How big is upstate New York?

Upstate New York is almost the entire land area of New York State, which is around 54,000 square miles. This makes it just larger than North Carolina and Virginia.

Depending on who is asked, Upstate New York is either all of New York State aside from New York City itself or the entire state aside from the New York City Metropolitan Area. Either way, it is well over 90 percent of the land area of the state. With that said, Upstate New York only contains 11 million of the 19 million people who live New York State. It is a much more rural area than the downstate metropolitan area and has a much lower population density.