United States Map, States & Facts

About the United States

The U.S. stretches across six time zones and a wider range of climate and terrain than almost any country on Earth — from Arctic tundra in northern Alaska to tropical rainforest in Hawaii, and from the Appalachian ridgelines of the East to the volcanic peaks of the Pacific Northwest.

Government is organized in three layers: federal, state, and local. Each of the 50 states sets its own laws on top of federal ones, which is why driving rules, sales tax, and even the drinking age can change the moment you cross a state line.

For travel and reference purposes, GeoMapGuide groups the country into ten regions — West, Midwest, South, and Northeast among them — each with its own state and county-level maps.

Quick Geography Facts

The contiguous 48 states plus Alaska sit in North America; Hawaii is a mid-Pacific archipelago roughly 2,400 miles from the mainland. Excluding water area, the country covers about 3.53 million square miles of land — the third-largest national land area in the world, behind Russia and Canada.