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States by Miles of Road

As I travel along countless roads, I often contemplate the many thousands of miles of pavement that have flown past me, and I begin to wonder how many miles of road are in each state. Well, today we will solve this mystery!

The following is a list of the states ranked by their total number of lane miles, I have also compared them to the circumference of the Earth, which indicates how many times the state’s road lanes could wrap around the Earth if they were arranged into a perfectly straight, single lane road along the equator.

States by Total Lane Miles (Number of Times the Earth’s Circumference)

The states by total number of lane miles.
  1. Texas: 683,533 miles (27.5 x Earth)
  2. California: 396,540 miles (15.9 x Earth)
  3. Illinois: 306,658 miles (12.3 x Earth)
  4. Minnesota: 290,618 miles (11.7 x Earth)
  5. Kansas: 286,606 miles (11.5 x Earth)
  6. Missouri: 277,504 miles (11.1 x Earth)
  7. Florida: 275,376 miles (11.1 x Earth)
  8. Georgia: 272,662 miles (10.9 x Earth)
  9. Ohio: 262,492 miles (10.5 x Earth)
  10. Michigan: 256,579 miles (10.3 x Earth)
  11. Pennsylvania: 251,708 miles (10.1 x Earth)
  12. New York: 240,489 miles (9.7 x Earth)
  13. Wisconsin: 239,318 miles (9.6 x Earth)
  14. Oklahoma: 238,754 miles (9.6 x Earth)
  15. Iowa: 235,549 miles (9.5 x Earth)
  16. North Carolina: 229,011 miles (9.2 x Earth)
  17. Arkansas: 210,729 miles (8.5 x Earth)
  18. Alabama: 210,531 miles (8.5 x Earth)
  19. Tennessee: 203,850 miles (8.2 x Earth)
  20. Indiana: 202,707 miles (8.1 x Earth)
  21. Nebraska: 193,996 miles (7.8 x Earth)
  22. Colorado: 185,486 miles (7.4 x Earth)
  23. North Dakota: 178,845 miles (7.2 x Earth)
  24. Washington: 167,632 miles (6.7 x Earth)
  25. Kentucky: 166,971 miles (6.7 x Earth)
  26. South Dakota: 166,635 miles (6.7 x Earth)
  27. South Carolina: 166,594 miles (6.7 x Earth)
  28. Virginia: 164,132 miles (6.6 x Earth)
  29. Oregon: 162,101 miles (6.5 x Earth)
  30. Mississippi: 162,088 miles (6.5 x Earth)
  31. Montana: 150,446 miles (6.0 x Earth)
  32. New Mexico: 150,216 miles (6.0 x Earth)
  33. Arizona: 146,465 miles (5.9 x Earth)
  34. Louisiana: 134,115 miles (5.4 x Earth)
  35. Idaho: 107,568 miles (4.3 x Earth)
  36. Utah: 102,031 miles (4.1 x Earth)
  37. Nevada: 100,805 miles (4.0 x Earth)
  38. New Jersey: 85,108 miles (3.4 x Earth)
  39. West Virginia: 80,167 miles (3.2 x Earth)
  40. Massachusetts: 77,730 miles (3.1 x Earth)
  41. Maryland: 71,129 miles (2.9 x Earth)
  42. Wyoming: 62,620 miles (2.5 x Earth)
  43. Maine: 46,736 miles (1.9 x Earth)
  44. Connecticut: 45,916 miles (1.8 x Earth)
  45. Alaska: 36,009 miles (1.4 x Earth)
  46. New Hampshire: 33,391 miles (1.3 x Earth)
  47. Vermont: 29,273 miles (1.2 x Earth)
  48. Delaware: 14,069 miles (0.6 x Earth)
  49. Rhode Island: 12,664 miles (0.5 x Earth)
  50. Hawaii: 9,799 miles (0.4 x Earth)

This list would suggest that there are more than 13 million lane miles in all of the 50 states, which is enough to wrap around the Earth 533 times! Road lanes in the United States will typically vary in width from 9 to 12 feet, and if we assume that the average lane width is exactly the average of those two numbers, 10.5 feet, then there should be over 26,000 square miles of land in the United States that are consumed in the form of roads, which is just a little larger than the state of West Virginia.

