Texas vs Alaska Size: How Much Bigger Is Alaska?

By Marko Visic · Updated Nov 11, 2026

Alaska has 570,641 sq mi of land and Texas 261,232 sq mi, so by land area Alaska is 2.18× Texas. Counting water as well, the ratio is 2.48×. Texas, the largest of the 48 contiguous states, has 43.0× as many people: 31.7 million against 737,270 on July 1, 2025.

Texas vs Alaska by the numbers

Ratios divide the larger figure by the smaller. Density and GDP per person use the July 1, 2025 population.

How much bigger is Alaska than Texas?

By land area Alaska is 2.18 times the size of Texas: 570,641 sq mi (1,477,953 km²) against 261,232 sq mi (676,587 km²), a difference of 309,409 sq mi. Alaska has more land than the next three states together; Texas, California and Montana add up to 562,557 sq mi.

Two whole Texases fit into Alaska's land area with 48,177 sq mi left over, close to the land area of North Carolina (48,618 sq mi). The map at the top shows this as two copies of Texas and a dashed copy for the remaining 0.18.

The Census Bureau's totals, 665,384 sq mi for Alaska and 268,596 sq mi for Texas, add water. Alaska has 94,743 sq mi of it: 19,304 sq mi of lakes and rivers, 26,119 sq mi of coastal water and 49,320 sq mi of territorial sea. Texas has 7,365 sq mi, 5,616 of it inland. On total area Alaska is 2.48 times Texas. Glaciers, marshes and intermittent water count as land in the Census table.

Texas was the largest state until 1959

Alaska is the only state larger than Texas, on land area or total area. Texas declared itself an independent republic on March 2, 1836, and became the 28th state on December 29, 1845. In the Census Bureau's historical tables the annexation brought 390,143 sq mi into the United States, more than today's Texas. Texas had claimed land beyond its present borders and gave up those claims in 1850 in return for $10 million in federal stock.

The United States bought Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million, less than 2 cents an acre, adding 586,412 sq mi of land and water in the same tables. Alaska became the 49th state on January 3, 1959. Texas had been the largest state for 113 years and has been second since.

Why Alaska looks even bigger on world maps

A Mercator map enlarges areas by 1/cos² of the latitude: about 1.6 times at 37.5°N, 2.4 times at 50°N and 8.5 times at 70°N. Computed from our map data with a Mercator projection, Alaska's outline comes out at 5.41 times its true area and Texas's at 1.38 times, so such a map shows Alaska at about 8.6 times the size of Texas instead of 2.18 times.

Maps of the 50 states can err the other way. The Albers USA projection in the d3 mapping library draws Alaska in an inset at 0.35 times the scale of the contiguous states, which shrinks its area to about 12% of its true size relative to them. On such a map Alaska looks 0.27 times the size of Texas.

Drawn to scale: Alaska next to Texas

Here the two states are drawn side by side at the same area per pixel. Alaska's outline includes its islands, from the Aleutians to the southeastern panhandle.

Population: Texas has 43.0× as many people

On July 1, 2025, Texas had 31,709,821 residents and Alaska 737,270, according to the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 estimates. Texas ranks 2nd among the states by population and Alaska 48th. The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro area alone had 8,477,157 people, 11.5 times Alaska's population, and the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands metro area 7,904,627. Texas has four metro areas of a million people or more; Alaska has none.

Per square mile of land that is 121.4 people in Texas, 22nd among the 50 states, and 1.29 in Alaska, the lowest of any state. Texas is 94 times as densely populated.

Economy: Texas's GDP is 39.8× Alaska's

The Bureau of Economic Analysis puts Texas's 2025 GDP at $2.93 trillion and Alaska's at $73.6 billion, in current dollars; the two rank 2nd and 48th among the states. Divided by population, Alaska comes out ahead: $99,875 of GDP per person against $92,474 in Texas.

Coastline: Alaska has 18.1× as much

NOAA's general coastline, published in 1975, gives Alaska 6,640 miles and Texas 367. Alaska's share of the US total of 12,383 miles is 54%, more than all the other states together.

NOAA's tidal shoreline also counts offshore islands, sounds, bays, rivers and creeks up to the head of tidewater. On that measure Alaska has 33,904 miles and Texas 3,359, 10.1 times as much, and Alaska holds 36% of the US total of 95,439 miles. The Aleutian Islands alone extend about 1,118 mi (1,800 km) west from the Alaska Peninsula.

Frequently asked questions

Related size comparisons

• Open Texas and Alaska in the interactive tool
• Texas vs California: Texas is 1.68× California (land area).
• Alaska vs California: Alaska is 3.66× California (land area).
• Alaska vs Lower 48: The lower 48 is 5.18× Alaska (land area).
• Mexico vs Texas: Mexico is 2.87× Texas (land area).
• Saudi Arabia vs Texas: Saudi Arabia is 3.18× Texas (land area).
• Texas vs France: Texas is 1.23× France (land area).
• USA vs Russia: Russia is 1.74× the USA (total area).
• Texas counties and Alaska boroughs and census areas: every county or equivalent with its population and area.
• 100 miles around Austin and around Juneau: the share of each state's people within 100 miles of its capital.
• Most remote town in Texas and in Alaska: the inhabited place farthest from a city of 10,000 people.
• All size comparisons

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