of land). In most states the share is small, and the median state is at 3.4%¹.

Michigan41.5%

Hawaii41.5%

Rhode Island33.1%

Massachusetts26.1%

Florida24.9%

Maryland21.7%

Delaware21.7%

Louisiana17.5%

Wisconsin17.3%

New Jersey15.6%

Alaska14.2%

New York13.6%

United States7.1%

Source: Census Bureau, 2024 Gazetteer Files. Period: 2024.

Show the numbers

State	Water share of total area
Michigan	41.5%
Hawaii	41.5%
Rhode Island	33.1%
Massachusetts	26.1%
Florida	24.9%
Maryland	21.7%
Delaware	21.7%
Louisiana	17.5%
Wisconsin	17.3%
New Jersey	15.6%
Alaska	14.2%
New York	13.6%
United States	7.1%

Hawaii and Michigan tie for the highest water share, 41.5%. For Michigan, whose total area includes Great Lakes water, that moves the state from 22nd largest by land to 11th largest by total area (96,713 square miles), and makes it the largest state in the Midwest on that measure. Florida moves from 26th largest to 18th largest (71,404 square miles), and Hawaii from 5th smallest to 9th smallest¹.

At the other end, New Mexico (0.2%), Arizona (0.3%) and Colorado (0.4%¹) have almost no water in their totals, so their land and total areas are nearly the same.

Reading these figures correctly

• Land or total area. Lists of the "biggest states" use one or the other, often without saying which. This page ranks by land area, the basis for population density; total area is in the table. The ten largest are the same states on both measures.
• Square miles. All figures are in square miles, rounded to the nearest whole square mile.
• The District of Columbia is not a state. It is ranked with the states, as in Census Bureau tables, so Rhode Island appears second smallest.
• One edition of the files. The figures come from the 2024 edition of the Census Bureau's Gazetteer Files, which are issued in yearly editions. References based on another edition can show slightly different areas.
• Size, not land use. Area says nothing about who owns the land or how it is used. Public land, farmland and forest cover are outside this site's scope.