US Map Quiz: Click All 50 States

Learn it region by region

The quiz uses the four regions the US Census Bureau uses. Each has a couple of states that are easy to find and can anchor the rest.

West (13 states): Start on the Pacific coast, where Washington, Oregon and California stack from north to south. Then find the Four Corners, the only point in the country where four states meet: Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. Nevada fills the gap between California and Utah. Idaho sits above Nevada and Utah, Wyoming sits above Colorado, and Montana runs across the top of both along the Canadian border. Alaska and Hawaii are drawn as insets below the lower 48.

Midwest (12 states): Read the Midwest as columns. The Great Plains column runs North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas from the Canadian border south. Directly east is a second column: Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri. Then the states around the Great Lakes run west to east: Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio. Michigan is the one split into two peninsulas, with its Upper Peninsula resting on top of Wisconsin.

South (16 states): Texas and Florida anchor opposite ends of the Gulf coast, with Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama in between. Oklahoma sits directly above Texas, and Arkansas is east of Oklahoma. Tennessee and Kentucky are two long east–west states, with Kentucky on top. Up the Atlantic coast come Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, with West Virginia inland. The Census also counts Maryland and Delaware as southern, which surprises most people.

Northeast (9 states): New York and Pennsylvania are the two big ones, and New Jersey sits between Pennsylvania and the Atlantic. The other six are New England. Maine is the only state in the country that borders just one other state, New Hampshire. Below Maine are Vermont and New Hampshire, then Massachusetts, and at the bottom Connecticut and Rhode Island, the smallest state of all.

Eight pairs people mix up

Most misses are between two neighbours with a similar shape. Each pair has one feature that tells them apart.

Vermont and New Hampshire: Mirror-image wedges divided by the Connecticut River. Vermont is on the west and widens toward Canada. New Hampshire is on the east, widens toward Massachusetts, and has a short stretch of Atlantic coast.

Wyoming and Colorado: Both are rectangles drawn along lines of latitude and longitude. Wyoming is on top, between 41°N and 45°N. Colorado is below it, between 37°N and 41°N, and touches the Four Corners.

North Dakota and South Dakota: North Dakota touches Canada. South Dakota touches Nebraska, and the Missouri River cuts through the middle of it.

Nebraska and Kansas: Nebraska has a panhandle that sticks out to the west; Kansas is an almost perfect rectangle directly below it, with a notch in its northeast corner where the Missouri River runs.

Iowa and Missouri: Iowa is the state between two rivers, the Mississippi on the east and the Missouri on the west. Missouri is below it, and its southeast corner drops into a small “bootheel”.

Mississippi and Alabama: Two tall rectangles side by side. Mississippi is on the west, against the Mississippi River and Louisiana. Alabama is on the east, next to Georgia, with a short Gulf coast around Mobile.

Maryland and Delaware: Maryland wraps around Chesapeake Bay in a ragged, irregular shape. Delaware is the small state on the eastern side of the same peninsula, facing Delaware Bay and New Jersey.

Connecticut and Rhode Island: Connecticut is the larger rectangle on Long Island Sound. Rhode Island is the small one east of it, wrapped around Narragansett Bay. Zoom in before you click, because it is easy to miss on a phone.

Why Alaska and Hawaii look out of place

Nearly every map of the 50 states, this one included, uses the Albers USA projection. It moves Alaska and Hawaii into boxes under the Southwest so the lower 48 can fill the frame. Alaska is shrunk to about a third of its true scale on the way. In reality it covers 1,723,337 km², roughly two and a half times the 695,662 km² of Texas.

Hawaii is really more than 2,000 miles from California, in the middle of the Pacific. Scale is also why Rhode Island is the hardest click on the map. At 4,001 km² it would fit inside Alaska about 430 times.

Washington, D.C. is drawn on the map, since it sits between Maryland and Virginia. It is shaded grey and not part of the quiz, because it is a federal district rather than a state.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Washington, D.C. in the quiz?

No. D.C. appears on the map between Maryland and Virginia, but it is a federal district, not a state, so it is greyed out and never asked. The quiz covers exactly the 50 states.

How is my score worked out?

Your score is the share of states you found on your first click. States found on the second or third try show amber, and states you missed three times show red. The results list every missed state by name so you know what to practise, and the round is saved to your Locate the State history.

How do I click small states like Rhode Island or Delaware on a phone?

Use the + button in the corner of the map, or pinch to zoom, then drag to pan. Zooming does not use up an attempt, and states you have already answered cannot be clicked again, so zoom in as far as you need.

Which states are in each region?

The quiz follows the US Census Bureau regions. Northeast: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont. Midwest: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin. South: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia. West: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming.

Is this the same as the Locate the State game?

Yes. This quiz is the All 50 level of Locate the State, and your results are saved to the same game. Its other four levels are shorter drills: 10 states per round, sorted from easy (California, Texas, Florida) to extreme (the look-alike rectangles of the Plains and Mountain West).

Is the US map quiz free?

Yes. It runs in the browser on phones, tablets and desktops, with no account and no download.