List of geographic centers of the United States

This is a list of geographic centers of each U.S. state and inhabited territory. The geographic center of the United 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 placed it near the town of Center, North Dakota.https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-calculations-reposition-geographical-center-north-america-1-180961932/ Smithsonian.com. New Calculations Reposition the Geographical Center of North America. Jason Daley. January 30, 2017. Retrieved June 2019.

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 (USGS) in the early 1920s.Douglas, E.M. 1923. Boundaries, Areas, Geographic Centers, and Altitudes of the United States and Several States. Bulletin 689. U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, DC. 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.Adams, Oscar, S. 1932. Geographical Centers. The Military Engineer 24, 138: 586-587. The result is dependent upon the type of projection used.

+ Geographic centers of the states of the United States and the District of Columbia State orfederal district County Location Coordinates Chilton County Clanton Yukon–Koyukuk Census Area Tanana Yavapai County Camp Verde Saline County Bryant 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 A marker, dated 1981, at a nearby road intersection states: "The Geologic Survey Branch of the Department of Natural Resources determined the central point to be at latitude 32° 38' 46" N., longitude 83° 25' 54" W." 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 98° 41' 54" W, 38° 29' 54" N Marion County north-northwest of Lebanon 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, southwest of Centerburg 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

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."Van Zandt, Franklin. 1966. Boundaries of the United States and the Several States. Bulletin 1212. U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, DC. An updated list of geographic centers using this definition (which is equivalent to the state's centroid) 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.Rogerson, P. 2015. A New Method for Finding Geographic Centers, with Application to the U.S. States. The Professional Geographer. Published online Aug 15, 2015; DOI:10.1080/00330124.2015.1062707 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00330124.2015.1062707#.Vd30QflVhBc Retrieved 2015-08-26

The geographic center of the contiguous United States, determined in this way, is at ; this is from Agra, Kansas, from Kensington, Kansas, and 26.9 great circle miles (43.3 km) west of the longstanding designated site near Lebanon, Kansas.

+ Updated geographic centers of the states of the United States and the District of Columbia State orfederal district Location Coordinates east of Maplesville northwest of Denali east-southeast of Prescott northwest of Little Rock northeast of Madera northwest of Pikes Peak east of East Berlin south of DoverNear 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 southwest of Lebanon southeast of Marksville north of Dover-Foxcroft north of BowieIrving 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.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, 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 (not land area).

+ Geographic centers of the U.S. territories Territory County-equivalent Location Coordinates North of Manu’a District (EEZ)Eastern District (Tutuila center) The geographic center of American Samoa’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is located in the Pacific Ocean, about 35.08 miles (56.45 km) northeast of the island of Ta‘ū.http://www.marineregions.org/gazetteer.php?p=details&id=8444 Marineregions.org. Marine Gazetteer Placedetails — American Samoa Exclusive Economic Zone. Retrieved July 3, 2019.The geographic center of Tutuila (the main island) is about 1.03 miles (1.65 km) southwest of Fagatogo.https://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/oceania/as.htm Worldatlas.com. American Samoa. Retrieved July 3, 2019. (EEZ center) (Tutuila center) Guam The geographic center of Guam’s exclusive economic zone is in the Pacific Ocean, about 73.65 miles (118.53 km) west-southwest of Cocos Island and 76.08 miles (122.45 km) west-southwest of the main island of Guam.http://www.marineregions.org/gazetteer.php?p=details&id=48957 Marineregions.org. Marine Gazetteer Placedetails. Guam Exclusive Economic Zone. Retrieved June 2019.The exact geographic center of the main island of Guam is unknownhttps://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/oceania/gu.htm Worldatlas.com. Guam. Retrieved July 3, 2019. — it is probably somewhere within the village of Chalan Pago-Ordot, because that is the default center starting point of Guam on Google Maps.https://www.google.com/maps/place/Guam https://www.google.com/maps/place/USVI Google Mpas — Guam / U.S. Virgin Islands. Retrieved July 3, 2019. (Center of EEZ) (Chalan Pago-Ordot) Northern Islands Municipality The geographic center of the Northern Mariana Islands’ exclusive economic zone is in the Pacific Ocean, about 18.33 miles (29.50 km) northeast of the island of Pagan.http://www.marineregions.org/gazetteer.php?p=details&id=48980 Marineregions.org. Marine Gazetteer Placedetails — Northern Mariana Islands Exclusive Economic Zone. Retrieved June 2019. (EEZ center) Orocovis Municipality The geographic center of Puerto Rico is in the Orocovis Municipality, about 2.58 miles (4.15 km) west of the main town of Orocovis.http://disfrutaorocovis.com/en/historic-sites-2/geographic-center-of-puerto-rico Disfruta Orocovis. Geographic Center of Puerto Rico. Retrieved June 2019. Between Saint Thomasand 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 (29.30 km) south-southeast of Saint Thomas and 18.31 miles (29.47 km) 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 (or the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands as a whole).

List of geographic centers of the United States

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