Everything certainly is bigger in Texas, at least when it comes to the total number of lane miles. It’s also sad to see that Road Island — I mean Rhode Island — has some of the fewest roads, especially considering its name. Well, Rhode Island is only at the bottom of the list when considering total miles, but don’t forget that Rhode Island is the smallest state, therefore the density of its roads is much greater than most states.

Let’s compare those miles to the size of the state; this will show a rough density of roads within the state.

States by Total Lane Miles per Square Mile of Total Area

The states by total lane miles per square mile of total area.
  1. New Jersey: 9.76
  2. Connecticut: 8.28
  3. Rhode Island: 8.20
  4. Massachusetts: 7.36
  5. Ohio: 5.86
  6. Maryland: 5.73
  7. Delaware: 5.65
  8. Indiana: 5.57
  9. Pennsylvania: 5.47
  10. Illinois: 5.30
  11. South Carolina: 5.20
  12. Tennessee: 4.84
  13. Georgia: 4.59
  14. New York: 4.41
  15. North Carolina: 4.26
  16. Florida: 4.19
  17. Iowa: 4.19
  18. Kentucky: 4.13
  19. Alabama: 4.02
  20. Missouri: 3.98
  21. Arkansas: 3.96
  22. Virginia: 3.84
  23. Wisconsin: 3.65
  24. New Hampshire: 3.57
  25. Kansas: 3.48
  26. Oklahoma: 3.42
  27. Mississippi: 3.35
  28. Minnesota: 3.34
  29. West Virginia: 3.31
  30. Vermont: 3.04
  31. Michigan: 2.65
  32. Louisiana: 2.56
  33. Texas: 2.54
  34. North Dakota: 2.53
  35. Nebraska: 2.51
  36. California: 2.42
  37. Washington: 2.35
  38. South Dakota: 2.16
  39. Colorado: 1.78
  40. Oregon: 1.65
  41. Maine: 1.32
  42. Idaho: 1.29
  43. Arizona: 1.28
  44. New Mexico: 1.24
  45. Utah: 1.20
  46. Montana: 1.02
  47. Nevada: 0.91
  48. Hawaii: 0.90
  49. Wyoming: 0.64
  50. Alaska: 0.05

Finally, let’s compare each state’s total lane miles to its population, which will display the density of the roads relative to the population for each state.

States by Total Lane Miles per 1,000 Citizens

The state by total lane miles per capita.
  1. North Dakota: 227
  2. South Dakota: 179
  3. Montana: 132
  4. Wyoming: 107
  5. Nebraska: 97.6
  6. Kansas: 97.3
  7. Iowa: 73.3
  8. New Mexico: 71.0
  9. Arkansas: 68.2
  10. Oklahoma: 58.4
  11. Mississippi: 55.1
  12. Idaho: 54.0
  13. Minnesota: 50.4
  14. Alaska: 49.1
  15. West Virginia: 45.4
  16. Vermont: 45.2
  17. Missouri: 44.7
  18. Alabama: 40.9
  19. Wisconsin: 40.4
  20. Oregon: 38.4
  21. Kentucky: 36.8
  22. Maine: 33.3
  23. Nevada: 31.4
  24. Colorado: 31.4
  25. South Carolina: 30.5
  26. Utah: 29.5
  27. Louisiana: 29.4
  28. Indiana: 29.4
  29. Tennessee: 28.3
  30. Michigan: 25.6
  31. Illinois: 24.5
  32. Georgia: 24.5
  33. New Hampshire: 23.8
  34. Ohio: 22.2
  35. Texas: 22.1
  36. Washington: 21.4
  37. North Carolina: 20.9
  38. Arizona: 19.5
  39. Pennsylvania: 19.4
  40. Virginia: 18.8
  41. Delaware: 13.5
  42. Connecticut: 12.7
  43. New York: 12.4
  44. Florida: 12.0
  45. Rhode Island: 11.5
  46. Maryland: 11.5
  47. Massachusetts: 11.1
  48. California: 10.2
  49. New Jersey: 9.1
  50. Hawaii: 6.9

What other feature of the states should I analyze?

Onward American 🇺🇸

Source: Road Miles by State

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