About 12,380 miles of general coastline · 23 ocean states · Alaska has more than half
US coastlines map
The United States has about 12,380 miles of general coastline on four bodies of water: the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific and the Arctic. Twenty-three states touch salt water; Alaska alone has more than all the others combined.
The four coasts
Figures are NOAA's "general coastline", which measures the shore at a broad scale and ignores bays, inlets and islands. The "tidal shoreline", which follows every creek and inlet, is about 88,600 miles.
| Coast | General coastline (miles) | States |
|---|---|---|
| Atlantic | about 2,070 | ME, NH, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, DE, MD, VA, NC, SC, GA, FL |
| Gulf of Mexico | about 1,630 | FL, AL, MS, LA, TX |
| Pacific | about 7,620 (including Alaska and Hawaii) | CA, OR, WA, AK, HI |
| Arctic | about 1,060 | AK |
Coastline by state
| # | State | General coastline (miles) | Water |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alaska | about 6,640 | Pacific, Bering Sea, Arctic |
| 2 | Florida | about 1,350 | Atlantic and Gulf |
| 3 | California | about 840 | Pacific |
| 4 | Hawaii | about 750 | Pacific |
| 5 | Louisiana | about 400 | Gulf |
| 6 | Texas | about 370 | Gulf |
| 7 | North Carolina | about 300 | Atlantic |
| 8 | Oregon | about 300 | Pacific |
| 9 | Maine | about 230 | Atlantic |
| 10 | Massachusetts | about 190 | Atlantic |
| 11 | South Carolina | about 190 | Atlantic |
| 12 | Washington | about 160 | Pacific |
| 13 | New Jersey | about 130 | Atlantic |
| 14 | New York | about 130 | Atlantic |
| 15 | Virginia | about 110 | Atlantic |
| 16 | Georgia | about 100 | Atlantic |
| 17 | Alabama | about 50 | Gulf |
| 18 | Mississippi | about 45 | Gulf |
| 19 | Rhode Island | about 40 | Atlantic |
| 20 | Maryland | about 30 | Atlantic |
| 21 | Delaware | about 30 | Atlantic |
| 22 | New Hampshire | about 13 | Atlantic |
| 23 | Connecticut | Long Island Sound only | No open-ocean frontage |
Maryland, Virginia and Connecticut have far longer tidal shorelines than the table suggests because Chesapeake Bay and Long Island Sound are not counted as general coastline. Pennsylvania reaches tidewater on the Delaware estuary at Philadelphia but has no ocean coast; eight more states have freshwater coast on the Great Lakes.
What the coasts look like
- Atlantic — rocky and indented in Maine, then a low coastal plain of barrier islands, lagoons and estuaries from Long Island to Florida: Chesapeake Bay, the Outer Banks, the Sea Islands. Ports: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville, Miami.
- Gulf — marsh, delta and barrier islands; the shallowest and warmest coast. See the Gulf of Mexico page.
- Pacific — cliffs, headlands and few natural harbours; the big exceptions are San Francisco Bay, Puget Sound and San Diego Bay. Ports: Los Angeles/Long Beach, San Francisco/Oakland, Seattle, Tacoma, Portland (100 miles up the Columbia), San Diego, Anchorage, Honolulu.
- Arctic — Alaska's north slope from the Canadian border to Point Barrow, frozen for most of the year.
How the coasts shaped the map
The original thirteen states were all coastal or tidewater states. The 1783 border with British Canada, the 1819 purchase of Florida, the 1846 Oregon settlement and the 1848 conquest of California were each about reaching or holding a coast. The Gulf and Atlantic coastal plain is where the fall line cities of the East stop; the Pacific coast ranges are why the West Coast's population sits in three inland-facing basins rather than along the shore. Coastal counties hold about 40 percent of the population on less than 10 percent of the land.
Related maps
- Gulf of Mexico · Great Lakes — the other shores.
- Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada — the ranges behind the Pacific coast.
- South Atlantic states · Pacific states · Gulf Coast states.
- All geography maps.