This list ranks U. S. cities by land area (not including bodies of water). Total areas including water are also given, but note that, when ranked by total area, a number of coastal cities appear disproportionately larger. San Francisco is an extreme example: water makes up nearly 80% of its total area of 232 square miles (601 km²). Note also that in many cases a city may be geographically large primarily because its municipal government has merged with the government of the surrounding county. In some cases the county no longer exists, while in others the arrangement has formed a Consolidated city–county (or city-borough in Alaska, or city-parish in Louisiana); these are shown in bold. Cities that are not consolidated with or part of any county are independent cities, indicated thus **.