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The Largest Counties

I recently viewed one of the largest counties in the United States on a map, and it struck me that this one county was almost certainly larger than the state of Rhode Island. I then went on a mission to figure out which counties were the biggest in the United States, and I even decided to compare the largest ones to the size of Rhode Island. Here are my findings.

To my surprise, there are numerous counties that are larger than Rhode Island, so many that the following list would no longer be brief if I included all of them. For that reason, I will only consider the top 50 counties by land area; I will also specify in parentheses how many times the county is larger than Rhode Island, the smallest US state.

The 50 Largest US Counties (Number of Times Larger than the State of Rhode Island)

The 50 largest counties by land size.
  1. San Bernardino, California (19 x RI)
  2. Coconino, Arizona (18 x RI)
  3. Nye, Nevada (17 x RI)
  4. Elko, Nevada (16 x RI)
  5. Mohave, Arizona (13 x RI)
  6. Apache, Arizona (11 x RI)
  7. Lincoln, Nevada (10 x RI)
  8. Sweetwater, Wyoming (10 x RI)
  9. Inyo, California (9.7 x RI)
  10. Harney, Oregon (9.7 x RI)
  11. Navajo, Arizona (9.5 x RI)
  12. Malheur, Oregon (9.5 x RI)
  13. Humboldt, Nevada (9.2 x RI)
  14. Maricopa, Arizona (8.8 x RI)
  15. Pima, Arizona (8.8 x RI)
  16. Fremont, Wyoming (8.8 x RI)
  17. White Pine, Nevada (8.5 x RI)
  18. Idaho, Idaho (8.1 x RI)
  19. Lake, Oregon (7.8 x RI)
  20. Kern, California (7.8 x RI)
  21. Yavapai, Arizona (7.8 x RI)
  22. Carbon, Wyoming (7.6 x RI)
  23. Clark, Nevada (7.6 x RI)
  24. San Juan, Utah (7.5 x RI)
  25. Owyhee, Idaho (7.3 x RI)
  26. Riverside, California (6.9 x RI)
  27. Park, Wyoming (6.6 x RI)
  28. Tooele, Utah (6.6 x RI)
  29. Catron, New Mexico (6.6 x RI)
  30. Aroostook, Maine (6.4 x RI)
  31. Socorro, New Mexico (6.4 x RI)
  32. Otero, New Mexico (6.3 x RI)
  33. Millard, Utah (6.3 x RI)
  34. Washoe, Nevada (6.0 x RI)
  35. Siskiyou, California (6.0 x RI)
  36. Saint Louis, Minnesota (6.0 x RI)
  37. Brewster, Texas (5.9 x RI)
  38. Cochise, Arizona (5.9 x RI)
  39. Chaves, New Mexico (5.8 x RI)
  40. Pershing, Nevada (5.8 x RI)
  41. Cherry, Nebraska (5.7 x RI)
  42. Fresno, California (5.7 x RI)
  43. Klamath, Oregon (5.7 x RI)
  44. Rio Arriba, New Mexico (5.6 x RI)
  45. Box Elder, Utah (5.5 x RI)
  46. Beaverhead, Montana (5.3 x RI)
  47. Yuma, Arizona (5.3 x RI)
  48. San Juan, New Mexico (5.3 x RI)
  49. Lander, Nevada (5.3 x RI)
  50. McKinley, New Mexico (5.2 x RI)

As you can see, nearly all of the largest counties are in the southwestern states, but we did neglect the entire state of Alaska in this list, because Alaska technically doesn’t have any counties. Alaska’s regions are known as boroughs, of which the state only has 19; about half of all Alaskan land is not part of any of the 19 organized boroughs; this area of Alaska is commonly referred to as the unorganized borough, but it is not an official borough at all. The unorganized borough does not have a county or borough level of government structure, but it is divided into smaller regions known as census areas.

One interesting thing I noticed when I was drawing the map for this list was that the path of totality from the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse entered the United States in several Texan counties including Val Verde County, which is only about 75 miles from Brewster County, Texas, and the path of totality permanently left the United States from Aroostook County, Maine. This is surprising not only because the counties of Brewster and Aroostook are two of the 50 largest counties, but also because they were the only counties of the top 50 largest counties which were in the path of totality (technically Brewster County wasn’t in the path of totality, but it was not far from it).

