The 10 Largest U.S. States by Area

Alaska dwarfs the field. Texas is a distant second. The rest cluster in the West. Here's the definitive ranking (land + water area, sq mi):

1. Alaska – 663,268 (17% of US total; > TX + CA + MT combined)
2. Texas – 268,596
3. California – 163,695
4. Montana – 147,046
5. New Mexico – 121,590
6. Arizona – 113,990
7. Nevada – 110,572
8. Colorado – 104,094
9. Oregon – 98,380
10. Wyoming – 97,813

Key Context

• Alaska is 2.5× Texas, 4.3× California. If it were a country, it'd rank ~18th globally (between Iran and Mongolia).
• Top 4 (AK, TX, CA, MT) = ~1.24M sq mi = **33% of US land**.
• All 10 are west of the Mississippi except... none. The Mississippi is the de facto divider.
• Water area matters: Michigan (11th total, 2nd water) and Florida (22nd total, 3rd water) would crack top 10 by water alone.

Population vs. Area

Only California, Texas, and (barely) Colorado appear in both top-10-area and top-10-population. Alaska (48th pop), Wyoming (50th pop), Montana (44th pop) are vast and empty. Density ranges from 1.3/sq mi (AK) to 255/sq mi (CO).