New York

Location, size, and extent

Located in the northeastern US, New York State is the largest of the three Middle Atlantic states and ranks 30th in size among the 50 states.

The total area of New York is 49,108 sq mi (127,190 sq km), of which land takes up 47,377 sq mi (122,707 sq km) and the remaining 1,731 sq mi (4,483 sq km) consist of inland water. New York's width is about 320 mi (515 km) E-W, not including Long Island, which extends an additional 118 mi (190 km) SW-NE; the state's maximum N-S extension is about 310 mi (499 km). New York State is shaped roughly like a right triangle: the line from the extreme NE to the extreme SW forms the hypotenuse, with New York City as the right angle.

Mainland New York is bordered on the NW and N by the Canadian provinces of Ontario (with the boundary line passing through Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River) and Quebec; on the E by Vermont (with part of the line passing through Lake Champlain and the Poultney River), Massachusetts, and Connecticut; on the S by the Atlantic Ocean, New Jersey (part of the line passes through the Hudson River), and Pennsylvania (partly through the Delaware River); and on the W by Pennsylvania (with the line extending into Lake Erie) and Ontario (through Lake Erie and the Niagara River).

Two large islands lie off the state's SE corner. Long Island is bounded by Connecticut (through Long Island Sound) to the N, Rhode Island (through the Atlantic Ocean) to the NE, the Atlantic to the S, and the East River and the Narrows to the W. Staten Island (a borough of New York City) is separated from New Jersey by Newark Bay in the N, Raritan Bay in the S, and Arthur Kill channel in the W, and from Long Island by the Narrows to the E. Including these two islands, the total boundary length of New York State is 1,430 mi (2,301 km). Long Island, with an area of 1,396 sq mi (3,616 sq km), is the largest island belonging to one of the 48 coterminous states.

The state's geographic center is in Madison County, 12 mi (19 km) S of Oneida.