United States by Area

The United States has a diverse climate, which is reflected in the country’s landscape. Not surprisingly, Alaska and Texas are the largest states by area, although Alaska, at 665,384 mi², is substantially larger than Texas at 268,596 mi². Alaska is made up of 85.76% land, while water covers an area of 94,743 mi² (the highest in the U.S.). However, the much dryer southern state of Texas consists of only 7,365 mi² of water. Other states with arid climates are similar: New Mexico and Arizona are almost entirely comprised of land (99.76% and 99.65%, respectively) with very little water.

Many states have large areas of water. These include the states of Michigan (40,175 mi²) and Wisconsin (11,339 mi²) in the Great Lakes region of the northern U.S., and the humid Gulf States of Florida (12,133 mi²) and Louisiana (9,174 mi²). There are, of course, many other states that may not have vast areas of water within the state, but which are Ocean-facing (such as Georgia), as well as states that have small areas of water in terms of percentage, but the numbers simply reflect the size of the state itself (for example, tiny Rhode Island with its 511 mi² of water).

The smallest states by area are the District of Columbia at just 68 mi² and Rhode Island at 1,545 mi². Interestingly, there are only a handful of tiny states. Delaware, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Vermont are the only other states with a total area of under 10,000 mi², and the numbers increase significantly from that point onwards, emphasizing just how large the United States as a country is.