This Is the Smallest State in America

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published May 22, 3:00PM EDT

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

This Is the Smallest State in America — © DenisTangneyJr / iStock via Getty Images

The United States is the fourth largest country in the world, based on square mileage of 3,618,783. That puts it behind Russia, Canada, and China. The 50 states that make up the country vary considerably in size. Alaska takes up 17% of the area of the United States. Thirteen states each cover less than 1% of the country.

The smallest state in America is Rhode Island at about 1,545 square miles. That is only 0.04% of the U.S. total. Since the smallest states by this measure are usually the most densely populated, Rhode Island ranks second in people per square mile at 1,051. It trails only New Jersey, where the figure is 1,252. Because of its bays, about 16% of New Jersey is covered by water. (Find out what percentage of water area Alaska has here: This is the largest state in America.)

Rhode Island was the last state of the first 13 admitted to the Union. It was admitted on May 29, 1790. It was a holdout. It did not send delegates to the Constitutional Convention, and it was given the nickname “the perverse sister.” It did not ratify the Constitution until a year after it went into effect, according to the National Archives. (Find how large of an economy the state has: America’s largest and smallest state economies.)

The following 10 cities make up most of the population. Of these, the largest is Providence, which has about 180,600 residents, more than double the next city.

Providence – 180,609

Cranston – 81,698

Warwick – 81,080

Pawtucket – 72,405

East Providence – 47,760

Woonsocket – 41,899

Newport – 23,844

Central Falls – 19,844

Westerly – 17,553

Newport East – 11,925

24/7 Wall St. used data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s State Area Measurements and Internal Point Coordinates to list state areas and calculate the percentage of the U.S. each state covers.

Click here to see the smallest state in America

Alabama
> Total area in sq. miles: 52,420 — 21st smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 1.38%

[in-text-ad]

Alaska
> Total area in sq. miles: 665,384 — the largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 17.53%

[recirclink id=981173]

Arizona
> Total area in sq. miles: 113,990 — 6th largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 3.00%

Arkansas
> Total area in sq. miles: 53,179 — 22nd smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 1.40%

[in-text-ad-2]

California
> Total area in sq. miles: 163,695 — 3rd largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 4.31%

Colorado
> Total area in sq. miles: 104,094 — 8th largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 2.74%

[in-text-ad]

Connecticut
> Total area in sq. miles: 5,543 — 3rd smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 0.15%

[recirclink id=997216]

Delaware
> Total area in sq. miles: 2,489 — 2nd smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 0.07%

Florida
> Total area in sq. miles: 65,758 — 22nd largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 1.73%

[in-text-ad-2]

Georgia
> Total area in sq. miles: 59,425 — 24th largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 1.57%

Hawaii
> Total area in sq. miles: 10,932 — 8th smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 0.29%

[in-text-ad]

Idaho
> Total area in sq. miles: 83,569 — 14th largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 2.20%

[recirclink id=994686]

Illinois
> Total area in sq. miles: 57,914 — 25th largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 1.53%

Indiana
> Total area in sq. miles: 36,420 — 13th smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 0.96%

[in-text-ad-2]

Iowa
> Total area in sq. miles: 56,273 — 25th smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 1.48%

Kansas
> Total area in sq. miles: 82,278 — 15th largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 2.17%

[in-text-ad]

Kentucky
> Total area in sq. miles: 40,408 — 14th smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 1.06%

[recirclink id=983813]

Louisiana
> Total area in sq. miles: 52,378 — 20th smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 1.38%

Maine
> Total area in sq. miles: 35,380 — 12th smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 0.93%

[in-text-ad-2]

Maryland
> Total area in sq. miles: 12,406 — 9th smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 0.33%

Massachusetts
> Total area in sq. miles: 10,554 — 7th smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 0.28%

[in-text-ad]

Michigan
> Total area in sq. miles: 96,714 — 11th largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 2.55%

[recirclink id=967064]

Minnesota
> Total area in sq. miles: 86,936 — 12th largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 2.29%

Mississippi
> Total area in sq. miles: 48,432 — 19th smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 1.28%

[in-text-ad-2]

Missouri
> Total area in sq. miles: 69,707 — 21st largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 1.84%

Montana
> Total area in sq. miles: 147,040 — 4th largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 3.87%

[in-text-ad]

Nebraska
> Total area in sq. miles: 77,348 — 16th largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 2.04%

[recirclink id=981173]

Nevada
> Total area in sq. miles: 110,572 — 7th largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 2.91%

New Hampshire
> Total area in sq. miles: 9,349 — 5th smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 0.25%

[in-text-ad-2]

New Jersey
> Total area in sq. miles: 8,723 — 4th smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 0.23%

New Mexico
> Total area in sq. miles: 121,590 — 5th largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 3.20%

[in-text-ad]

New York
> Total area in sq. miles: 54,555 — 24th smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 1.44%

[recirclink id=997216]

North Carolina
> Total area in sq. miles: 53,819 — 23rd smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 1.42%

North Dakota
> Total area in sq. miles: 70,698 — 19th largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 1.86%

[in-text-ad-2]

Ohio
> Total area in sq. miles: 44,826 — 17th smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 1.18%

Oklahoma
> Total area in sq. miles: 69,899 — 20th largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 1.84%

[in-text-ad]

Oregon
> Total area in sq. miles: 98,379 — 9th largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 2.59%

[recirclink id=994686]

Pennsylvania
> Total area in sq. miles: 46,054 — 18th smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 1.21%

Rhode Island
> Total area in sq. miles: 1,545 — the smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 0.04%

[in-text-ad-2]

South Carolina
> Total area in sq. miles: 32,020 — 11th smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 0.84%

South Dakota
> Total area in sq. miles: 77,116 — 17th largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 2.03%

[in-text-ad]

Tennessee
> Total area in sq. miles: 42,144 — 15th smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 1.11%

[recirclink id=983813]

Texas
> Total area in sq. miles: 268,596 — 2nd largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 7.07%

Utah
> Total area in sq. miles: 84,897 — 13th largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 2.24%

[in-text-ad-2]

Vermont
> Total area in sq. miles: 9,616 — 6th smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 0.25%

Virginia
> Total area in sq. miles: 42,775 — 16th smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 1.13%

[in-text-ad]

Washington
> Total area in sq. miles: 71,298 — 18th largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 1.88%

[recirclink id=967064]

West Virginia
> Total area in sq. miles: 24,230 — 10th smallest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 0.64%

Wisconsin
> Total area in sq. miles: 65,496 — 23rd largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 1.73%

[in-text-ad-2]

Wyoming
> Total area in sq. miles: 97,813 — 10th largest
> Pct. of U.S. area: 2.58%

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.