The 10 Largest US States by Area, Counted Down From Wyoming to Alaska

The largest US state by area is Alaska, at 1,723,337 km² (665,384 sq mi), followed by Texas at 695,662 km² (268,596 sq mi) and California at 423,967 km² (163,695 sq mi), according to the US Census Bureau's 2010 state area measurements. The rest of the top ten are Montana, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Oregon and Wyoming. Together the ten cover 4,898,063 km² (1,891,153 sq mi), just under half of the country's total area. Alaska alone accounts for about 17.5 percent of the United States. The countdown below runs from tenth to first. The figures are total area, which includes inland lakes, coastal waters and each state's share of the Great Lakes.

Nos. 10 to 8: Wyoming, Oregon and Colorado, separated by 16,266 km²

10. Wyoming: 253,335 km² (97,813 sq mi). Wyoming is a geodesic quadrangle bounded by the parallels 41°N and 45°N and the meridians 104°3′W and 111°3′W, and with Colorado and Utah it is one of only three states whose borders are all straight lines. It was admitted on 10 July 1890 and is the least populous state, with an estimated 587,618 people in 2024. Its highest point is Gannett Peak in the Wind River Range, 4,209 m (13,809 ft), and it holds most of Yellowstone and all of Grand Teton National Park. The federal government owns just under half of its land.

9. Oregon: 254,799 km² (98,379 sq mi). Oregon edges out Wyoming by under 1,500 km², and only because of water: it has 6,191 km² of water area against Wyoming's 1,864 km². Ranked by land alone, Wyoming moves up to ninth and Oregon drops to tenth. Oregon became a state on 14 February 1859. Its highest point is Mount Hood in the Cascades, 3,429 m (11,249 ft), and in the southern Cascades sits Crater Lake, which at 594 m (1,949 ft) is the deepest lake in the United States.

8. Colorado: 269,601 km² (104,094 sq mi). Colorado is another near-rectangle, admitted on 1 August 1876. It contains the highest summit of the Rocky Mountains, Mount Elbert, 4,401 m (14,440 ft), and it is the only state lying wholly above 1,000 m. Its lowest point, where the Arikaree River flows into Kansas, is 1,011 m (3,317 ft) above sea level, higher than the highest points of 18 states and the District of Columbia.

Nos. 7 to 4: Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Montana, from desert to Rockies

7. Nevada: 286,380 km² (110,572 sq mi). Nevada takes in the majority of the Great Basin, a region of parallel mountain ranges and closed valleys, as well as a large part of the Mojave Desert in the south. It was admitted on 31 October 1864, eight days before the presidential election, and because statehood came during the Civil War it is known as the "Battle Born State". It had only about 40,000 residents at the time, short of the 60,000 Congress usually expected. Boundary Peak, 4,007 m (13,147 ft), is its highest point, and in 2020 about 80.1 percent of its land was managed by the federal government.

6. Arizona: 295,234 km² (113,990 sq mi). Arizona was the last of the 48 contiguous states to join the Union, on 14 February 1912. Its southern strip came from the Gadsden Purchase, first signed at the end of December 1853 and in force from 8 June 1854, under which the United States bought 76,800 km² (29,640 sq mi) of what is now southern Arizona and south-western New Mexico from Mexico to give a southern railroad route an easier path. The state's highest point is Humphreys Peak near Flagstaff, 3,852 m (12,637 ft); its lowest is on the Colorado River at the Mexican border.

5. New Mexico: 314,917 km² (121,590 sq mi). New Mexico was admitted about five weeks before Arizona, on 6 January 1912, as the 47th state. It has the least water area of the ten, only 757 km². Its highest point is Wheeler Peak in the Taos Mountains, 4,013 m (13,167 ft), and its lowest is Red Bluff Reservoir on the Texas border. The two states share a history as well as a border: both were once part of the New Mexico Territory organised under the Compromise of 1850.

4. Montana: 380,831 km² (147,040 sq mi). North of the desert states, Montana is the largest landlocked state and slightly larger than Japan or Germany. It was admitted on 8 November 1889. Its western half is crowded with ranges of the Rocky Mountains, including the Beartooth Mountains, where Granite Peak reaches 3,904 m (12,807 ft); its eastern half is prairie and badlands. The state's lowest point is where the Kootenai River leaves for Idaho. Despite its size, Montana is the eighth-least populous state and the third-least densely populated, which is why so much of it reads on a map as open land between Helena, Billings and the Canadian border with Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan.

Nos. 3 and 2: California and Texas, the giants of the Lower 48

3. California: 423,967 km² (163,695 sq mi). California entered the Union on 9 September 1850, as the 31st state, through the Compromise of 1850, after Mexico ceded Alta California under the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. No other state packs such a range into its area: Mount Whitney in the Sierra Nevada, at 4,421 m (14,505 ft), is the highest point in the contiguous United States, while Badwater Basin in Death Valley, at 86 m (282 ft) below sea level, is the lowest point in all of North America.

2. Texas: 695,662 km² (268,596 sq mi). Texas is 1.64 times the size of California and was admitted on 29 December 1845 as the 28th state; it remained the largest state until Alaska joined in 1959. It could have been larger still. The Republic of Texas claimed the part of New Mexico east of the Rio Grande, but under the Compromise of 1850 Texas gave up land that later became about half of present-day New Mexico, in return for the federal government assuming $10 million of the old republic's debt. Its highest point is Guadalupe Peak, 2,667 m (8,751 ft), in the far west, and its lowest is the Gulf of Mexico coast. Its total includes 19,075 km² of water, more than any other state in the top ten except Alaska and California.

No. 1 Alaska: larger than Texas, California and Montana combined

1. Alaska: 1,723,337 km² (665,384 sq mi). Alaska is 2.48 times the size of Texas, and the three states that follow it, Texas, California and Montana, add up to 1,500,460 km², still more than 200,000 km² short. If it were a country it would rank about 18th in the world by area, close to Iran. It came to the United States through the Alaska Purchase: the treaty with Russia was signed on 30 March 1867, ratified by the Senate on 9 April and took effect on 18 October, at a price of $7.2 million. It was organised as a territory on 11 May 1912 and admitted as the 49th state on 3 January 1959.

Alaska also holds the extremes that come with that size. It is the northernmost and westernmost state, and because the Aleutian Islands cross the 180th meridian it also has the most easterly longitude. Its many islands give it nearly 55,000 km (34,000 mi) of tidal shoreline. Denali, 6,190 m (20,310 ft), is the highest point in North America, and the state's water area alone, 236,508 km², is larger than the whole of Minnesota. Yet its population was just 740,133 in 2024, making it the most sparsely populated state.

The ten largest states side by side, with Michigan in 11th

The table gives the Census Bureau's 2010 total, land and water areas. The chart shows how far Alaska stands apart: the gap between it and Texas is larger than the whole of Texas.

Just outside the list is Michigan, 11th at 250,487 km² (96,714 sq mi), only about 2,850 km² behind Wyoming. But roughly 42 percent of Michigan's total is water, mostly its share of four Great Lakes, and on land alone it shrinks to 146,435 km², well down the rankings. It is still the largest state east of the Mississippi by total area. Minnesota (225,163 km²) and Utah (219,882 km²) follow in 12th and 13th.

The Alaska–Texas gap is explored in more detail in is Alaska bigger than Texas?, the story of how the largest state changed hands is told in our guide to the Alaska Purchase, and the other end of the ranking, where Rhode Island sits, is covered in the smallest US states by area.