The largest state in the United States by area is Alaska with 663,267 square miles. Texas, the second largest, is the largest of the contiguous states.
The addition of the 49th state added quite a large area to the United States. Alaska makes up around 20 percent of the area of the whole country. It is almost 2.5 times bigger than Texas, the largest state prior to 1959. It is more than 420 times bigger than Rhode Island, the smallest state in the country. These statistics include lakes, rivers and other bodies of water within the boundaries of the land masses.
