List of U.S. states and territories by coastline
This is a list of U.S. states and territories ranked by their coastline length. Thirty states have a coastline: twenty-three with a coastline on the Arctic Ocean, Atlantic Ocean (including the Gulf of Mexico), and/or Pacific Ocean, and eight with a Great Lakes shoreline. New York has coasts on both the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. Smaller border lakes such as Lake Champlain or Lake of the Woods are not counted. The five major U.S. territories have coastlines — three of them have a coastline on the Pacific Ocean, and two of them have a coastline on the Atlantic Ocean (Caribbean Sea). The U.S. Minor Outlying Islands also have coastlines.
States shaded light blue have Great Lakes coastline.*
States shaded white have no coastline.
* New York has both ocean and Great Lakes coastline.
Two separate measurements are used: method 1 only includes states with ocean coastline and excludes tidal inlets; method 2 includes Great Lake shoreline and the extra length from tidal inlets. For example, method 2 counts the Great Bay as part of New Hampshire's coastline, but method 1 does not.
Method 1 does not include the coastlines of the territories of the United States, while method 2 does.
The data for method 1 was retrieved from a CRS Report for Congress[1] using data from U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, The Coastline of the United States, 1975.[2] This is based on measurements made using large-scale nautical charts. The figure for Connecticut was arrived at separately and may not reflect the correct comparative distance. These numbers exclude the Great Lakes coastlines.
The data for method 2 is from a list maintained by the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).[note 1] The state coastline lengths were computed by an unspecified method that includes tidal areas not included in the first method.[3] These numbers also include the Great Lakes coastlines, which do not have similar tidal areas. Data for the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands is from the CIA World Factbook.[4][5][6]
The figures also face the ambiguity inherent in all attempts at measuring coastlines, as expressed in the coastline paradox.
Table
| State or territory | Method 1 (CRS) | Method 2 (NOAA) | Ratio (M2÷M1) |
Area [7] (mi2) |
Coast/area ratio (ft/mi2) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coastline | Rank | Coastline | Rank | Method 1 | Method 2 | |||
 Alaska |
6,640 mi (10,690 km) | 1 | 33,904 mi (54,563 km) | 1 | 5.11 | 665,384 | 53 | 270 |
 Florida | 1,350 mi (2,170 km) | 2 | 8,436 mi (13,576 km) | 2 | 6.25 | 65,758 | 110 | 680 |
 California | 840 mi (1,350 km) | 3 | 3,427 mi (5,515 km) | 5 | 4.08 | 163,695 | 27 | 110 |
 Hawaii | 750 mi (1,210 km) | 4 | 1,052 mi (1,693 km) | 18 | 1.40 | 10,932 | 360 | 510 |
 Louisiana | 397 mi (639 km) | 5 | 7,721 mi (12,426 km) | 3 | 19.4 | 52,378 | 40 | 780 |
 Texas | 367 mi (591 km) | 6 | 3,359 mi (5,406 km) | 7 | 9.15 | 268,596 | 7.2 | 66 |
 North Carolina | 301 mi (484 km) | 7 | 3,375 mi (5,432 km) | 6 | 11.2 | 53,819 | 30 | 330 |
 Oregon | 296 mi (476 km) | 8 | 1,410 mi (2,270 km) | 17 | 4.76 | 98,379 | 16 | 76 |
 Maine | 228 mi (367 km) | 9 | 3,478 mi (5,597 km) | 4 | 15.3 | 35,380 | 34 | 520 |
 Massachusetts | 192 mi (309 km) | 10 | 1,519 mi (2,445 km) | 16 | 7.91 | 10,554 | 96 | 760 |
 South Carolina | 187 mi (301 km) | 11 | 2,876 mi (4,628 km) | 12 | 15.4 | 32,020 | 31 | 470 |
 Washington | 157 mi (253 km) | 12 | 3,026 mi (4,870 km) | 11 | 19.3 | 71,298 | 12 | 220 |
