Peakle #2 answers: US states by total area

Thursday, November 12, 2026. All 50 states, land plus water. Each answer must be bigger than the one before.

This list has 50 answers. Open the hints one at a time, or jump straight to the full ranking.

Hints

Hint 1: how it's measured

Answers are compared by total area, in sq mi. Total area includes inland, coastal, Great Lakes and territorial water.

Hint 2: three safe first stops

Three of the smallest answers are Rhode Island, Delaware and Connecticut. Start with one of them and you'll have the most room to go deeper.

Hint 3: the ocean floor

The biggest answer, the ocean floor that earns a star, is Alaska. Save it for last.

Full ranking

Show all 50 answers, biggest first

#	Answer	Total area
1	Alaska West · AK	665,384 sq mi
2	Texas South · TX	268,596 sq mi
3	California West · CA	163,695 sq mi
4	Montana West · MT	147,040 sq mi
5	New Mexico West · NM	121,590 sq mi
6	Arizona West · AZ	113,990 sq mi
7	Nevada West · NV	110,572 sq mi
8	Colorado West · CO	104,094 sq mi
9	Oregon West · OR	98,379 sq mi
10	Wyoming West · WY	97,813 sq mi
11	Michigan Midwest · MI	96,714 sq mi
12	Minnesota Midwest · MN	86,936 sq mi
13	Utah West · UT	84,897 sq mi
14	Idaho West · ID	83,569 sq mi
15	Kansas Midwest · KS	82,278 sq mi
16	Nebraska Midwest · NE	77,348 sq mi
17	South Dakota Midwest · SD	77,116 sq mi
18	Washington West · WA	71,298 sq mi
19	North Dakota Midwest · ND	70,698 sq mi
20	Oklahoma South · OK	69,899 sq mi
21	Missouri Midwest · MO	69,707 sq mi
22	Florida South · FL	65,758 sq mi
23	Wisconsin Midwest · WI	65,496 sq mi
24	Georgia South · GA	59,425 sq mi
25	Illinois Midwest · IL	57,914 sq mi
26	Iowa Midwest · IA	56,273 sq mi
27	New York Northeast · NY	54,555 sq mi
28	North Carolina South · NC	53,819 sq mi
29	Arkansas South · AR	53,179 sq mi
30	Alabama South · AL	52,420 sq mi
31	Louisiana South · LA	52,378 sq mi
32	Mississippi South · MS	48,432 sq mi
33	Pennsylvania Northeast · PA	46,054 sq mi
34	Ohio Midwest · OH	44,826 sq mi
35	Virginia South · VA	42,775 sq mi
36	Tennessee South · TN	42,144 sq mi
37	Kentucky South · KY	40,408 sq mi
38	Indiana Midwest · IN	36,420 sq mi
39	Maine Northeast · ME	35,380 sq mi
40	South Carolina South · SC	32,020 sq mi
41	West Virginia South · WV	24,230 sq mi
42	Maryland South · MD	12,406 sq mi
43	Hawaii West · HI	10,932 sq mi
44	Massachusetts Northeast · MA	10,554 sq mi
45	Vermont Northeast · VT	9,616 sq mi
46	New Hampshire Northeast · NH	9,349 sq mi
47	New Jersey Northeast · NJ	8,723 sq mi
48	Connecticut Northeast · CT	5,543 sq mi
49	Delaware South · DE	2,489 sq mi
50	Rhode Island Northeast · RI	1,545 sq mi

Did you know? Alaska (665,384 sq mi) is bigger than Texas, California and Montana combined (579,331 sq mi), and Rhode Island would fit into it more than 430 times.

Where the numbers come from

Every value on this list comes from a public source, measured the same way for every answer, so the comparisons are fair.

Source: US Census Bureau, State Area Measurements (2010)

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