Let’s see what this list would look like if we included Alaska. I will specify whether an Alaskan region is a borough or a census area in parentheses immediately following the region’s name, but I will omit the word county from the regions of other states again since it is assumed; also note that none of Louisiana’s parishes appear on either list.

The 50 Largest US Counties and Boroughs (Number of Times Larger than the State of Rhode Island)

The 50 largest counties and boroughs by land size.
  1. Yukon Koyukuk (Census Area), Alaska (139 x RI)
  2. North Slope (Borough), Alaska (85 x RI)
  3. Bethel (Census Area), Alaska (39 x RI)
  4. Northwest Arctic (Borough), Alaska (34 x RI)
  5. Southeast Fairbanks (Census Area), Alaska (24 x RI)
  6. Copper River (Census Area), Alaska (24 x RI)
  7. Matanuska Susitna (Borough), Alaska (24 x RI)
  8. Lake and Peninsula (Borough), Alaska (23 x RI)
  9. Nome (Census Area), Alaska (22 x RI)
  10. San Bernardino, California (19 x RI)
  11. Coconino, Arizona (18 x RI)
  12. Dillingham (Census Area), Alaska (18 x RI)
  13. Nye, Nevada (17 x RI)
  14. Elko, Nevada (16 x RI)
  15. Kusilvak (formerly Wade Hampton) (Census Area), Alaska (16 x RI)
  16. Kenai Peninsula (Borough), Alaska (15 x RI)
  17. Mohave, Arizona (13 x RI)
  18. Denali (Borough), Alaska (12 x RI)
  19. Apache, Arizona (11 x RI)
  20. Lincoln, Nevada (10 x RI)
  21. Sweetwater, Wyoming (10 x RI)
  22. Inyo, California (9.7 x RI)
  23. Harney, Oregon (9.7 x RI)
  24. Navajo, Arizona (9.5 x RI)
  25. Malheur, Oregon (9.5 x RI)
  26. Humboldt, Nevada (9.2 x RI)
  27. Chugach (Census Area), Alaska (9.1 x RI)
  28. Maricopa, Arizona (8.8 x RI)
  29. Pima, Arizona (8.8 x RI)
  30. Fremont, Wyoming (8.8 x RI)
  31. White Pine, Nevada (8.5 x RI)
  32. Idaho, Idaho (8.1 x RI)
  33. Lake, Oregon (7.8 x RI)
  34. Kern, California (7.8 x RI)
  35. Yavapai, Arizona (7.8 x RI)
  36. Carbon, Wyoming (7.6 x RI)
  37. Clark, Nevada (7.6 x RI)
  38. San Juan, Utah (7.5 x RI)
  39. Owyhee, Idaho (7.3 x RI)
  40. Yakutat (Borough), Alaska (7.3 x RI)
  41. Hoonah Angoon (Census Area), Alaska (7.2 x RI)
  42. Fairbanks North Star (Borough), Alaska (7.0 x RI)
  43. Riverside, California (6.9 x RI)
  44. Aleutians East (Borough), Alaska (6.7 x RI)
  45. Park, Wyoming (6.6 x RI)
  46. Tooele, Utah (6.6 x RI)
  47. Catron, New Mexico (6.6 x RI)
  48. Aroostook, Maine (6.4 x RI)
  49. Socorro, New Mexico (6.4 x RI)
  50. Otero, New Mexico (6.3 x RI)

Now we can see that Alaska easily dominates the list, taking 18 of the top 50 seats with its giant boroughs, which is more than a third of the entire list.

There is one major issue with the list of US counties that I used as a source for this post, since it still ranks the former census area of Alaska that was known as Valdez Cordova, which was split into the census areas of Copper River and Chugach in 2019.

You might be wondering which county equals 1 Rhode Island, like I was. Considering that Rhode Island is 1,045 mi2, the county that is most similar to this size of Rode Island appears to be Ashland County, Wisconsin! This county is 1.00003 times the size of Rhode Island, or only 0.003% larger than Rhode Island. A couple honorable mentions which are also very similar to Rhode Island’s size are Clay County, Minnesota, which is 0.035% larger than Rhode Island, and Livingston County, Illinois, which is 0.069% smaller than Rhode Island.

Is there another state that I should compare to counties?

Onward American 🇺🇸

Source: Counties Ranked by Land Area

Source: USA Counties Map

Source Boroughs and Census Areas in Alaska

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