Rankings · Place

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