All 50 US States on the Map – Region by Region

The US States quiz is the most played sub-national quiz on the site, and for good reason: fifty states is enough to be a real challenge, but they fall into clear regional blocks that make them learnable in a week. This guide walks through the map region by region, with the ordering tricks that stick.

Start with the frame

Four corners anchor everything else:

• Washington – top left (north-west corner).
• Maine – top right (north-east corner, the one that sticks up next to Canada).
• Florida – bottom right (the peninsula).
• California – bottom left (the long Pacific coast).

Plus two that aren't on the main map: Alaska (north-west of Canada, huge) and Hawaii (islands far out in the Pacific). In the quiz they're shown as insets.

The West Coast – three in a column

North to south along the Pacific: Washington, Oregon, California. Hook: WOC – the three coast states going down.

The Mountain West

East of the coast states, two columns.

Inner column, north to south: Idaho (the one with the panhandle poking up to Canada), Nevada (the wedge against California), Arizona (south-west corner, touching Mexico).

Next column east, north to south: Montana (big, top), Wyoming (the rectangle), Colorado (the other rectangle), New Mexico (bottom, touching Mexico).

Hook for the two rectangles: Wyoming is on top, Colorado below – W before C? No – think "Wyoming is Wyoming-high" (further north). Colorado is the one with the sharper, more perfect rectangle shape.

Utah is tucked between Nevada and Colorado, with a notch cut out of its top-right corner where Wyoming intrudes.

Four Corners: Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico meet at a single point – the only place in the US where four states touch.

The Great Plains – the vertical stack

A column of six states running down the middle of the country from Canada to Mexico:

North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas.

Hook: North and South Dakota are obvious. Then Nebraska (N), Kansas (K), Oklahoma (O), Texas (T) – "NKOT", or just remember Oklahoma is the one with the panhandle sticking west on top of Texas.

The Upper Midwest

Minnesota – top, east of North Dakota, touching Canada. Wisconsin – east of Minnesota, between Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. Michigan – the mitten (lower peninsula) plus the upper peninsula above Wisconsin. Iowa – south of Minnesota, between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Illinois – south of Wisconsin, east of Iowa. The long state with Chicago at its top-right corner.

Hook: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan across the top; Iowa and Illinois underneath.

The Midwest heartland

Three states in a row east of Illinois, each smaller than the last:

Indiana, Ohio – then Pennsylvania starts the East.

Missouri sits south of Iowa, west of Illinois. Kentucky is the one shaped like a drumstick, south of Ohio and Indiana. Tennessee is the parallelogram directly below Kentucky, the same width.

Hook: Kentucky and Tennessee are a matched pair – same shape, Kentucky on top.

The South

West to east along the Gulf of Mexico: Texas, Louisiana (the boot), Mississippi, Alabama (two tall rectangles side by side), Florida.

Hook for Mississippi/Alabama: Alphabetical, west to east – Mississippi first, Alabama second? No – Mississippi is WEST, Alabama is EAST. "The Mississippi river is on Mississippi's west edge."

Above them: Arkansas (above Louisiana), Georgia (above Florida, east of Alabama), South Carolina and North Carolina stacked up the Atlantic coast, then Virginia.

The Appalachian middle

West Virginia – the odd-shaped one between Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky. Virginia – east of it, on the coast.

Hook: West Virginia is west of Virginia. Obvious, but people forget it exists.

The Northeast – the small ones

This is where most mistakes happen. Learn them as a chain going north-east from Pennsylvania:

Pennsylvania – the big rectangle. New York – above and east of it, the one that reaches up to the Great Lakes and Canada. New Jersey – the small one hanging off the east of Pennsylvania, south of New York. Delaware – tiny, south of New Jersey, on the peninsula. Maryland – wraps around Delaware, with the Chesapeake Bay cutting into it.

Then New England, the six states in the top-right corner:

Connecticut – bottom left of the group, east of New York. Rhode Island – smallest state, east of Connecticut. Massachusetts – above both, the one with the hook (Cape Cod). Vermont – above Massachusetts on the left (west). New Hampshire – above Massachusetts on the right (east). Maine – the big one in the far top-right.

Hook for Vermont/New Hampshire: Vermont is on the left – "V" comes before "N-H" alphabetically, and west comes before east. Both are tall triangles that fit together.

Full practice sequence

1. Play the US States quiz once for a baseline.
2. Learn the frame (4 corners + Alaska and Hawaii).
3. Learn the West Coast and Mountain West columns.
4. Learn the Great Plains stack.
5. Learn the Midwest and South.
6. Spend an extra day on the Northeast.
7. Play US States daily until clean. Most people are at 50/50 within a week.

Common mistakes

• Swapping Mississippi and Alabama.
• Swapping Vermont and New Hampshire.
• Swapping Wyoming and Colorado.
• Putting Iowa where Missouri is (Iowa is north).
• Forgetting that Michigan's upper peninsula is Michigan, not Wisconsin.
• Missing Delaware entirely.

When you've got all 50, the Canadian Provinces (13) and Mexican States (32) quizzes complete the continent.