 New Jersey | 130 mi (210 km) | 13 | 1,792 mi (2,884 km) | 15 | 13.8 | 8,723 | 79 | 1,100 |
 New York | 127 mi (204 km) | 14 | 2,625 mi (4,225 km) | 13 | 20.7 | 54,555 | 12 | 250 |
 Virginia | 112 mi (180 km) | 15 | 3,315 mi (5,335 km) | 8 | 29.6 | 42,775 | 14 | 410 |
.svg.png.webp){kind=small} Georgia | 100 mi (160 km) | 16 | 2,344 mi (3,772 km) | 14 | 23.4 | 59,425 | 8.9 | 210 |
 Connecticut | 96 mi (154 km) | 17 | 618 mi (995 km) | 21 | 6.44 | 5,543 | 91 | 590 |
 Alabama | 53 mi (85 km) | 18 | 607 mi (977 km) | 22 | 11.5 | 52,420 | 5.3 | 61 |
 Mississippi | 44 mi (71 km) | 19 | 359 mi (578 km) | 25 | 8.16 | 48,432 | 4.8 | 39 |
 Rhode Island | 40 mi (64 km) | 20 | 384 mi (618 km) | 23 | 9.60 | 1,545 | 140 | 1,300 |
 Maryland | 31 mi (50 km) | 21 | 3,190 mi (5,130 km) | 10 | 103 | 12,406 | 13 | 1,400 |
 Delaware | 28 mi (45 km) | 22 | 381 mi (613 km) | 24 | 13.6 | 2,489 | 59 | 810 |
 New Hampshire | 13 mi (21 km) | 23 | 131 mi (211 km) | 31 | 10.1 | 9,349 | 7.3 | 74 |
 Michigan | – | – | 3,224 mi (5,189 km) | 9 | – | 96,714 | – | 180 |
 Wisconsin | – | – | 820 mi (1,320 km) | 19 | – | 65,496 | – | 66 |
 Ohio | – | – | 312 mi (502 km) | 26 | – | 44,826 | – | 37 |
 Minnesota | – | – | 189 mi (304 km) | 28 | – | 86,936 | – | 11 |
 Pennsylvania | – | – | 140 mi (230 km) | 30 | – | 46,054 | – | 16 |
 Illinois | – | – | 63 mi (101 km) | 35 | – | 57,914 | – | 5.7 |
 Indiana | – | – | 45 mi (72 km) | 36 | – | 36,420 | – | 6.5 |
 American Samoa | – | – | 126 mi (203 km)[8] | 32 | – | – | – | – |
 Guam | – | – | 110 mi (180 km)[8] | 33 | – | – | – | – |
 Northern Mariana Islands | – | – | 206 mi (332 km)[8] | 27 | – | – | – | – |
 Puerto Rico | – | – | 700 mi (1,100 km)[8] | 20 | – | – | – | – |
 U.S. Virgin Islands | – | – | 175 mi (282 km)[8] | 29 | – | – | – | – |
 U.S. Minor Outlying Islands | — | — | 70.21 mi (112.99 km)[4][5][6] | 34 | — | — | — | — |
| Total | 12,479 mi (20,083 km) | 95,509 mi (153,707 km)[note 2] | ||||||
Notes
- The data for the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands is from the CIA World Factbook.
- Figure is the "95,439 miles" number stated by the NOAA,[8] plus the 70 miles of coastline of the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands.
See also
References
- "U.S. International Borders: Brief Facts", Congressional Research Service, November 9, 2006
- United States. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (1975). The Coastline of the United States. U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. pp. 2–.
- "NOAA Office for Coastal Management | States and Territories Working on Ocean and Coastal Management". coast.noaa.gov. NOAA Office for Coastal Management. 14 October 2016. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
- The World Factbook CIA World Factbook. United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
- https://www.cia.gov/-library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/wq.html CIA World Factbook. Wake Island. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
- https://www.cia.gov/-library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bq.html CIA World Factbook. Navassa Island. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
- "United States Summary: 2010, Population and Housing Unit Counts, 2010 Census of Population and Housing" (PDF) (PDF). United States Census Bureau. September 2012. pp. V–2, 1 & 41 (Tables 1 & 18). Retrieved March 22, 2014.
- https://coast.noaa.gov/data/docs/states/shorelines.pdf Coast.noaa.gov. Shoreline Mileage of the United States. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
