State Finder
Enter latitude and longitude, search for an address, or click anywhere on the map, and this tool tells you which state, province, or first-level administrative region that point falls in. Every lookup is performed live against OpenStreetMap's Nominatim geocoding service — nothing is precomputed or cached, so results reflect the current state of OpenStreetMap data.
Results depend entirely on the completeness of OpenStreetMap's administrative boundaries. Most countries return a state or province; in some regions only a county, region, or country is available. Boundaries also change over time, so a result that looks surprising is worth checking against the current official boundary.
Or click anywhere on the map to reverse-geocode it:
Data comes live from Nominatim (OpenStreetMap). Results depend on the completeness of OpenStreetMap's administrative boundaries — some regions have no state-level data, and boundaries change over time.
How to use this tool
Type latitude and longitude into the two fields, or use the address search box to find a place by name.
Click "Find state / province", pick one of the address results, or click directly on the map — each triggers a live reverse-geocode request.
The state or province name, country, full address, and coordinates appear above a map pin showing the exact point you queried.
What people use this tool for
Field teams and surveyors drop raw coordinates into the tool to attach the correct state or province to their records.
Writers and researchers verify which state a town, landmark, or event location belongs to before publishing.
Students click around the map to see how first-level divisions are named across different countries.
How it's calculated
The widget sends a live request to Nominatim's reverse endpoint with the chosen latitude and longitude and reads the returned address object. It displays address.state first, falling back to county or region when no state is present, plus address.country and the full display_name. OpenStreetMap boundary data is community-maintained, so coverage varies by region and boundaries change over time.
Related tools and resources
Frequently asked questions
Does State Finder work outside the US?
Yes. It returns the first-level administrative division wherever OpenStreetMap has boundary data — provinces in Canada, departments in France, prefectures in Japan, and so on.
Why did it return a county instead of a state?
Some OpenStreetMap entries have no state-level field, so the tool falls back to the county or region field. In those cases the fallback name is shown with a note that no state-level data exists.
Can I click on the map instead of typing coordinates?
Yes. Every click on the map triggers a live reverse-geocode of that point, fills in the coordinate fields, and drops a marker on the result.
Is there a usage limit?
Nominatim is a free service with a fair-use policy. This tool only queries it when you click, search, or type coordinates — it never sends requests in the background.
Data sources & methodology
- Nominatim — Live reverse-geocoding service used for every lookup.
- OpenStreetMap — Map tiles and the community-maintained administrative boundary data.