This is a list of geographic centers of each

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

and inhabited

territory A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

. The

geographic center of the United States The geographic center of the United States is a point approximately north of Belle Fourche, South Dakota at . It has been regarded as such by the U.S. National Geodetic Survey (NGS) since the additions of Alaska and Hawaii to the United State ...

is northeast of

Belle Fourche Belle Fourche (; ) is a city in and the county seat of Butte County, South Dakota, United States. Its population was 5,617 at the 2020 census. It is near the geographic center of the United States, which moved some 550 miles northwest from the g ...

Butte County, South Dakota Butte County is a county in the U.S. state of South Dakota. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 10,243. Its county seat is Belle Fourche. The county was established in the Dakota Territory on March 2, 1883, and given the des ...

, while that of the contiguous 48 states is near

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

Smith County, Kansas Smith County (standard abbreviation: SM) is a county located in the U.S. state of Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,570. Its county seat is Smith Center. The county is named in memory of Maj. J. Nelson Smith, who was part of ...

. The geographic center of North America lies near

Rugby, North Dakota Rugby is a city in, and the county seat of, Pierce County, North Dakota, United States. The population was 2,509 at the 2020 census, making it the 19th largest city in North Dakota. Rugby was founded in 1886. Rugby is often billed as the geog ...

, though this designation has no official status. In 2017, a new calculation of the geographic center of North America placed it near the town of

Center, North Dakota Center is a city in Oliver County, North Dakota, United States. It is the county seat of, and the only incorporated place in, Oliver County. The population was 588 at the 2020 census. History Center was founded in 1902. The city was named from ...

Historic list of geographic centers

The list given below has been only slightly modified since it was first produced by the

U.S. Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and ...

(USGS) in the early 1920s. At that time, the center for a state was found by suspending a cardboard cutout of the state by a string, and then drawing a vertical line from the suspension point. After rotating the cutout 90 degrees and drawing another vertical line from the new suspension point, the intersection of the two vertical lines was used as the geographic center. The result is dependent upon the type of projection used.

Modern list of geographic centers

Although there have been different definitions offered for the geographic center, an intuitive one, and one used by the USGS, is "the center of gravity of the surface, or that point on which the surface of the area would balance if it were a plane of uniform thickness." An updated list of geographic centers using this definition (which is equivalent to the state's

centroid In mathematics and physics, the centroid, also known as geometric center or center of figure, of a plane figure or solid figure is the arithmetic mean position of all the points in the surface of the figure. The same definition extends to any ...

) is given below. It was derived by minimizing the sum of squared great circle distances from all points of land in a state (including islands, but not coastal waters, following the earlier practice of the USGS). It represents a slight improvement over the list originally published. The

geographic center of the contiguous United States The geographic center of the United States is a point approximately north of Belle Fourche, South Dakota at . It has been regarded as such by the U.S. National Geodetic Survey (NGS) since the additions of Alaska and Hawaii to the United State ...

, determined in this way, is at ; this is 5.4 miles from Agra, Kansas, 5.7 miles from Kensington, Kansas, and 26.9 great circle miles west of the longstanding designated site near

Lebanon, Kansas Lebanon is a city in Smith County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 178. History Lebanon was founded in 1876 at a site about distant from its present site. It was moved to the new site in about 188 ...

Geographic centers of the U.S. territories

Very little information exists about the geographic centers of the

U.S. territories Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions overseen by the federal government of the United States. The various American territories differ from the U.S. states and tribal reservations as they are not sover ...

. In a geological survey of all geographic centers in the U.S., the

U.S. Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the man ...

did not measure the geographic centers of the U.S. territories.https://pubs.usgs.gov/unnumbered/70039437/report.pdf "Geographic centers of the United States." U.S. Department of the Interior. Retrieved June 2019. Similarly, the USGS does not include the territories in its list of geographic centers.https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/Elevations-Distances/elvadist.html ‘’Elevations and Distances in the United States.’’ USGS. Retrieved June 2019. In terms of each territory’s land area, only one territory,

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

, has a confirmed geographic center. There are also official geographic centers of territorial exclusive economic zones, though those geographic centers are based on a territory's

territorial waters The term territorial waters is sometimes used informally to refer to any area of water over which a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and potent ...

(not land area).

Notes

References

Works cited

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Geographic Centers Of The United States

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...