Largest Cities in the United States by Area 2026
Land Area (mi²)
2,870 mi²
2,703 mi²
1,707 mi²
747 mi²
716 mi²
641 mi²
- Cities are sorted by land area first, as the total size of coastal cities can be heavily distorted by their amount of water territory, which adds area but is obviously much less habitable.
Cities in the United States come in all different sizes with unique environments and cultures. Cities can be expansive urban areas that cover miles of land, or dense, heavily populated metropolises.
Understanding City Size
When evaluating how “large” a city is, the population is typically used as the measurement. Cities are less commonly measured by the size of their land area. Often, the land area does not correlate with population size. For example, New York City has a population of 8.623 million people but is 302.6 mi² (784 km²) because New York is so densely populated with approximately 27,000 people per square mile.
Largest Cities by Area
The largest cities by area are very different from the largest cities by population. The top ten largest cities by area are:
- Sitka, AK (2,870.3 mi²)
- Juneau, AK (2,701.9 mi²)
- Wrangell, AK (2,542.5 mi²)
- Anchorage, AK (1,704.7 mi²)
- Jacksonville, FL (747 mi²)
- Anaconda, MT (735.6 mi²)
- Butte, MT (716.2 mi²)
- Oklahoma City, OK (607 mi²)
- Houston, TX (599.6 mi²)
- Phoenix, AZ (516.7 mi²)
Alaska’s Dominance
The largest city in the United States by area is Sitka, Alaska. Sitka spans over 2,870.3 mi² (7,434.04 km²) but has a population of about only 10,000 people. The four largest cities in the United States are located in the southeastern part of Alaska, and are significantly larger than any other city in the United States.
All other cities in the United States smaller than the top ten are under 500 mi².
