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Top 10 US states with the most water area

Daily Tens #97 · Sunday, October 18, 2026 · Ranked by 2020 census water area in square kilometres

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Heads up: the answers are published further down this page.

About this ranking

Alaska’s assigned water area in the 2020 Census geography table is about 244,277 square kilometres, more than twice Michigan’s 103,860. The size of that lead is the first thing the comparison chart reveals. The less obvious point is the definition: Census water area includes more than a state’s inland lakes, so this cannot be read as a ranking of lake-rich states alone.

The answers

2020 water area (km²) for the archived answer set
Rank Answer 2020 water area (km²)
1 Alaska 244,276.695
2 Michigan 103,860.203
3 Florida 45,960.279
4 Wisconsin 29,340.522
5 Louisiana 23,708.551
6 California 20,288.534
7 New York 19,256.68
8 Texas 19,009.36
9 Minnesota 18,936.562
10 North Carolina 13,452.678

Values follow the dated source snapshot and the original answer order. Rounding is for display only; the ranking uses the stored values.

Water area assigned to each state

Square kilometres · Linear scale starting at zero

  1. Alaska 244,277
  2. Michigan 103,860
  3. Florida 45,960
  4. Wisconsin 29,341
  5. Louisiana 23,709
  6. California 20,289
  7. New York 19,257
  8. Texas 19,009
  9. Minnesota 18,937
  10. North Carolina 13,453

Includes the Census Bureau’s inland and coastal water assignments. This is absolute water area, not lake count, freshwater supply or percentage of state area.

Data: US Census Bureau — 2020 state geography table. Chart by Daily Tens.

What Census water area includes

The geography measure assigns water to state boundaries under Census definitions, including inland water and relevant coastal, territorial and Great Lakes water. This is not a count of lakes, a measure of drinking-water supply or an estimate of usable freshwater. Alaska’s coastline and Michigan’s Great Lakes setting therefore matter in different ways. A source limited to inland lakes could produce a different order without contradicting this table, because it would be measuring a narrower physical area.

Compare the actual gaps

Alaska exceeds Michigan by about 140,416 square kilometres. Michigan, in turn, has more than twice Florida’s water area of about 45,960. Near the bottom, Texas and Minnesota are much closer: roughly 19,009 and 18,937 square kilometres, a difference of only about 73. Adjacent positions therefore conceal radically different separations. The zero-based chart preserves the ratios, while the numerical table makes the close Texas–Minnesota comparison inspectable instead of implying that all ranks are evenly spaced.

Area is different from share

This puzzle sorts absolute square kilometres. Dividing water area by total state area would instead measure the proportion covered by water, favouring some smaller states and changing the order. Alaska can have the largest absolute amount without necessarily having the largest percentage. Likewise, population density should use land area, not this water-area figure. Keeping these denominators distinct prevents a plausible geography fact from being used to answer the wrong question.

Boundaries and dates are part of the evidence

Only the 50 states are eligible, excluding Washington, DC and territories. The figures come from the 2020 Census geography table retained with the puzzle’s September 2026 source check. Water boundaries and mapping conventions can be revised; small differences between references may reflect those changes rather than arithmetic mistakes. This page keeps the original unrounded values for its ordering and rounds the displayed square kilometres for readability. A future update should identify the replacement geography vintage and explain any changed ranks rather than silently rewriting a finished game.

Sources & further reading

Explanation updated . The puzzle’s original data date is listed below.

Sources & methodology

Metric
2020 Census water area in square kilometres
Data through
2020 Census
Source
US Census Bureau — 2020 state geography table
Notes
The 50 states only; excludes DC and territories. Density divides the 2020 resident count by land area, excluding water. Water-area comparisons include the Census Bureau’s inland and coastal water assignments.

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