North America's Coastline: No Perimeter, But Vast Shorelines

Measuring North America's Edges

North America has no single "perimeter" because it is not a closed geometric shape—its boundaries include complex coastlines, land borders, and maritime zones.

Coastline Statistics

• Combined coastline length: ~107,000 km (66,500 miles)
• Pacific Coast: ~25,000 km (Alaska to Panama)
• Atlantic/Gulf Coast: ~30,000 km (Labrador to Yucatán)
• Arctic Coast: ~25,000 km (Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Greenland)
• Caribbean Coast: ~8,000 km (Central America, islands)

Land Borders

• Canada–U.S.: 8,891 km (longest international border)
• U.S.–Mexico: 3,145 km
• Guatemala–Mexico, Belize–Mexico, Guatemala–Belize, Honduras–Guatemala, etc.

Why No Single Perimeter?

Indented coastlines, fjords, barrier islands, river deltas, and the fractal nature of shorelines mean measured length varies with scale. The "coastline paradox" applies: finer measurement yields longer totals.

For practical purposes, the ~107,000 km coastline figure represents the total maritime interface of the continent.