Rankings · Geography

Highest rivers by state

River miles per square mile.

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

Miles of USGS NHD perennial Stream/River flowlines (FCode 46006), clipped to the county boundary, divided by land area. This counts mapped perennial channels, not seasonal creeks, water volume, or navigability. Map lines are a simplified selection of named rivers for legibility; the shading includes every qualifying NHD flowline.

  1. 1Vermont2.50
  2. 2Connecticut1.58
  3. 3Oregon1.53
  4. 4Tennessee1.45
  5. 5New Jersey1.44
  6. 6Alaska1.44
  7. 7Maryland1.36
  8. 8Delaware1.31
  9. 9Washington1.26
  10. 10Rhode Island1.24
  11. 11Massachusetts1.06
  12. 12Georgia1.03
  13. 13Alabama1.03
  14. 14North Carolina1.00
  15. 15West Virginia1.00
  16. 16South Carolina0.99
  17. 17Maine0.97
  18. 18New Hampshire0.95
  19. 19Pennsylvania0.91
  20. 20Louisiana0.78
  21. 21Virginia0.78
  22. 22Hawaii0.74
  23. 23Ohio0.65
  24. 24New York0.63
  25. 25Kentucky0.59
  26. 26Oklahoma0.58
  27. 27Michigan0.56
  28. 28Mississippi0.52
  29. 29Montana0.50
  30. 30Iowa0.45
  31. 31Idaho0.44
  32. 32Wisconsin0.43
  33. 33Arkansas0.41
  34. 34Indiana0.39
  35. 35Illinois0.36
  36. 36Missouri0.36
  37. 37Utah0.35
  38. 38Kansas0.33
  39. 39Wyoming0.32
  40. 40Nebraska0.31
  41. 41Minnesota0.28
  42. 42District of Columbia0.28
  43. 43Colorado0.27
  44. 44Texas0.27
  45. 45Florida0.25
  46. 46South Dakota0.23
  47. 47California0.16
  48. 48North Dakota0.08
  49. 49Nevada0.05
  50. 50New Mexico0.04
  51. 51Arizona0.02
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Source: U.S. Geological Survey National Hydrography Dataset. · How this is built