List of geographic centers of the United States
This is a list of geographic centers of each U.S. state and each inhabited territory. Note that the geographic center of the 50 states is northeast of Belle Fourche in Butte County, South Dakota, while that of the contiguous 48 states is near Lebanon in Smith County, Kansas. The geographic center of North America lies near Rugby, North Dakota, though this designation has no official status. In 2017, a new calculation of the geographic center of North America put it near the town of Center, North Dakota.
Geographic centers of the states and the District of Columbia
The list given below has been only slightly modified since it was first produced by the U.S. Geological Survey 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.| State or federal district | County | Location | Coordinates |
| Chilton County | Clanton | ||
| Yukon–Koyukuk Census Area | Tanana | ||
| Yavapai County | Camp Verde | ||
| Pulaski County | Little Rock | ||
| Madera County | North Fork | ||
| Park County | west of Colorado Springs, southwest of Castle Rock | ||
| Hartford County | Berlin | ||
| Kent County | southwest of Dover | ||
| District of Columbia | Near 4th and L Streets, Northwest | ||
| Hernando County | north-northwest of Brooksville | ||
 Georgia | Twiggs County | southeast of Macon | |
| Maui County | off-shore southwest of Molokai and west of Lanai | ||
| Custer County | on the Yankee Fork River, southwest of Challis | ||
| Sangamon County | southeast of Rochester | ||
| Hendricks County | west of Avon | ||
| Story County | northeast of Ames | ||
| Barton County | northeast of Great Bend | ||
| Boyle County | north-northwest of Danville | ||
| Avoyelles Parish | southeast of Marksville | ||
| Piscataquis County | north of Dover-Foxcroft | ||
| Prince George's County | northwest of Davidsonville | ||
| Worcester County | northwest of Worcester, in Rutland | ||
| Wexford County | north-northwest of Cadillac | ||
| Crow Wing County | southwest of Brainerd | ||
| Leake County | west-northwest of Carthage | ||
| Miller County | southwest of Jefferson City | ||
| Fergus County | west of Lewistown | ||
| Custer County | northwest of Broken Bow | ||
| Lander County | southeast of Austin | ||
| Belknap County | east of Ashland | ||
| Burlington County | southeast of Trenton | ||
| Torrance County | south-southwest of Willard | ||
 New York | Madison County | southwest of Utica, near Syracuse | |
| Chatham County | northwest of Sanford | ||
| Sheridan County | southwest of McClusky | ||
| Knox County | north-northeast of Columbus | ||
| Oklahoma County | north of Oklahoma City | ||
| Crook County | south-southeast of Prineville | ||
| Centre County | southwest of Bellefonte, in State College | ||
| Kent County | south-southwest of Crompton | ||
| Richland County | southeast of Columbia | ||
| Hughes County | northeast of Pierre | ||
| Rutherford County | northeast of Murfreesboro | ||
| McCulloch County | northeast of Brady | ||
| Sanpete County | north of Manti | ||
| Washington County | east of Roxbury | ||
| Buckingham County | southwest of Buckingham | ||
 Washington | Chelan County | west-southwest of Wenatchee | |
| Braxton County | east of Sutton | ||
| Wood County | southeast of Marshfield | ||
| Fremont County | east-northeast of Lander |
Updated 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 is given below. It was derived by minimizing the sum of squared great circle distances from all points of land in a state. It represents a slight improvement over the list originally publishedThe geographic center of the contiguous United States, determined in this way, is at ; this is 2.7 miles from Agra, Kansas, 4.7 miles from Kensington, Kansas, and 27.9 great circle miles west of the longstanding designated center of Lebanon, Kansas.
| State or federal district | Location | Coordinates |
| southwest of Clanton | ||
| northwest of Denali | ||
| east-southeast of Prescott | ||
| northwest of Little Rock | ||
| northeast of Madera | ||
| northwest of Pikes Peak | ||
| east of East Berlin | ||
| south of Dover | ||
| Near 3rd and P Streets, Northwest | ||
| northwest of Brooksville | ||
| Georgia | southeast of Macon | |
| off-shore south of Wailea-Makena | ||
| west-southwest of Challis | ||
| northeast of Springfield | ||
| northwest of Indianapolis | ||
| northeast of Ames | ||
| southeast of Bushton Bend | ||
| southwest of Lebanon | ||
| southeast of Marksville | ||
| northwest of Dover-Foxcroft | ||
| north of Bowie | ||
| Irving St. and Wellington St., Worcester | ||
| west of Cadillac | ||
| southwest of Brainerd | ||
| west-northwest of Carthage | ||
| southwest of Jefferson City | ||
| west of Lewistown | ||
| northwest of Broken Bow | ||
| southeast of Austin | ||
| east of Ashland | ||
| southeast of Trenton | ||
| south-southwest of Willard | ||
| New York | south-southeast of Oneida | |
| northwest of Sanford | ||
| southwest of McClusky | ||
| north-northeast of Columbus | ||
| south of Edmond | ||
| southeast of Prineville | ||
| southwest of Bellefonte, in State College | ||
| west of Crompton, in West Warwick | ||
| southeast of Columbia | ||
| northeast of Pierre | ||
| northeast of Murfreesboro | ||
| north of Brady | ||
| northwest of Manti | ||
| southeast of Roxbury | ||
| west of Buckingham | ||
| Washington | west-southwest of Wenatchee | |
| east-southeast of Sutton | ||
| east-southeast of Marshfield | ||
| east-northeast of Lander |
Geographic centers of the U.S. territories
Very little information exists about the geographic centers of the U.S. territories. In a geological survey of all geographic centers in the U.S., the U.S. Department of the Interior did not measure the geographic centers of the U.S. territories. Similarly, the USGS does not include the territories in its list of geographic centers. In terms of each territory’s land area, only one territory 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.| Territory | County- equivalent | Location | Coordinates |
| North of Manu’a District Eastern District | The geographic center of American Samoa’s exclusive economic zone is located in the Pacific Ocean, about 35.08 miles northeast of the island of Ta‘ū. The geographic center of Tutuila is about 1.03 miles southwest of Fagatogo. | | |
| Guam | The geographic center of Guam’s exclusive economic zone is in the Pacific Ocean, about 73.65 miles west-southwest of Cocos Island and 76.08 miles west-southwest of the main island of Guam. The exact geographic center of the main island of Guam is unknown — it is probably somewhere within the village of Chalan Pago-Ordot, because that is the default center starting point of Guam on Google Maps. | | |
| Northern Islands Municipality | The geographic center of the Northern Mariana Islands’ exclusive economic zone is in the Pacific Ocean, about 18.33 miles northeast of the island of Pagan. | ||
| Orocovis Municipality | The geographic center of Puerto Rico is in the Orocovis Municipality, about 2.58 miles west of the main town of Orocovis. | ||
| Between Saint Thomas and Saint Croix | The exact geographic center of the U.S. Virgin Islands is unknown — the default center starting point for the U.S. Virgin Islands on Google Maps is located in the Caribbean Sea, 18.21 miles south-southeast of Saint Thomas and 18.31 miles north of Saint Croix — note that this point is the approximate center of the 3 main islands, not the center of the exclusive economic zone | ||
 U.S. Minor Outlying Islands | There is no information about the geographic centers of the islands in the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands. |