Rankings · Place

Highest protected land by state

Share of the county in protected land.

This measure has no better end. The order describes the states, it does not rank them — see the other direction.

Public and conserved land as a share of the county's whole area. Counts land carrying a conservation or recreation mandate — national forests, parks, wildlife refuges, state land, local preserves — and excludes military holdings and tribal areas, which are neither. Neutral rather than good: it is open country to walk in, and it is also land that cannot be bought or built on, which is why a high figure often sits beside a tight housing market. The denominator is the county's full extent including water, from the same source, so a lake-heavy county is not flattered. Local and city parks are recorded unevenly by state, so the measure is most reliable where federal and state land dominates. PAD-US 4.1, land as of 31 December 2023.

  1. 1Nevada79.9%
  2. 2Utah68.2%
  3. 3Idaho67.6%
  4. 4Oregon56.7%
  5. 5Alaska56.0%
  6. 6Wyoming54.7%
  7. 7California46.7%
  8. 8Colorado42.5%
  9. 9Arizona40.1%
  10. 10Montana37.3%
  11. 11Washington37.2%
  12. 12New Hampshire32.4%
  13. 13Hawaii31.9%
  14. 14New Mexico31.6%
  15. 15Florida25.1%
  16. 16Vermont21.7%
  17. 17New Jersey21.4%
  18. 18North Dakota20.7%
  19. 19Maine18.8%
  20. 20Massachusetts17.9%
  21. 21Minnesota17.7%
  22. 22Pennsylvania17.6%
  23. 23New York16.5%
  24. 24South Dakota16.1%
  25. 25Virginia15.5%
  26. 26Connecticut14.8%
  27. 27Delaware14.7%
  28. 28Wisconsin14.2%
  29. 29Rhode Island13.4%
  30. 30Maryland12.8%
  31. 31North Carolina11.8%
  32. 32District of Columbia11.7%
  33. 33West Virginia11.6%
  34. 34Arkansas11.5%
  35. 35Michigan10.5%
  36. 36Louisiana9.1%
  37. 37Tennessee9.0%
  38. 38Mississippi8.7%
  39. 39Georgia6.8%
  40. 40South Carolina6.8%
  41. 41Missouri6.5%
  42. 42Kentucky6.3%
  43. 43Alabama4.8%
  44. 44Illinois3.4%
  45. 45Oklahoma3.3%
  46. 46Ohio3.0%
  47. 47Indiana2.9%
  48. 48Texas2.9%
  49. 49Iowa2.0%
  50. 50Nebraska1.9%
  51. 51Kansas1.1%
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Source: USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States. · How this is built