How Much Land in Nevada Is Government-Owned?

The United States federal government owns almost 85 percent of the land in Nevada — that's about 94,000 square miles (more than 240,000 square km). In total, about one-third of the land in the U.S. — more than 1 million square miles (more than 2.5 million square km) — is owned by the federal government.

More facts about land in the U.S.:

• Land owned by the government can be used for many purposes, including as a military base, a Native American reservation or as a national park or reserve. Some of the land is leased out to private contractors for industries such as mining or forestry.


• The federal government also owns about 70 percent of the land in Alaska, about 60 percent of the land in Utah and about half of the land in Oregon, Arizona, Idaho and California.


• The states with the least amount of government-owned land tend to be in the Northeast. Connecticut has only about 0.4 percent government-owned land, as does Rhode Island. New York has about 0.8 percent government-owned land, and the federal government owns a little more than 1 percent of the land in Maine.