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Ranking U.S. States By Land Area

Ranking U.S. States By Land Area, In this Ranking U.S. States By Land Area, According to States Symbols USA, the entire area of the United States is more than 3.5 million square miles. Also according to 2020 Census, there are millions of people living in the fifty states, with California having the biggest population.

California is home to more than 39 million people, while Wyoming has the smallest population with only 576,851 individuals.

While some states have enormous populations, others dominate in terms of size. All in all, here is a list of the states in order of size, from the greatest by land area to the smallest.

Some States In The U.S. With Their Land Area

The landscape of the United States exhibits evidently, the diversity of the country’s climate. It should come as no surprise that Texas and Alaska are the two largest states in terms of area, albeit Alaska is significantly bigger at 665,384 mi² than Texas at 268,596 mi². Alaska has a land area of 85.76% and equally a water area of 94,743 mi² (the highest in the U.S.). Texas, a considerably drier state in the south, only has 7,365 mi² of water. Also, similar states with arid climates include New Mexico and Arizona, which are virtually entirely made up of land and have very little water (90.76% and 99.55%, respectively).

There are also vast waterways in several states. These include the humid Gulf States of Florida (12,133 mi² ) and Louisiana (9,174 mi²) as well as the states of Michigan (40,175 mi²) and Wisconsin (11,339 mi²) in the Great Lakes region of the northern United States. Of course, there are many other states that may not have large amounts of water within their borders but are ocean-facing (like Georgia), as well as states with smaller percentages of water, but the numbers simply reflect the size of the state itself (e.g. the tiny Rhode Island with its 511 mi² of water).

The District of Columbia, at only 68 mi², and Rhode Island, at 1,545 mi², are nonetheless the two smallest states in terms of area. It’s interesting that there are so few small states. The only other states with a total area of less than 10,000 mi² are Delaware, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Vermont, and the figures climb dramatically after that, highlighting just how big the United States as a whole is.