Continental United States

United States map. Alaska (on a smaller scale) and Hawaii (true to scale) are shown in the excerpts at the bottom left .

Continental United States (literally "continental United States") refers to the entirety of the 49 US states that are located on the North American continent , including or plus the District of Columbia , ie the federal district in the capital Washington, which is not part of any state. The only state not included is Hawaii , which is part of Oceania , and neither are the American overseas territories .

The term is to be distinguished from that of the Conterminous United States (also Coterminous United States ), alternatively also Contiguous United States , ("United States adjacent to each other"). These denote the entirety of the 48 contiguous states, i.e. not separated from each other by oceans or international borders, and consequently excludes Alaska as well as Hawaii .

These definitions were also officially standardized by a statement of the United States Board on Geographic Names issued on May 14, 1959 in the course of the Alaska Omnibus Bill and last confirmed on May 13, 1999 .

Web links

• What constitutes the United States? What are the official definitions? - information on the website of the United States Geological Survey (English)