The chart above shows the area of each of the US states. Alaska and the Western US dominate the American expanse.
Findings
- The difference between the largest state in the US and the smallest is 663,839 square miles.
- The largest US state, Alaska, is 431 times larger than the smallest US state, Rhode Island.
- Alaska is so large that it takes Texas, California, Montana, and New Mexico (the next four largest states) to rival its landmass.
Caveats
- The data is from 2010.
- The area includes both land and water area.
Details
Western states make up nine of the ten largest states in the country. Texas is the only non-Western state in the top ten. Hawaii is the only Western state with an area of less than 50,000 square miles and fits right in with Northeastern states.
The next group of large states is in the Midwest, followed by the South, and finally Northeastern states. According to this data, the entire area of the fifty US states is 3,796,674 square miles.
Sources
United States Census Bureau. September 2012. "United States Summary: 2010: Population and Housing Unit Counts." Accessed January 23, 2018. https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/cph-2-1.pdf.