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Alaska vs California Size: How Much Bigger Is Alaska?

By Marko Visic · Updated Nov 11, 2026

Alaska has 570,641 sq mi (1,477,953 km²) of land and California 155,779 sq mi (403,466 km²), so by land area Alaska is 3.66× California (Census 2010). California has 53× as many people, 39.4 million against 737,270 on July 1, 2025, and Alaska has 7.9× as much general coastline (NOAA).

Alaska's outline with 3 California shapes and a dashed 0.66 partial shape inside it. Each copy of California is scaled to 155,779 sq mi against Alaska's 570,641 sq mi of land.Alaska in an Alaska Albers equal-area projection (parallels 55°N and 65°N). Each California copy is scaled so its area against Alaska's matches the land-area ratio of 3.66.3.66 Californias fit inside AlaskaAlaska 570,641 sq mi · California 155,779 sq mi · land area, Census 2010Alaska1230.66Each shape = 1 Californiasimplemaplab.com/size-comparisons/alaska-vs-california · CC-BY 4.0
Alaska's outline with California copies inside it; each copy is scaled to the area ratio in the table (3.66, land area). Shapes from Census Bureau boundaries.
Check this for yourself
Drag Alaska across California in the interactive comparison tool
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At a glance: Alaska vs California by the numbers

MetricAlaskaCaliforniaRatio
Land area (sq mi)570,641155,779Alaska 3.66×
Total area incl. water (sq mi)665,384163,695Alaska 4.06×
Water area (sq mi)94,7437,916Alaska 12.0×
Population (July 1, 2025)737,27039,355,309California 53.4×
People per sq mi of land1.29252.6California 196×
GDP, current US$ (2025)$73.6 billion$4.30 trillionCalifornia 58.4×
GDP per person (2025)$99,875$109,196California 1.09×
General coastline (mi, NOAA 1975)6,640840Alaska 7.9×
Tidal shoreline (mi, NOAA)33,9043,427Alaska 9.9×
Highest pointMount McKinley (Denali), 20,310 ftMount Whitney, 14,505 ft
Rank among the 50 states, land area1st3rd
Rank among the 50 states, population48th1st
StatehoodJanuary 3, 1959 (49th)September 9, 1850 (31st)
Standard time zones2 (Alaska, Hawaii-Aleutian)1 (Pacific)

Ratios divide the larger figure by the smaller. Areas are Census 2010, populations Census Vintage 2025 and GDP from the Bureau of Economic Analysis; general coastline and tidal shoreline are two different NOAA measures.

How much bigger is Alaska than California?

Laid over Alaska's land, three whole Californias fit and leave 103,304 sq mi uncovered, just under the land area of Colorado (103,642 sq mi). Alaska is also larger than Texas and California, the second- and third-largest states, put together: 570,641 sq mi against 417,011 sq mi. It holds 16.2% of the land in the United States; California holds 4.4%.

Counting water, the ratio rises to 4.06×: 665,384 sq mi against 163,695 sq mi. The Census Bureau's total adds perennial inland water, coastal water and the territorial sea to the land figure, in which glaciers, marshes and intermittent water already count as land. Alaska's water comes to 94,743 sq mi (19,304 inland, 26,119 coastal, 49,320 territorial), 12.0 times California's 7,916 sq mi. On its own it would rank 12th among the states by total area, just behind Michigan (96,714 sq mi).

Drawn to scale: Alaska next to California

The two states side by side, drawn to scale in equal-area projections.

Alaska (570,641 sq mi of land, left) and California (155,779 sq mi, right) side by side at the same scale.Alaska and California in equal-area conic projections at one scale.Alaska is 3.66× California by land areaAlaska570,641 sq miCalifornia155,779 sq mi
Alaska in an Alaska Albers projection (parallels 55°N and 65°N) and California in a US Albers projection (parallels 29.5°N and 45.5°N), both equal-area, at one scale.

Why Alaska looks even bigger on world maps

A Mercator world map enlarges areas by 1/cos²(latitude): about 1.6× at 37.5°, 2.4× at 50° and 8.5× at 70°. Computed from our map data with a Mercator projection, Alaska's outline comes out 5.41 times its true area and California's 1.58 times. On such a map Alaska looks about 13 times the size of California instead of 3.66 times. The drawings on this page use equal-area projections, which keep the true ratio.

Coastline: 6,640 miles against 840

NOAA's general coastline, measured on nautical charts for its 1975 report The Coastline of the United States, gives Alaska 6,640 miles (10,686 km) and California 840 miles (1,352 km), 7.9 times as much. Alaska's figure is 54% of the 12,383-mile total for the 50 states and more than the other 49 states have together (5,743 miles).

