The United States of America is a country in North America with 50 states. The explorer shows the 48 contiguous states, which form a single connected block of land: every state except Alaska and Hawaii. Their farthest-apart points, in Maine and California, are about 4,650 kilometers (2,890 miles) apart.

Size

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), a government science agency, worked out the country's extreme distances from its surveys and maps. The two points farthest apart in the 48 states are West Quoddy Head, Maine, and Point Arena, California. The USGS gives the distance between them as 2,892 miles, about 4,650 kilometers.

The width depends on where it is measured. Due west from West Quoddy Head, along the same line of latitude, it is 4,413 kilometers (2,742 miles) to the Pacific Ocean. The shortest coast-to-coast distance, from near Brunswick, Georgia, to near San Diego, California, is 3,362 kilometers (2,089 miles). From north to south, the southern tip of Texas is 2,578 kilometers (1,602 miles) from the 49th parallel, the line 49 degrees north of the equator.

Size comparisons

Measured between their farthest-apart points, the 48 states are about 1.3 times the width of the Moon, which is 3,475 kilometers (2,159 miles) across.
Callisto, one of Jupiter's moons, is about 4,820 kilometers across, only about 4% wider than the 48 states at their farthest-apart points.
Earth is 12,742 kilometers (7,918 miles) across, a little under three times the width of the 48 states.
About 110 marathons laid end to end would stretch from West Quoddy Head to Point Arena.

Alaska, Hawaii and the whole country

Alaska and Hawaii make the country much wider. The farthest-apart points in all 50 states are Log Point on Elliott Key, Florida, and Kure Island, Hawaii, 9,429 kilometers (5,859 miles) apart. West Quoddy Head, Maine, is 7,775 kilometers (4,831 miles) from Cape Wrangell on Alaska's Attu Island.

The whole country, including the District of Columbia, covers 9,833,517 square kilometers (3,796,742 square miles) of land and water. Alaska alone covers about 18% of that. The Moon's surface has almost four times the area of the whole United States.

Where the middle is

The USGS places the geographic center of the 48 states near Lebanon, in Smith County, Kansas. Adding Alaska and Hawaii moves the center of the 50 states to a point west of Castle Rock, in Butte County, South Dakota. The two centers are about 710 kilometers (440 miles) apart.

Sources

Elevations and Distances in the United States. U.S. Geological Survey, 2001.
State Area Measurements and Internal Point Coordinates. U.S. Census Bureau, 2010.
Moon Fact Sheet. NASA, 2024.
Jovian Satellite Fact Sheet. NASA, 2023.
Earth Fact Sheet. NASA, 2024.
Marathon. World Athletics.

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