Top 10 largest US states

Water is part of the total

The Census table separates land area from water area and reports their total. Water includes the geographic assignments used by the Census Bureau, rather than a guess based on what looks blue on a map. A state with substantial coastal or inland water can change position when the water is removed. To reproduce the archived ranking, sort the total-area column for the states rather than mixing a total value from one reference with a land-only value from another.

Why Alaska dominates the scale

Alaska sits well apart from the other states in this answer set. That gap is not communicated well by its position as a small inset on many classroom maps, where its drawing uses a different scale from the contiguous states. A rank number also hides magnitude: first and second are adjacent rows but need not be close in area. Maps are useful for location and shape, while a table with consistent units is a better basis for the area comparison.

The geographic snapshot and eligible units

The question uses the 2010 area measurements rather than combining the newest available figures from different editions. Small measurement revisions need not imply that a state’s political boundary changed substantially; mapping methods and water assignments can also change reported area. Washington, DC and territories are excluded because the candidate pool is the fifty states. Texas and California are recognizable large entries, but recognizability is not a ranking rule. To check another list, match total versus land area, state-only coverage and the measurement edition before comparing positions. A square-mile to square-kilometre conversion should preserve the order when applied consistently to every row.

Sources & further reading

• US Census Bureau: state area measurements

Explanation updated Thursday, October 1, 2026. The puzzle’s original data date is listed below.