How big is Texas?

Texas is a state in the south-central United States, and the second largest of the 50 states by area, after Alaska. At its widest, Texas measures about 1,240 kilometers (773 miles) from east to west. From north to south it is a little longer, about 1,290 kilometers (801 miles).

Size

The Texas Almanac gives the state's greatest east–west distance as 773 miles, measured in a straight line. The line runs from the easternmost bend of the Sabine River, in Newton County, to the westernmost bulge of the Rio Grande, upriver from El Paso. The U.S. Census Bureau's boundary maps put those two points about 1,250 kilometers apart, close to the almanac's figure.

The longest north–south line is 801 miles. It runs from the northwest corner of the Panhandle, the squared-off northern part of the state, to the southern tip of Texas on the Rio Grande downriver from Brownsville. Texas covers 695,662 square kilometers (268,596 square miles) of land and water, about 7 percent of the area of the United States.

Size comparisons

Pluto's largest moon, Charon, is about 1,212 kilometers across, almost exactly the width of Texas. NASA's New Horizons team called it "the Texas-sized moon."
Pluto, 2,377 kilometers across, and Eris, 2,326 kilometers across, are each a little less than twice as wide as Texas.
Texas is about one-tenth as wide as Earth, which is 12,742 kilometers (7,918 miles) across on average.
About 29 marathons, each 42.195 kilometers (26.2 miles) long, laid end to end would cross Texas from east to west.
By area, Texas is about 1.6 times the size of California and about two-fifths the size of Alaska.

Borders, coast and heights

Measured along the larger river bends and the broad curve of the coast, the border of Texas is 2,842 miles (4,574 kilometers) long. Following every small bend of the rivers and the shore, it is 3,822 miles (6,151 kilometers). The Rio Grande, which separates Texas from Mexico, forms the longest stretch, 889 miles (1,431 kilometers). The coastline adds 367 miles (591 kilometers).

The land rises from sea level along the coast to 2,667 meters (8,749 feet) at Guadalupe Peak, in the mountains of far West Texas. The geographic center of the state is about 15 miles (24 kilometers) northeast of the town of Brady.

How Texas got its shape

Before 1850, Texas claimed land along the whole length of the Rio Grande, including much of what is now New Mexico. Congress settled the dispute with a law that offered Texas $10 million to give up its claims north and west of a new line. Texas voters approved the deal by three to one, and Governor Peter H. Bell signed the state's acceptance on November 25, 1850.

The line followed latitude and longitude, the grid of imaginary lines used to locate places on Earth. It ran west along latitude 36.5 degrees north from longitude 100 degrees west to 103 degrees west, then south to latitude 32 degrees north, and then west to the Rio Grande. Those straight sections still form the northern and western edges of the Panhandle, and the border that runs east from the Rio Grande along latitude 32 degrees.