How Big Are the States in America?

It is interesting to compare land area, total population and GDP. As of 2010, California was no. 1 in GDP, followed by Texas and New York. Alaska is near the bottom at no. 46. In some cases, small areas produce a bigger GDP than larger, as in the case of New Jersey: no. 7 by GDP, but no. 47 by population. However, to keep it in perspective, GDP is not just the individual but companies situated within the geographic area.

It's a little curious to me that the King Ranch in south Texas has holdings of approximately 1.15 million acres or about 1,800 square miles - larger than the state of Rhode Island.

Wow. California? Wow.

I thought California was the biggest state.

Alaska's not only the biggest, it's the best state too.

It is funny that NJ is very small but still has a large population.

Texas has much larger population than Alaska and it is currently the fastest growing state by population.

if you add Texas, California and Montana together, Alaska is bigger than all three combined. Cool.

which two states have a difference of 910 square miles?

Of course it is a good job for Texan pride that you didn't include Canada in your comparisons. Even Alaska is dwarfed by Nunavut Territory at 808,199 sq. miles, then after Alaska there are Quebec, the North West Territories, Ontario and British Columbia which are all bigger than Texas.

It is also interesting to note that if each person on Earth (est. 9 billion) is allowed 16 Sq. Ft. of space (e.g. 4 Ft. by 4 Ft.) they will all fit inside Connecticut with room to spare!

The joke goes that Alaskans had been considering dividing their state into two halves, but Texas protested too much. If that were to happen, Texas would then become the THIRD largest state!

well, Texas is the biggest of the contiguous 48 states.

I find it absolutely hilarious that we have 2 states in the U.S. that are larger than all of France.

If you're interested in the rankings just by land mass alone, you can Google "quickfacts census" and you should find a site provided by the census bureau with this information. The data in this article was provided by the CIA World Factbook (see the link in the bottom lefthand corner of this page) which includes bodies of water in its area calculations.

What is the state ranking after subtracting the area of bodies of water within each state?

Wow! I didn't know that Alaska was the biggest, although now that I think about it, it makes sense. It seems like you always hear Texas when talking about the biggest (size) US state.