NOAA's tidal shoreline follows the outer coast, offshore islands, sounds, bays, rivers and creeks up to the head of tidewater or to where tidal waters narrow to 100 feet. On that measure Alaska has 33,904 miles and California 3,427, 9.9 times as much.

Alaska's coast includes the Aleutian Islands, which the CIA World Factbook describes as extending about 1,118 mi (1,800 km) west from the Alaska Peninsula, with 14 larger islands, 55 smaller ones and hundreds of islets. Semisopochnoi Island in the chain is at 179.6°E, just west of the 180° meridian, so Alaska reaches into the Eastern Hemisphere. Federal rules put the Aleutians west of 169°30′W on Hawaii-Aleutian time (UTC-10) and the rest of Alaska on Alaska time (UTC-9); all of California keeps Pacific time (UTC-8).

Population, density and GDP: California has 53× the people

The Census Bureau estimated California's population at 39,355,309 on July 1, 2025, the largest of any state, and Alaska's at 737,270, 48th of 50, ahead of only Vermont and Wyoming. California has 53.4 times as many people on 27% of Alaska's land area.

Per square mile of land that is 252.6 people in California, 11th among the states, and 1.29 in Alaska, the lowest; Wyoming, the next lowest, has 6.06. California has seven metro areas of more than a million people, and each has more residents than all of Alaska. The largest, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, had 12,844,441, 17.4 times Alaska's population.

In 2025 California's GDP was $4.30 trillion in current dollars, the largest of any state, and Alaska's $73.6 billion, 48th (Bureau of Economic Analysis). Per person that comes to about $109,196 in California and $99,875 in Alaska.

Highest and lowest points

Mount McKinley (Denali) in Alaska, 20,310 ft (6,190 m), is the highest point in North America according to the CIA World Factbook; Executive Order 14172 of January 20, 2025 restored Mount McKinley as its federal name. California's Mount Whitney, 14,505 ft (4,421 m), is the highest mountain in the lower 48 (National Park Service), 5,805 ft lower than Mount McKinley. California also has the lowest point in North America, Badwater Basin in Death Valley, 282 ft (86 m) below sea level.

How Alaska and California joined the United States

California came with the Mexican Cession. Under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on February 2, 1848, Mexico ceded 55 percent of its territory, including present-day California, and the United States paid $15 million (National Archives). Historical Statistics of the United States puts the cession at 529,017 sq mi. California became the 31st state on September 9, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 (US Senate).

Alaska was bought from Russia. In the Treaty of Cession, agreed on March 30, 1867, the United States undertook to pay $7.2 million for an area that Historical Statistics puts at 586,412 sq mi, about 1.9 cents an acre. That one purchase was 1.11 times the area of the whole Mexican Cession. Alaska became the 49th state on January 3, 1959, 108 years after California.

What else is about the size of Alaska or California?

By land area (CIA World Factbook for the countries, Census 2010 for the states):

The five largest US states by land area

RankStateLand area (sq mi)vs California
1Alaska570,6413.66×
2Texas261,2321.68×
3California155,7791.00×
4Montana145,5460.93×
5New Mexico121,2980.78×

Methodology and sources

Area
US Census Bureau, State Area Measurements and Internal Point Coordinates (2010). Land area is the pair's basis; total area adds perennial inland water, coastal water and the territorial sea, and glacier, marsh and intermittent water count as land. US land shares and state ranks use the same table.
Population and metro areas
States: US Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates (July 1, 2025). Metro areas: US Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 metropolitan area population estimates. Density divides the state populations by Census 2010 land area.
GDP
US Bureau of Economic Analysis, GDP by state (2025, current dollars). GDP per person divides it by the July 1, 2025 populations.
Coastline
General coastline: NOAA, The Coastline of the United States (1975): general coastline by state, as reprinted in Congressional Research Service report RS21729. Tidal shoreline: NOAA Office for Coastal Management, Shoreline Mileage of the United States (tidal shoreline). Each comparison uses one of the two measures, never both.
Highest and lowest points
CIA World Factbook, final edition: United States (Mount McKinley, 6,190 m, highest point in North America, given as 20,310 feet in its elevation note; Death Valley, lowest point in North America). National Park Service pages Seeing and Climbing Mt. Whitney (summit 14,505 feet, 4,421 meters, NAVD88) and Badwater Basin (282 ft, 86 m below sea level), checked November 11, 2026. The name: Executive Order 14172, Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness (January 20, 2025): Mount McKinley.
Aleutian Islands and time zones
Extent and island counts from the Factbook's US geography note; Semisopochnoi Island's longitude (179.5977°E) from the Alaska Volcano Observatory, checked November 11, 2026. Time zones: Code of Federal Regulations, 49 CFR Part 71, Standard Time Zone Boundaries, sections 71.9 to 71.12 (Pacific, Alaska and Hawaii-Aleutian zones).
History
National Archives: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) and Check for the Purchase of Alaska (1868), which reproduces the Treaty of Cession of March 30, 1867. Areas of the Mexican Cession and the Alaska Purchase: US Census Bureau, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Series J 1-2 (territorial expansion; areas determined in 1912 and adjusted to the 1960 remeasurements). Statehood: US Senate, California and Alaska pages. All checked November 11, 2026.
Countries
Land areas from the CIA World Factbook, final edition: Iran, Peru, Sweden, Paraguay, Mexico, Japan and the United Kingdom. The neighbors in size come from all Factbook entries except the World and Antarctica, sorted by land area.
Mercator and drawings
Mercator factors are computed from our map data with a Mercator projection. Shapes from us-atlas (US Census Bureau cartographic boundaries) and world-atlas (Natural Earth 1:50m) for the drawings. In the tiled map each California copy is scaled to the land-area ratio in the table; the side-by-side drawing uses equal-area projections at one scale.

