Geography of the United States
overview of the geography of the United States of America
The term "United States", when used in the geographic sense, refers to the contiguous United States (sometimes referred to as the Lower 48, including the District of Columbia not as a state), Alaska, Hawaii, the five insular territories of Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and minor outlying possessions. The United States shares land borders with Canada and Mexico and maritime borders with Russia, Cuba, the Bahamas, and a few other countries, mainly in the Caribbean, in addition to Canada and Mexico. The northern border of the United States with Canada is the world's longest bi-national land border.
The state of Hawaii is physiographically and ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania. U.S. territories are located in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean.
Area
From 1989 through 1996, the total area of the US was listed as 3,618,780 square miles (9,372,610 km2) (land and inland water only). The listed total area changed to 3,717,813 sq mi (9,629,091 km2) in 1997 (Great Lakes area and coastal waters added), to 3,718,711 sq mi (9,631,418 km2) in 2004, to 3,718,710 sq mi (9,631,420 km2) in 2006, and to 3,794,080 sq mi (9,826,630 km2) in 2007 (territorial waters added). As of 2026, the CIA World Factbook gives 3,796,742 sq mi (9,833,517 km2), the United Nations Statistics Division gives 3,717,813 sq mi (9,629,091 km2), and the Encyclopedia Britannica gives 3,677,649 sq mi (9,525,067 km2) (Great Lakes area included but not coastal and territorial waters). These sources consider only the 50 states and the Federal District and exclude overseas territories. The US has the 2nd-largest Exclusive Economic Zone of 4,383,000 sq mi (11,351,000 km2).
The public source identifies “Geography of the United States” as overview of the geography of the United States of America. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Geography, United and States.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q272160. Authority coordinates are 38.000, -97.000. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1989, 1996, 1997 and 2004.
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This entry incorporates text from “Geography of the United States” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.