Return to Scale View
About News Create With Us
Return to Scale View

How big is California?

California is 1,200 kilometers

The Size of California: A Closer Look

Have you ever wondered how big California really is? If you’ve ever taken a road trip across the state, you might have noticed that it takes a long time to drive from one end to the other. That’s because California is huge! California is the third-largest state in the United States, measuring approximately 163,696 square miles in total area. This is almost twice the size of the entire United Kingdom! In terms of land area, it is larger than many countries, including Japan and Germany.

Size Comparison: California vs. Other States

When you compare the size of California to other states in the U.S, its vastness becomes even more clear.

  • California is twice as big as the state of Florida.
  • It’s almost four times the size of the state of New York.
  • It’s larger than the smallest 20 states in the U.S combined! With such a large size, California is home to a variety of landscapes, from the coastal beaches of the Pacific Ocean to the towering peaks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

California’s Population

Size isn’t just about land area. It’s also about how many people live there. And when it comes to population, California is also a giant. With nearly 39.2 million people, California has more people living in it than any other state in the U.S. Just to give you an idea, that’s more people than live in the entire country of Canada! California’s population is so large, it’s the 34th most populous place in the world, even when compared to entire countries.

California’s Economy

Another way to measure California’s size is by looking at its economy. If California were a country, its economy would be the fifth largest in the world! That’s larger than the economies of countries like the United Kingdom. It’s home to the Greater Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay area, which are the nation’s second and fourth largest urban economies. These areas are major hubs for technology, entertainment, and innovation.

Conclusion

So, whether you’re talking about its physical size, its population, or its economy, California is indeed big - really big! It’s a state of great diversity, offering a variety of landscapes, cultures, and opportunities. So next time you’re planning a road trip, remember - you’ll need plenty of time to explore all that California has to offer!

Smaller By Category
Italy
Italy was the home to Leonardo Da Vinci, who was an inventor, mathematician, engineer, painter, sculptor, scientist, musician, and much more. Many other painters, including Raphael and Michelangelo, were also from Italy.
Quaoar
Some scientists used to think Quaoar had a dense core because a pluto-sized object hit it and stripped away its outer layers, but now we know Quaoar is much lighter than we originally assumed. Even so, it's almost as heavy and big as Pluto's moon Charon,
Sedna
Sedna has a very elliptical orbit. It is so far away it takes 10,000 Earth years to complete one orbit. You probably realized that "Sedna" backwards is "Andes”, the world's longest mountain range (It's in South America). Both may seem other-worldly!
Larger By Category
Pluto
Pluto is no longer a planet. Why do people feel sympathy for it? It has no feelings. Even if it did, why would it care about what people way over on Earth thought? On another note, Pluto's official name is now "134340 Pluto” because it's a dwarf planet.
Eris
Eris is the most massive dwarf planet. Although it's a little bit smaller, it is even heavier than Pluto, which is also a dwarf planet. Eris is also very far from the Sun. Eris has a moon, and that's Dysnomia. Where's Dysnomia? It's directly beneath the period at the end of this last sentence.
Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef, which is off the northeastern coast of Australia, is the biggest single structure made by living organisms! It is home to several thousand species of coral, mollusks, whales, turtles, dolphins, birds, and much more!