Nebraska map

Where Nebraska is

Nebraska sits in the center of the Great Plains, between the 40th and 43rd parallels. It measures about 430 miles east to west and about 210 miles north to south, with a Panhandle in the west that reaches north to the 43rd parallel. Clockwise from the north: South Dakota (43rd parallel in the west, then the Missouri River), Iowa and Missouri across the Missouri River to the east, Kansas along the 40th parallel to the south, Colorado to the southwest (a corner cut into the Panhandle), and Wyoming to the west along 104°W. It is the 16th-largest state by area and 37th by population.

Major cities

Nearly 40 percent of Nebraskans live in Douglas, Sarpy and Lancaster counties, the Omaha–Lincoln corridor in the southeast. West of Grand Island, most counties have fewer than 10,000 people.

Geography

• Highest point — Panorama Point, about 5,424 ft, in the far southwest corner of the Panhandle near the Colorado and Wyoming lines. It is a gentle rise, not a peak.
• Platte River — the state's central artery, formed where the North Platte and South Platte meet at North Platte; it flows east to the Missouri south of Omaha. Interstate 80 follows it.
• Missouri River — the entire eastern border. See the Missouri River map.
• Sandhills — grass-stabilized dunes covering roughly a quarter of the state in the north-central region, the largest dune field in the Western Hemisphere.
• Ogallala Aquifer — the largest share of this High Plains groundwater body lies under Nebraska.
• Time zones — the eastern two-thirds is Central; the Panhandle and a band of west-central counties are Mountain. Lowest point about 840 ft where the Missouri leaves the state at the southeast corner.

Borders

The Missouri River forms the whole eastern border with Iowa and Missouri and the eastern part of the northern border with South Dakota. Every other line is surveyed: the 40th parallel with Kansas, the 43rd parallel with South Dakota west of the river, 104°W with Wyoming, and the notch with Colorado along 41°N and 102°W. Because the Missouri has shifted channel since the 1860s surveys, Carter Lake, Iowa, now sits on the Nebraska side of the river inside Omaha.

Regions of Nebraska

The eastern lowlands along the Missouri (Omaha, Lincoln), the Platte Valley through the center, the Sandhills in the north-central plains, the Republican River valley in the south, and the Panhandle west of about 101°W with Scottsbluff and the Wildcat Hills. The Pine Ridge escarpment in the northwest is the only forested upland.

Related maps

• Nebraska county map — all 93 counties with seats.
• Blank Nebraska map — outline for printing.
• Printable Nebraska map.
• Lincoln — the capital, 50 miles southwest of Omaha.
• Neighbors: South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming.
• Midwest, Great Plains, Central Time Zone, Mountain Time Zone.
• Geography: Great Plains, Missouri River, state high points.