Frequently asked questions

By land area Alaska is 3.66 times California: 570,641 sq mi against 155,779 sq mi (Census 2010), a difference of 414,862 sq mi. Counting inland, coastal and territorial water as well, the totals are 665,384 and 163,695 sq mi, and the ratio is 4.06.
Three whole Californias fit inside Alaska's land area, with 103,304 sq mi left over, just under the land area of Colorado (103,642 sq mi). As a ratio, Alaska's land equals 3.66 Californias; by total area it equals 4.06.
Total area adds water to land. Alaska has 570,641 sq mi of land and 94,743 sq mi of water: 19,304 sq mi inland, 26,119 coastal and 49,320 of territorial sea, for a total of 665,384 sq mi. The Census Bureau counts only perennial water as water, so glaciers and marshes are part of the land figure. Alaska's water alone would rank 12th among the states by total area.
Yes, 53.4 times as many. On July 1, 2025 the Census Bureau estimated 39,355,309 people in California, the most of any state, and 737,270 in Alaska, 48th of the 50 states. Per square mile of land that is 252.6 people in California and 1.29 in Alaska.
Alaska, with 570,641 sq mi of land, 16.2% of the US total (Census 2010). The next four by land area are Texas (261,232 sq mi), California (155,779 sq mi), Montana (145,546 sq mi) and New Mexico (121,298 sq mi).
Yes. Texas and California together have 417,011 sq mi of land and Alaska 570,641 sq mi, 153,630 sq mi more. On its own Alaska is 2.18 times Texas by land area.
A Mercator world map enlarges areas by 1/cos²(latitude), about 2.4× at 50° and 8.5× at 70°. Computed from our map data, Mercator draws Alaska at 5.41 times its true area and California at 1.58 times, so Alaska looks about 13 times the size of California instead of 3.66 times.
In the CIA World Factbook's land areas, Alaska's 570,641 sq mi falls between Iran (591,352 sq mi) and Peru (494,209 sq mi). Mexico has 1.32 times Alaska's land area, and Alaska has 6.1 times the United Kingdom's.
By land area California's 155,779 sq mi falls between Sweden (158,431 sq mi) and Paraguay (153,399 sq mi) in the CIA World Factbook. California has 1.11 times Japan's land area and 1.67 times the United Kingdom's.
California became the 31st state on September 9, 1850, two years after Mexico ceded it to the United States in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Alaska became the 49th state on January 3, 1959; the United States had bought it from Russia under a treaty agreed on March 30, 1867, for $7.2 million (US Senate; National Archives).
Alaska. NOAA's general coastline gives Alaska 6,640 miles and California 840, 7.9 times as much; NOAA's more detailed tidal shoreline gives 33,904 and 3,427 miles. Alaska's general coastline is longer than that of the other 49 states combined (5,743 miles).
Mount McKinley (Denali) in Alaska, 20,310 ft (6,190 m), is the highest point in North America, and Mount Whitney in California, 14,505 ft (4,421 m), is the highest in the lower 48. California also has North America's lowest point, Badwater Basin in Death Valley, 282 ft (86 m) below sea level.

Related size comparisons

Suggested citation: SimpleMapLab (2026). Alaska vs California Size: How Much Bigger Is Alaska? Retrieved from https://www.simplemaplab.com/size-comparisons/alaska-vs-california. CC-BY 4.0.