List of U.S. states and territories by coastline

"Coastal states" redirects here. For a legal term, see Coastal state.
States shaded  dark blue  have ocean coastline.*
States shaded  light blue  have Great Lakes coastline.*
States shaded  white  have no coastline.
* New York has both ocean and Great Lakes coastline.

This is a list of U.S. states and territories ranked by their coastline length. 30 states have a coastline: 23 with a coastline on the Arctic Ocean, Atlantic Ocean (including the Gulf of Mexico and Gulf of Maine), and/or Pacific Ocean, and 8 with a Great Lakes shoreline. New York has coasts on both the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. Smaller border lakes such as Lake Champlain or Lake of the Woods are not counted. All of the five major U.S. territories have coastlines — three of them have a coastline on the Pacific Ocean, and two of them have a coastline on the Atlantic Ocean (Caribbean Sea). The U.S. Minor Outlying Islands also have coastlines.

Two separate measurements are used: method 1 only includes states with ocean coastline and excludes tidal inlets; method 2 includes Great Lake shoreline and the extra length from tidal inlets. For example, method 2 counts the Great Bay as part of New Hampshire's coastline, but method 1 does not. Method 1 does not include the coastlines of the territories of the United States, while method 2 does.

The data for method 1 was retrieved from a CRS Report for Congress[1] using data from U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, The Coastline of the United States, 1975.[2] This is based on measurements made using large-scale nautical charts. The figure for Connecticut was arrived at separately and may not reflect the correct comparative distance.

The data for method 2 is from a list maintained by the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management of NOAA.[note 1] The state coastline lengths were computed by an unspecified method that includes tidal areas not included in the first method.[3] These numbers also include the Great Lakes coastlines, which do not have similar tidal areas. Data for the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands is from the CIA World Factbook.[4][5][6]

The figures also face the ambiguity inherent in all attempts at measuring coastlines, as expressed in the coastline paradox.

  1. ^ "U.S. International Borders: Brief Facts", Congressional Research Service, November 9, 2006
  2. ^ United States. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (1975). The Coastline of the United States. U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. pp. 2–.
  3. ^ "NOAA Office for Coastal Management | States and Territories Working on Ocean and Coastal Management". coast.noaa.gov. NOAA Office for Coastal Management. 14 October 2016. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  4. ^ The World Factbook CIA World Factbook. United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
  5. ^ CIA.gov CIA World Factbook. Wake Island. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
  6. ^ CIA.gov CIA World Factbook. Navassa Island. Retrieved August 29, 2019.


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