simplemaplab

UK vs USA Size: How Much Bigger Is the United States?

By Marko Visic · Updated Nov 11, 2026

The USA covers 3,796,742 sq mi and the UK 94,058 sq mi, so by total area the USA is 40.37× the UK. The UK has less land than 10 of the 50 states, and the CIA World Factbook calls it “slightly smaller than Oregon.” The USA has 4.97× as many people on 37.81× the land, so the UK is 7.61× as densely populated.

33 copies of the UK and a partial copy tiled inside the contiguous United States, each scaled to the UK's area. The contiguous 48 states are 33.18 times the UK; with Alaska and Hawaii, which are not drawn, the USA is 40.37 times the UK.33.2 UKs fit inside the contiguous USUK 94,058 sq mi · contiguous US 3,120,426 sq mi · whole USA 3,796,742 sq miContiguous USEach shape = 1 UKsimplemaplab.com/size-comparisons/uk-vs-usa · CC-BY 4.0
The contiguous 48 states with 33 copies of the UK and a dashed partial copy; each copy is scaled to the area ratio in the table. Alaska and Hawaii, 18% of US area, are not drawn; with them the USA is 40.37× the UK.
Check this for yourself
Drag the UK across the USA in the interactive tool
The tool keeps each country's true area as you move it to any latitude.
Open in the comparison tool

UK vs USA by the numbers

MetricUSAUKRatio
Total area (sq mi)3,796,74294,058USA 40.37×
Total area, contiguous US only (sq mi)3,120,42694,058Contiguous US 33.18×
Land area (sq mi)3,531,90593,410USA 37.81×
Population (USA July 1, 2025; UK 2025 est.)341,784,85768,751,311USA 4.97×
People per sq mi of land97736UK 7.61×
GDP, current US$ (2025)$30.86T$4.01TUSA 7.69×
GDP at PPP (2025)$30.86T$4.57TUSA 6.75×
GDP per person, current US$$90,295$58,359USA 1.55×
Coastline (mi)12,3807,723USA 1.60×
Highest pointMount McKinley (Denali), 20,310 ftBen Nevis, 4,413 ftUSA 4.60×
Standard time zones6 (50 states)1 (UTC 0)
Made up of50 states + DCEngland, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland

Ratios divide the larger figure by the smaller. The contiguous-US row is the area the drawings use.

How much bigger is the USA than the UK?

By total area the USA is 40.37× the UK: 3,796,742 sq mi against 94,058, a difference of 3,702,684 sq mi. On land alone the ratio is 37.81×, because the US total counts more water: the Census figure includes 264,837 sq mi of inland water, Great Lakes water, coastal water and territorial sea, while the UK's Factbook total includes 649 sq mi of water.

The map above shows the contiguous 48 states only, 3,120,426 sq mi, which hold 33.2 UKs. Alaska and Hawaii make up the other 18% of US area.

The gap in people is much smaller. The USA had 341.8 million residents on July 1, 2025 (Census Bureau) and the UK 68.8 million (CIA World Factbook, 2025 estimate), 4.97× as many. That puts 736 people on each square mile of UK land and 97 on each square mile of US land.

In the IMF's World Economic Outlook (October 2026), US GDP in 2025 was $30.86 trillion and the UK's $4.01 trillion, 7.69× as large. Per person that is about $90,295 in the USA and $58,359 in the UK.

10 US states have more land than the UK

The UK has 93,410 sq mi of land, and each state in the table has more: Texas and 9 states in the Census Bureau's West region. The CIA World Factbook describes the UK as “twice the size of Pennsylvania; slightly smaller than Oregon”: by land area it is 97% of Oregon and 2.09× Pennsylvania.

StateLand area (sq mi)× UK land
Alaska570,6416.11×
Texas261,2322.80×
California155,7791.67×
Montana145,5461.56×
New Mexico121,2981.30×
Arizona113,5941.22×
Nevada109,7811.18×
Colorado103,6421.11×
Wyoming97,0931.04×
Oregon95,9881.03×
United Kingdom93,4101.00×

Compare total areas instead and the count rises to 11: Michigan's Census total of 96,714 sq mi includes 38,174 sq mi of Great Lakes water, which puts it past the UK's 94,058 sq mi, while its land, 56,539 sq mi, is 61% of the UK's. At the other end of the list, the UK has more land than the 10 smallest states combined (81,317 sq mi, from Rhode Island up to West Virginia).

From British colonies to 40 times the UK

The colonies that became the United States declared independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776, and Britain recognized the new country in the Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783. The United Kingdom was formed later, on January 1, 1801, when the Acts of Union joined Great Britain and Ireland as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 formalized the partition of Ireland, and six counties stayed in the UK as Northern Ireland (CIA World Factbook).

The United States was larger than today's UK from the start. The Census Bureau's Historical Statistics put its territory in 1790, seven years after the Treaty of Paris, at 888,685 sq mi, 9.4× the UK's area today. The largest additions after that were the Louisiana Purchase (1803, 827,192 sq mi), the Alaska Purchase (1867, 586,412 sq mi), the Mexican Cession (1848, 529,017 sq mi) and the Texas annexation (1845, 390,143 sq mi). One later boundary was settled with Britain itself, in the Oregon Treaty of 1846 (the border's history is on USA vs Canada). The land gained from Mexico is covered on Mexico vs USA, and the Alaska Purchase on Alaska vs Lower 48.

Drawn to scale: the USA next to the UK

Both countries at the same area per pixel, side by side. The US drawing is the contiguous 48 states.

