Original MapBench study · 14 Oct 2026

How Far Is Each US State Capital From the Geographic Center of Its State?

Name: US State Capital to Geographic Centroid Distance Ranking
Creator: Aryan Khan

For each of the 50 states, MapBench calculates the geographic centroid of the Census-derived state geometry, then measures the great-circle distance from that centroid to the state-capital coordinates. This is a geometric comparison, not a claim about population balance, driving distance or political representation.

Research by Aryan Khan · methodology · data sources · corrections

States compared

Average separation

133 km

Farthest capital

Juneau

Alaska · 1144 km

Closest capital

Trenton

New Jersey · 10 km

Ranking: capital-to-state-centroid distance

Longer distances indicate that the capital is farther from the centroid of the generalized state polygon. Coastal shape, islands, panhandles and irregular boundaries can move a polygon centroid substantially, so the ranking should be read as a geometry study rather than a measure of accessibility.

Rank	State	Capital	Distance	Capital coordinates	State resources
1	Alaska	Juneau	1144 km	58.302°, -134.410°	Counties·Map
2	Wyoming	Cheyenne	306 km	41.140°, -104.820°	Counties·Map
3	Nebraska	Lincoln	271 km	40.808°, -96.700°	Counties·Map
4	Nevada	Carson City	271 km	39.164°, -119.766°	Counties·Map
5	Florida	Tallahassee	270 km	30.438°, -84.282°	Counties·Map
6	Kansas	Topeka	242 km	39.048°, -95.678°	Counties·Map
7	California	Sacramento	235 km	38.577°, -121.494°	Counties·Map
8	Oregon	Salem	226 km	44.939°, -123.030°	Counties·Map
9	Texas	Austin	200 km	30.275°, -97.740°	Counties·Map
10	Hawaii	Honolulu	197 km	21.307°, -157.857°	Counties·Map
11	Washington	Olympia	189 km	47.036°, -122.905°	Counties·Map
12	Montana	Helena	189 km	46.586°, -112.018°	Counties·Map
13	Michigan	Lansing	188 km	42.734°, -84.556°	Counties·Map
14	Wisconsin	Madison	179 km	43.075°, -89.384°	Counties·Map
15	Minnesota	Saint Paul	175 km	44.955°, -93.102°	Counties·Map
16	Utah	Salt Lake City	165 km	40.777°, -111.888°	Counties·Map
17	Georgia	Atlanta	152 km	33.749°, -84.388°	Counties·Map
18	Idaho	Boise	151 km	43.618°, -116.200°	Counties·Map
19	New York	Albany	146 km	42.653°, -73.758°	Counties·Map
20	New Mexico	Santa Fe	143 km	35.682°, -105.940°	Counties·Map
21	Maine	Augusta	123 km	44.307°, -69.782°	Counties·Map
22	Virginia	Richmond	122 km	37.539°, -77.434°	Counties·Map
23	Pennsylvania	Harrisburg	103 km	40.264°, -76.884°	Counties·Map
24	Arizona	Phoenix	100 km	33.448°, -112.097°	Counties·Map
25	Louisiana	Baton Rouge	98 km	30.457°, -91.187°	Counties·Map
26	Colorado	Denver	96 km	39.739°, -104.985°	Counties·Map
27	West Virginia	Charleston	92 km	38.336°, -81.612°	Counties·Map
28	Kentucky	Frankfort	82 km	38.187°, -84.875°	Counties·Map
29	North Dakota	Bismarck	74 km	46.821°, -100.783°	Counties·Map
30	North Carolina	Raleigh	70 km	35.780°, -78.639°	Counties·Map
31	Mississippi	Jackson	68 km	32.304°, -90.182°	Counties·Map
32	Alabama	Montgomery	67 km	32.378°, -86.301°	Counties·Map
33	Massachusetts	Boston	61 km	42.359°, -71.064°	Counties·Map
34	Iowa	Des Moines	55 km	41.591°, -93.604°	Counties·Map
35	New Hampshire	Concord	53 km	43.207°, -71.538°	Counties·Map
36	Tennessee	Nashville	52 km	36.166°, -86.784°	Counties·Map
37	Illinois	Springfield	48 km	39.798°, -89.655°	Counties·Map
38	Ohio	Columbus	40 km	39.961°, -82.999°	Counties·Map
39	Missouri	Jefferson City	35 km	38.579°, -92.173°	Counties·Map
40	Maryland	Annapolis	24 km	38.979°, -76.491°	Counties·Map
41	Vermont	Montpelier	23 km	44.262°, -72.580°	Counties·Map
42	Arkansas	Little Rock	22 km	34.747°, -92.289°	Counties·Map
43	Rhode Island	Providence	21 km	41.831°, -71.415°	Counties·Map
44	Delaware	Dover	19 km	39.157°, -75.520°	Counties·Map
45	Indiana	Indianapolis	17 km	39.768°, -86.163°	Counties·Map
46	South Carolina	Columbia	17 km	34.000°, -81.033°	Counties·Map
47	Connecticut	Hartford	16 km	41.764°, -72.682°	Counties·Map
48	South Dakota	Pierre	13 km	44.367°, -100.346°	Counties·Map
49	Oklahoma	Oklahoma City	11 km	35.492°, -97.503°	Counties·Map
50	New Jersey	Trenton	10 km	40.220°, -74.770°	Counties·Map

How the calculation works

Load the generalized Census-derived geometry for each state.
Calculate the geographic centroid of that polygon geometry.
Use the published capital coordinate for the corresponding state.
Measure great-circle distance between the capital and centroid with the same geographic distance method used by MapBench distance tools.
Sort the 50 states from greatest separation to smallest.

What this study does not measure

It does not measure driving distance or travel time.
It does not use population-weighted centers.
It does not decide whether a capital is well located for residents.
It does not use legal survey-grade state boundaries.
State polygon centroids can fall in unintuitive places for irregular or multipart geometry.

Reproduce or explore the result

Use the Map Radius Tool to draw a geographic radius around any capital, the Distance Between Two Places tool to compare coordinates, or browse the US States hub for state maps, county reference pages and Census tools.

Methodology →·Data sources →·Corrections →

Source note

State geometry comes from the Census-derived us-atlas state dataset already used by MapBench blank maps. Capital coordinates are stored as a public reference dataset in MapBench from the Vega project's US state-capitals data. The ranking is calculated by MapBench from those inputs; no competitor ranking or percentages are copied.