The term contiguous United States refers to the 48 contiguous U.S. states located on the North American continent south of the border with Canada, plus the District of Columbia.^[1] The term excludes the states of Alaska and Hawaii and all off-shore U.S. territories and possessions. Another term with the same meaning is coterminous United States. The two terms are each more precise than Continental United States, which sometimes includes Alaska^[2] and sometimes does not.^[3] The two terms are also clearer than the term lower 48, which may or may not include the District of Columbia (which is not part of any of the 48 states), and may or may not exclude Hawaii (which is the southern-most U.S. state). The National Geographic style guide recommends the use of contiguous when the 48 states are meant.^[4]

Together, the 48 contiguous states and D.C. have an area of 3,119,884.69 square miles (8,080,464.25 km²). Of this, 2,959,064.44 sq mi (7,663,941.71 km²) is land, comprising 83.65% of U.S. land area. Officially, 160,820.25 sq mi (416,522.38 km²) is water area, comprising 62.66% of the nation's water area. Its 2000 census population was 279,583,437, comprising 99.35% of the nation's population. Its population density was 94.484 inhabitants/sq mi (36.48/km²), compared to 79.555/sq mi (30.716/km²) for the nation as a whole.^[5]

Notes

See also

• Extreme points of the United States
• Mainland
• Oceania

External links

• Definition of contiguous.
• Definition of coterminous and conterminous.
• Definition of continental.