Alaska is the largest state in the United States, spanning over 663,300 square miles. With its vast size, one might wonder exactly how many other US states could fit inside its borders. Here we will examine how Alaska’s total area compares to other states and estimate how many states could fit within Alaska’s expansive boundaries.
Alaska’s Total Area
According to the US Census Bureau, Alaska has a total area of 663,300 square miles. This includes 651,432 square miles of land area and 11,868 square miles of inland water area consisting of lakes, rivers, glaciers, and swamps. To put Alaska’s massive size into perspective, consider the following facts:
- Alaska accounts for 17.3% of the total land area of the United States.
- Alaska is larger than the combined area of the 22 smallest US states.
- Alaska is over twice the size of the second largest state, Texas.
Clearly, Alaska is in a league of its own when it comes to the size of US states. Its sprawling landscape contains a variety of geographic features, from tundra to mountains to coastal regions. With so much land area, Alaska has plenty of room to fit multiple states within its borders.
Comparing Alaska to Other States
To estimate how many US states could fit inside Alaska, we need to compare its size to other states. The table below shows the total land area of the 10 largest US states:
| State | Land Area (sq. miles) |
|---|---|
| Alaska | 651,432 |
| Texas | 261,232 |
| California | 155,959 |
| Montana | 145,556 |
| New Mexico | 121,298 |
| Arizona | 113,642 |
| Nevada | 109,806 |
| Colorado | 103,730 |
| Oregon | 95,997 |
| Wyoming | 97,105 |
As the table shows, Texas is the second largest state with 261,232 square miles. But Alaska is over 2.5 times larger than Texas. Even the third and fourth largest states, California and Montana, have less than half the land area of Alaska. clearly demonstrates Alaska’s massive scale compared to the other largest US states.
Estimating How Many States Could Fit in Alaska
Now that we have compared Alaska’s size to other states, we can estimate how many would fit inside its borders. For simplicity, we will focus on the contiguous 48 states and exclude Alaska and Hawaii from the analysis.
Here are two different methods to estimate the number of states that could fit in Alaska:
Method 1: Using the Size of Texas as a Benchmark
Since Texas is the second largest state, we can use it as a benchmark for estimating how many states could fit in Alaska:
- Alaska is 2.5 times larger than Texas.
- The average size of the 48 contiguous states is around 75,000 square miles.
- Texas is 3.5 times larger than the average state size.
- So if about 3.5 states the size of the average state fit in Texas, then 2.5 * 3.5 = 8.75 average sized states would fit in Alaska.
Using this method, we estimate that around 9 average sized US states could fit inside Alaska.
Method 2: Dividing Alaska’s Area by Average State Size
We can also simply divide Alaska’s total area by the average state size:
- Alaska area: 651,432 square miles
- Average state size: 75,000 square miles
- 651,432 / 75,000 = 8.68
This gives us an estimate of 8-9 average sized states fitting in Alaska.
Conclusion
Based on comparing its size to the continental US states, we estimate that around 8-9 states the size of the average state could fit inside Alaska’s vast boundaries. This highlights just how enormously large Alaska is compared to the rest of the United States. While it may not hold all 50 states, Alaska’s sprawling terrain could contain nearly a fifth of the country within its borders.
Of course, precisely fitting states into Alaska like puzzle pieces would be impossible given Alaska’s unique geography. But imagining 8-9 states superimposed over Alaska gives perspective on its massive scale. It is no wonder that Alaska is called “The Last Frontier” with so much open wilderness stretching as far as the eye can see.