Which counties are bigger than entire states?

The table counts county equivalents with more land than each of the nine smallest states. The count falls quickly: Rhode Island is small enough that ordinary rural counties in the West and Great Plains exceed it, but by Maryland only a couple of dozen remain, and most of those are in Alaska.

No county equivalent outside Alaska is larger than West Virginia (24,041.4 mi² of land). Alaska’s largest, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, has more land than 47 of the 50 states, up to Montana.

Counties larger than Rhode Island are concentrated in states that drew large counties across sparsely settled land. Texas has the most, 67 of its 254, followed by Montana with 52 of 56. Most eastern states have few or none: their counties are smaller and more numerous for their land area.

35 states have at least one county equivalent larger than Rhode Island. Together, those 640 areas are home to about 93,308,415 people, roughly 27% of the national total.

San Bernardino County, California, at 20,068.4 square miles, is the largest county in the contiguous United States. It has more land than Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maryland. The table shows the 15 largest county equivalents in the lower 48 and how many states each exceeds.

Arizona and Nevada contribute several entries each. Both states divided large areas into relatively few counties; see which states have the largest typical counties.

Comparisons with states mix two kinds of figures unless you are careful. Published state areas often include water, and coastal states such as Rhode Island have large water areas. Here both sides use land only, and every state total is the sum of its county land in the same release, so a county cannot win merely because its figure comes from a different year or includes a bay.

Land area also says nothing about population. San Bernardino County, California has about 2,224,091 residents, more than many states, while most Rhode Island–sized counties in the Plains have a few thousand. Every county profile on this site shows the comparison with states under “How big is it compared with U.S. states?”.