The USA has five main geographical area: the Northeast, the Southeast, Central, the Southwest and the West. Together they make up the mainland, or continental, USA, with its forty-eight states. In 1959, Alaska and Hawaii joined the USA as its 49th and 50th states. These two states are not joined to the rest of the USA. Alaska, the largest state , is in the far northwest of North America, North of Canada. Hawaii is a group of volcanic islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, west of California.