Alaska vs California: Size Comparison

Alaska's 571,242 square miles of land dwarf California's 155,859 square miles — Alaska is about 3.7 times larger. California feels vast when you live there: a full day's drive from San Diego to the Oregon border, with deserts, farmland, and the Sierra Nevada in between. But Alaska operates on another scale entirely. You could fit nearly four Californias inside Alaska's borders. The difference alone — some 415,000 square miles — exceeds the combined area of Texas and California's smaller sibling states. Alaska's Aleutian chain stretches so far west it crosses into the Eastern Hemisphere, and its northern coast touches the Arctic Ocean. California holds 39 million people; Alaska holds about 740,000. One state is defined by how many people fit inside it, the other by how much wilderness remains — and on raw land, there is no comparison.

Alaska vs California by the numbers

In other words, you could fit California inside Alaska about 3.7 times. Area figures are land area (square miles). Sources: US Census Bureau, 2024 Gazetteer (land area, sq mi)