The contiguous United States and the United Kingdom side by side at the same equal-area scale. Alaska and Hawaii are not drawn.The contiguous US is 33.18× the UK; the whole USA is 40.37×Contiguous US3,120,426 sq miUnited Kingdom94,058 sq mi
Both drawn to scale in equal-area projections, the contiguous US in US Albers (parallels 29.5°N and 45.5°N) and the UK in a conic equal-area projection (parallels 50°N and 58°N). Alaska and Hawaii are not drawn.

Mercator world maps make the gap look smaller. Computed from our map data with a Mercator projection, the UK is drawn at 2.93× its true area and the USA, with Alaska, at 2.29×, so on such a map the USA looks about 32 times the size of the UK.

Methodology and sources

Area
USA and states: US Census Bureau, State Area Measurements and Internal Point Coordinates (2010) (land and total area; the US total includes inland, coastal, Great Lakes and territorial water; regions are the Census Bureau's). UK: CIA World Factbook, final edition: United Kingdom (total and land area). The contiguous US is the US total less Alaska and Hawaii.
Population
USA: US Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates (July 1, 2025). UK: CIA World Factbook, 2025 estimate.
GDP
IMF World Economic Outlook (October 2026), GDP in current US dollars (2025) and IMF World Economic Outlook (October 2026), GDP at purchasing power parity (2025), both countries from the same release. GDP per person divides that GDP by the populations above.
Coastline, highest points, time zones, independence dates
CIA World Factbook, final edition: United States and CIA World Factbook, final edition: United Kingdom; US zones also in Code of Federal Regulations, 49 CFR Part 71, Standard Time Zone Boundaries. Miles and feet are converted from the Factbook's kilometers and meters.
History
Areas: 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). The Treaty of Paris (September 3, 1783), National Archives transcript; the Union with Ireland Act 1800, legislation.gov.uk; The Oregon Territory, 1846, Office of the Historian, US Department of State (retrieved November 11, 2026).
Mercator factors
Computed from our map data with a Mercator projection: the projected area of each country's shape divided by its true area.
Drawings
Shapes from us-atlas (US Census Bureau cartographic boundaries) and world-atlas (Natural Earth 1:50m) for the drawings. The US is drawn as the contiguous 48 states and scaled with their area (3,120,426 sq mi, Census 2010 total less Alaska and Hawaii); each UK copy in the tiled map is scaled to the area ratio in the table.

Frequently asked questions

Yes. By total area the USA is 40.37× the UK: 3,796,742 sq mi (9,833,517 km²) against 94,058 sq mi (243,610 km²). By land area alone the ratio is 37.81×, 3,531,905 against 93,410 sq mi.
40 on total area, with 34,408 sq mi left over, a little less than Maine (35,380 sq mi). The contiguous 48 states alone, the shape drawn on this page, hold 33.2 UKs.
Compared land with land, 10: Alaska, Texas, California, Montana, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Wyoming and Oregon. Compared by total area, 11, because Michigan's Census total of 96,714 sq mi includes 38,174 sq mi of Great Lakes water while its land, 56,539 sq mi, is 61% of the UK's.
Slightly. The CIA World Factbook describes the UK as "twice the size of Pennsylvania; slightly smaller than Oregon". The UK has 93,410 sq mi of land and Oregon 95,988 sq mi, so the UK is 97% of Oregon by land area and 2.09× Pennsylvania.
The USA had 341.8 million people on July 1, 2025 (US Census Bureau) and the UK 68.8 million (CIA World Factbook, 2025 estimate), so the USA has 4.97× as many. Per square mile of land the UK has 736 people and the USA 97, which makes the UK 7.61× as densely populated.
In current US dollars, US GDP in 2025 was $30.86 trillion and the UK's $4.01 trillion, 7.69× as large in the IMF's World Economic Outlook (October 2026). Per person that is about $90,295 in the USA and $58,359 in the UK.
The USA: 12,380 mi (19,924 km) against the UK's 7,723 mi (12,429 km) on the CIA World Factbook's figures. Per square mile of land the UK has 23.6× as much coastline, and the Factbook notes that no place in the UK is more than 78 mi (125 km) from tidal waters.
The UK keeps one, UTC 0, moving one hour ahead in summer (CIA World Factbook). The 50 US states span six standard time zones under federal law, from Eastern (UTC-5) to Hawaii-Aleutian (UTC-10); the contiguous states use four, three hours apart from Eastern to Pacific. London is five hours ahead of Washington, DC, in standard time.
No. The colonies that became the United States declared independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776, and Britain recognized the United States in the Treaty of Paris of September 3, 1783. The United Kingdom was created later, on January 1, 1801, when the Acts of Union joined Great Britain and Ireland (CIA World Factbook; Union with Ireland Act 1800).
In 1790, seven years after Britain recognized its independence, the United States covered 888,685 sq mi according to the Census Bureau's Historical Statistics of the United States (Series J 1-2), already 9.4× the UK's area today. The largest additions after that were the Louisiana Purchase (1803, 827,192 sq mi), the Alaska Purchase (1867, 586,412 sq mi), the Mexican Cession (1848, 529,017 sq mi) and the Texas annexation (1845, 390,143 sq mi).
The UK's highest point is Ben Nevis, 4,413 ft (1,345 m). The USA's is Mount McKinley (Denali) in Alaska, 20,310 ft (6,190 m), 4.6× as high (CIA World Factbook).
Mercator maps stretch areas more the farther they are from the equator. Computed from our map data with a Mercator projection, the UK is drawn at 2.93× its true area and the USA, with Alaska, at 2.29×, so on such a map the USA looks about 32 times the size of the UK rather than 40.37.

Related size comparisons

Suggested citation: SimpleMapLab (2026). UK vs USA Size: How Much Bigger Is the United States? Retrieved from https://www.simplemaplab.com/size-comparisons/uk-vs-usa. CC-BY 4.0.