Sitka city and borough, AK has the largest municipal land area in the included Census city/place universe at 2,870.2 square miles (U.S. Census Bureau Gazetteer). The table ranks all 19,483 records with a Gazetteer match. Land area measures the legal place boundary, not the size of its urban or metro area.
The ten largest included cities and places by land area
These are legal Census place boundaries, including consolidated governments and their published balance entries. Published balance entries exclude separately incorporated enclaves and can understate a consolidated government's full area. A large boundary can include undeveloped land. It does not measure the urban or metropolitan area.
Top ten records from the full Census Gazetteer land-area ranking below.
Rank
Census place name
State
Land area, sq mi
#1
Sitka city and borough
AK
2870.2
#2
Juneau city and borough
AK
2702.9
#3
Wrangell city and borough
AK
2556.1
#4
Anchorage municipality
AK
1706.8
#5
Greeley County unified government
KS
777.4
#6
Jacksonville city
FL
747.3
#7
Anaconda-Deer Lodge County
MT
736.7
#8
Butte-Silver Bow
MT
715.8
#9
Houston city
TX
640.8
#10
Oklahoma City city
OK
607.0
Search and filter cities by land area
19,483 rows available
All 19,483 included U.S. city/place records with Census Gazetteer land area, ranked largest to smallest.
0 of 19,483 included records lack a usable Gazetteer match and are omitted. Water area is shown separately and never added to the ranking value.
Methodology · municipal boundaries
Land area measures the legal city or place boundary.
Land and water area come from the Census Bureau 2025 Gazetteer places file. Gazetteer square meters are converted to square miles. The ranking uses land area only.
A geographically large municipal boundary does not mean the developed city, urban area, or metropolitan area is equally large. Annexation and local government structure make city-proper area comparisons sensitive to boundaries.
For eight consolidated city-county governments, the site uses the Gazetteer geometry of the published balance entry. That geometry excludes separately incorporated enclaves and slightly understates the consolidated land area.
