Texas on the US map
268,596 sq mi · 2nd largest state · 25.84°–36.50° N · 93.51°–106.65° W
Texas occupies the south-central corner of the United States, wedged between four states and four Mexican states. It covers about seven percent of the country's land area and is the only state that touches both the Gulf of Mexico and a foreign country along more than a thousand miles of river.
Zoomed out one step from the usual statewide view so the neighboring states and northern Mexico are in frame.
Who Texas borders
| Neighbor | Which side | What forms the line |
|---|---|---|
| New Mexico | West and northwest | Two straight survey lines: the 103rd meridian along the Panhandle's western edge, and a north–south line west of the Pecos country. The Rio Grande takes over south of El Paso. |
| Oklahoma | North | The Red River across most of it, then the 36°30′ parallel along the top of the Panhandle and the 100th meridian on the Panhandle's eastern side. |
| Arkansas | Northeast | A short straight line at the 94°W meridian, the corner where Texarkana sits with a state line running down its main street. |
| Louisiana | East | The Sabine River, Toledo Bend Reservoir and Sabine Lake in the south, with a straight segment in the middle. |
| Mexico | Southwest and south | The Rio Grande for about 1,254 miles, from El Paso down through the Big Bend canyons to the Gulf. Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas face Texas across it. |
| Gulf of Mexico | Southeast | Roughly 367 miles of general coastline, far more when the bays and barrier islands are followed. |
The four corners of the state
| Extreme | Where | County |
|---|---|---|
| Northernmost point | The top of the Panhandle on the 36°30′ line, at the Oklahoma and New Mexico corner | Dallam |
| Southernmost point | The mouth of the Rio Grande at Boca Chica, below Brownsville | Cameron |
| Easternmost point | The Sabine River on the Louisiana line, east of Beaumont | Newton |
| Westernmost point | The Rio Grande west of El Paso, at the New Mexico–Chihuahua corner | El Paso |
The distance from the Dallam County corner to Boca Chica is about 801 miles, and from the Sabine to the Rio Grande at El Paso about 773. That is why the state runs on two clocks: everything is on Central Time except El Paso and Hudspeth counties, which keep Mountain Time with the rest of the Southwest. The geographic center of the state is near Brady, in McCulloch County, roughly in the middle of the Edwards Plateau.
Driving out of Texas
| From | To | Road miles | Route |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dallas | Oklahoma City, OK | 205 | I-35 N |
| Dallas | Little Rock, AR | 320 | I-30 E |
| Dallas | Memphis, TN | 450 | I-30 / I-40 E |
| Houston | New Orleans, LA | 350 | I-10 E |
| Amarillo | Denver, CO | 430 | US-87 / I-25 N |
| El Paso | Albuquerque, NM | 265 | I-10 / I-25 N |
| El Paso | Phoenix, AZ | 430 | I-10 W |
| El Paso | Los Angeles, CA | 800 | I-10 W |
| San Antonio | Monterrey, Mexico | 300 | I-35 S through Laredo |
Scale, and what it does to travel
Alaska is the only state larger than Texas, at more than twice the area, but Texas is bigger than every other one — and larger than France. The practical effect is that crossing your own state can take longer than leaving it. Driving I-10 from El Paso to the Louisiana line is close to 880 miles and takes more than twelve hours; from El Paso it is a shorter drive to San Diego on the Pacific than to Beaumont on the Gulf. El Paso is closer to Santa Fe and to Phoenix than it is to its own state capital.
The U.S. Census Bureau files Texas in the South region, West South Central division, alongside Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. Culturally the state straddles more than that: the Piney Woods in the east belong to the Deep South, the Panhandle to the Great Plains, and the Trans-Pecos to the desert Southwest. That split is visible on any national rainfall map, which shows the 20-inch line running north to south straight through the middle of the state.
Texas has 38 seats in the U.S. House and 40 electoral votes, second only to California. It was an independent republic from 1836 until annexation in 1845 — see the Republic of Texas map for the borders it claimed then, which reached far up into what is now Colorado and Wyoming.