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Federal lands are areas owned by the residents of the U.S. They are held in public trust and operated by the federal government.
The federal government controls about 640 mln acres of area in the U.S., about 28 percent of the total land area of 2.27 bln acres. The bulk of federal lands (610.1 mln acres) are managed by the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, or National Park and Forest Services. An additional 11.4 mln acres of land (~2 percent of all federal land) is held by the U.S. Department of Defense.
National parks (52 mln acres) compose less than 10 percent of federal land holdings (640 mln acres). Large national parks and forests are primarily located in the west of the country.
The map below shows the portion of each U.S. state that is federal land.
Federal Land Ownership percent State
Nevada comes in at 1st with 84.9% federally owned land. There are several U.S. states with 0.3%, such as New York and Connecticut, on the east coast.