Alaska is the largest state, at 665,725 sq mi of land and water. Rhode Island is the smallest, at 1,545 sq mi. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Gazetteer files, 2026, 2026.
Total area includes inland, coastal, Great Lakes and territorial water. Ranked by land area alone, some states move noticeably, especially those on the Great Lakes.
The middle of the 50-state distribution is 57,093 sq mi: the average of the 25th and 26th ordered state estimates. This treats each state equally, so it answers a different question from a population-weighted national estimate.
How much does water change the order?
These states’ ranks change the most between total area and land area. These comparisons identify different questions worth investigating; a rank gap does not measure a causal effect or a statistical difference between unlike units.
Land plus water area in square miles. Water includes inland water and the coastal, Great Lakes and territorial water the Census Bureau assigns to each state.
States bordering the Great Lakes or the ocean have large water areas, so total and land rankings differ: Michigan, for example, is about 40 percent water.
The size of the gap
The difference between the highest and lowest state estimates is 664,180 sq mi. The 50 states cover 3,802,715 square miles of land and water.
How much should you read into a rank?
Areas are calculated from the Census Bureau’s boundary files; no margin of error applies. “Not published” means uncertainty is not quantified here, not that the estimates are exact.
Ranks use the full precision of the source file, so only truly equal values share a rank (1, 2, 2, 4).
(ALAND + AWATER, square meters) / 2,589,988.110336. Rank = 1 + number of eligible jurisdictions with a higher value.
Coverage
The 50 states are ranked. Washington, D.C., can be added with the toggle above the table; Puerto Rico is shown for reference only, where the source covers it.
Cadence
Annual. 2027 Gazetteer files, usually published in the second half of the year.
Independence
Rank the States is independent. The agencies that produce the source data do not endorse these rankings.
Last updated Oct. 23, 2026. Earlier editions stay available on the data page, and every change is listed in the update log. If a number or definition looks wrong, report an error with the state, value, and source you checked.
Related rankings
State distributions: each mark is one state, from lowest to highest. Each row
uses its own scale.