Claim: The United States is millions of square miles.

The contiguous United States consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states plus Washington , D.C. -LRB- federal district -RRB- , on the continent of North America . The term excludes the non-contiguous states of Alaska and Hawaii and all off-shore United States territories and possessions , which include American Samoa , Guam , the Northern Mariana Islands , Puerto Rico , and the U.S. Virgin Islands .   The greatest distance -LRB- on a great circle route -RRB- entirely within the 48 contiguous states is 2,802 miles -LRB- 4,509 km , between Florida and the state of Washington -RRB- ; the greatest north-south line is 1,650 miles -LRB- 2,660 km -RRB- .   Together , the 48 contiguous states and Washington , D.C. occupy a combined area of 3,119,884.69 sqmi , which is 1.58 % of the total surface area of Earth . Of this area , 2,959,064.44 sqmi is land , composing 83.65 % of U.S. land area , similar to the area of Australia . Officially , 160,820.25 sqmi is water area , composing 62.66 % of the nation 's total water area .   The contiguous United States would be placed 5th in the list of sovereign states and dependencies by area ; the total area of the country , including Alaska and Hawaii , ranks fourth . Brazil is the only country that is larger in total area than the contiguous United States , but smaller than the entire United States , while Russia , Canada and China are the only three countries larger than both . The 2010 census population of this area was 306,675,006 , comprising 99.33 % of the nation 's population , and a density of 103.639 inhabitants/sq mi -LRB- 40.015 / km2 -RRB- , compared to 87.264 / sq mi -LRB- 33.692 / km2 -RRB- for the nation as a whole .