The chart above shows the proportion of each state that is wooded area. Maine is almost entirely covered in forest while North Dakota has almost none.
Findings
- The difference between the state with the greatest proportion of wooded area, Maine, and the state with the least, North Dakota, is 87.75 percentage points.
- Maine has 52.02 times the wooded area as a proportion of the state that North Dakota does.
- The difference between the state with the largest absolute value of wooded area, Alaska, and the state with the least, Delaware, is 128,237,000 acres.
- Alaska has 378.17 times the wooded area that Delaware does.
- The median proportion of wooded area in the 50 US states is 42.13% and the mean 43.10%.
- The median wooded area acreage in the 50 US states is 15,092,000 and the mean 16,376,320.
Caveats
- Data is from 2016.
- All figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.
Details
Even though only one-third of Alaska is wooded, the state is so large that its wooded area accounts for 15.70% of the total wooded area in the US. It, with Texas and California make up over one-fourth of the wooded area in the country at 27.31%. Adding in Oregon and Montana accounts for over one-third of the wooded area in the country at 34.07%. Eleven states make up more than half the wooded area of the country, these include the aforementioned and New Mexico, Georgia, Alabama, Colorado, Washington, and Idaho. These 11 states make up 51.07% of the total wooded area in the country.
In fact, Alaska is so large that even though only one-third of it is wooded, its wooded area is larger than the total size of 48 states. Only Texas and Alaska itself have more area than the wooded area of Alaska.
Twenty-one states have wooded area account for more than half of their total state area. Only four states have over 75% of their total area covered in woods: Maine, New Hampshire, West Virginia, and Vermont.
Only five states have less than one-tenth of their total area covered in woods: Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota, Nebraska, and North Dakota.
The United States as a total is 36.22% covered in wooded area which would place it between Texas and Alaska in the chart above.
Data
| State | Total Area (in thousands of acres) | Wooded Area | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 32,413 | 22,877 | 70.58 |
| Alaska | 365,616 | 128,577 | 35.17 |
| Arizona | 72,700 | 18,643 | 25.64 |
| Arkansas | 33,303 | 18,755 | 56.32 |
| California | 99,699 | 32,618 | 32.72 |
| Colorado | 66,331 | 22,837 | 34.43 |
| Connecticut | 3,099 | 1,712 | 55.24 |
| Delaware | 1,247 | 340 | 27.27 |
| Florida | 34,447 | 17,461 | 50.69 |
| Georgia | 36,809 | 24,768 | 67.29 |
| Hawaii | 4,110 | 1,748 | 42.53 |
| Idaho | 52,892 | 21,448 | 40.55 |
| Illinois | 35,532 | 4,848 | 13.64 |
| Indiana | 22,929 | 4,830 | 21.07 |
| Iowa | 35,749 | 3,014 | 8.43 |
| Kansas | 52,326 | 2,502 | 4.78 |
| Kentucky | 25,271 | 12,472 | 49.35 |
| Louisiana | 27,650 | 14,712 | 53.21 |
| Maine | 19,739 | 17,660 | 89.47 |
| Maryland | 6,252 | 2,461 | 39.36 |
| Massachusetts | 4,992 | 3,024 | 60.58 |
| Michigan | 36,185 | 20,127 | 55.62 |
| Minnesota | 50,961 | 17,371 | 34.09 |
| Mississippi | 30,031 | 19,542 | 65.07 |
| Missouri | 43,995 | 15,472 | 35.17 |
| Montana | 93,149 | 25,573 | 27.45 |
| Nebraska | 49,167 | 1,576 | 3.21 |
| Nevada | 70,260 | 11,169 | 15.9 |
| New Hampshire | 5,730 | 4,832 | 84.33 |
| New Jersey | 4,707 | 1,964 | 41.73 |
| New Mexico | 77,631 | 24,840 | 32 |
| New York | 30,161 | 18,966 | 62.88 |
| North Carolina | 31,115 | 18,588 | 59.74 |
| North Dakota | 44,161 | 760 | 1.72 |
| Ohio | 26,151 | 8,088 | 30.93 |
| Oklahoma | 43,901 | 12,646 | 28.81 |
| Oregon | 61,432 | 29,804 | 48.52 |
| Pennsylvania | 28,635 | 16,782 | 58.61 |
| Rhode Island | 662 | 360 | 54.38 |
| South Carolina | 19,239 | 13,120 | 68.19 |
| South Dakota | 48,519 | 1,911 | 3.94 |
| Tennessee | 26,390 | 13,942 | 52.83 |
| Texas | 167,188 | 62,425 | 37.34 |
| Utah | 52,589 | 18,135 | 34.48 |
| Vermont | 5,899 | 4,591 | 77.83 |
| Virginia | 25,274 | 15,907 | 62.94 |
| Washington | 42,532 | 22,435 | 52.75 |
| West Virginia | 15,384 | 12,155 | 79.01 |
| Wisconsin | 34,661 | 16,980 | 48.99 |
| Wyoming | 62,140 | 11,448 | 18.42 |
Sources
United States Department of Agriculture. 2016. "Forest Inventory and Analysis: Fiscal Year 2016 Business Report." Accessed September 24, 2020. https://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/fs_media/fs_document/publication-15817-usda-forest-service-fia-annual-report-508.pdf.