Ranking U.S. States by Land Area

Last updated on December 19th, 2023 at 10:22 am

Alaska is the largest U.S. state by land area with 570,641 square miles or 1,477,953 square kilometers. That is not the only record the state is holding. It also holds the title of largest state by water area and total area.

Known for its world-class fishing and seafood, the State of Alaska occupies a 16.15% of the land area of the United States of America. The U.S. is sitting on 3,531,905 sq mi of land area.

To know how large The Last Frontier state’s land area is, the state is more than twice the size of Texas, the second U.S. state by land area which sits on 261,232 sq mi.

If that isn’t enough to make you look amazed at how large Alaska is, take a look at the size of Rhode Island which is 1,034 sq mi in comparison with Alaska. More than 551 land area of Rhode Island.

The State of California (CA) is the third largest with 155,779 sq mi or 403,466 sq.km. The Golden State has the highest number of expensive cities to buy property in the U.S. and is also the most populated state.

Away from CA, let’s move to a state that is known for its abundant natural mineral resources, Montana is the fourth largest with 145,546 sq mi or 376,962 sq.km. But in terms of population, the State of Montana is 44th and 20th on the happiest state ranking list.

New Mexico with 121,298 sq mi of land area is the fourth in the U.S. 99.75% of New Mexico’s total area is land unlike state like Michigan where land area takes only 58.46% while water area takes the rest.

Smallest States in the U.S. by Land Area

Rhode Island is the smallest U.S. state by land area followed by Delaware with 1,949 sq mi; Connecticut is the third smallest, it sits on 4,842 sq mi of land. Hawaii whose 41.24% of its total area is covered with water is the fourth smallest by land area with 6,423 sq mi while New Jersey is the fifth with 7,354 sq mi.

The land area includes the desert, all other water (intermittent, glacier, and marsh/swamp) except perennial waters is included in the U.S. land area.

According to U.S. Census Bureau, the table below shows the ranking of U.S. states, including the District of Columbia and territories by their land area:

Conclusion:

The data obtained from the Census Bureau of the U.S. shows that 93.024% of the area of the U.S. is land while water area takes 6.97%.

Ranking the 50 states based on land area, Alaska, Texas, California, Montana, and New Mexico are the top five largest while Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, and New Jersey are the smallest in that order.