How Much Land Does the US Own in Other Countries?

The U.S. government doesn’t truly own much land in other countries, but it controls a great deal of it. The Department of Defense holds roughly 758,000 acres across about 549 overseas military sites, the State Department manages more than 25,000 diplomatic properties across 288 locations, and the American Battle Monuments Commission maintains 26 permanent military cemeteries on land granted in perpetuity by host nations.¹²³ Almost none of this is owned the way you own a house. Most of it is held through leases, treaties, and status-of-forces agreements that can be renegotiated or ended.

Why Ownership Is the Wrong Frame

When the U.S. holds land abroad, it almost always does so through a legal arrangement with the host country rather than an outright purchase. Long-term leases give extensive control without transferring title. Treaties grant perpetual use for specific purposes like defense or memorials. Status of Forces Agreements set the legal framework for U.S. personnel and facilities in a host nation, covering criminal jurisdiction, taxes, and entry rules, but they convey no property rights.⁴ Even where the U.S. holds a deed to a building, the land sits within the host country’s sovereign territory.

Control and ownership are different things. The U.S. exercises daily authority over hundreds of installations worldwide, yet the host nation retains sovereignty over the ground beneath them. If the bilateral agreement expires or is terminated, the land reverts to full host-nation control.

Military Installations Are the Biggest Piece

The Pentagon’s overseas real property portfolio is by far the largest category. The FY 2025 Base Structure Report, using data through September 2024, lists 549 overseas sites totaling about 758,000 acres in foreign countries.¹ That’s roughly the size of Rhode Island.

Japan, Germany, and South Korea host the heaviest concentrations. Japan alone has around 120 active U.S. installations, Germany about 119, and South Korea more than 70. Some individual bases are enormous. Camp Humphreys in South Korea covers around 3,450 acres, and Ramstein Air Base in Germany spans roughly 3,000 acres. The network also includes hundreds of smaller sites, including radar stations, fuel depots, and communications facilities, that add up.

Most of these installations sit on land owned by the host nation. The U.S. military is present by invitation, formalized through defense treaties and Status of Forces Agreements. The NATO SOFA, originally signed in 1951, is the backbone agreement for U.S. forces across Europe. It covers legal status, criminal jurisdiction, tax exemptions, driving privileges, and the movement of personnel and dependents.⁴ Country-specific bilateral agreements fill in the terms for particular sites.

Guantanamo Bay Is the Unusual One

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba stands apart. Under a 1903 lease agreement, Cuba granted the United States use of roughly 45 square miles of land and water for “coaling and naval stations.”⁵ The annual rent was originally $2,000 in U.S. gold coin, later adjusted to about $4,085 under a 1934 treaty. Cuba’s government has refused to cash the checks since the 1959 revolution. The lease has no expiration date and continues as long as the U.S. uses the land for its stated purpose, giving Washington indefinite control without ownership of the territory.

Diplomatic Properties Around the World

The State Department’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations manages more than 25,000 properties across 288 locations worldwide, supporting over 100,000 personnel from roughly 30 U.S. government agencies.² The portfolio includes embassy compounds, consulates, ambassador residences, staff housing, and support buildings.

About three-quarters of these properties are leased rather than federally owned. The State Department has said it wants to raise the ownership share for residential properties from about 15 percent to 40 percent over time.⁶ The leasing bill alone is substantial. The FY 2026 budget request includes $843.1 million for overseas lease payments.⁷

Embassies Are Not American Soil

A common misconception treats U.S. embassies as U.S. territory. They aren’t. Under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961, the premises of a diplomatic mission are inviolable, meaning the host country’s agents cannot enter without the consent of the head of mission.⁸ That protection is powerful, but it is a privilege granted under international law, not a transfer of sovereignty. The ground under a U.S. embassy in Paris is still French territory. If the mission closes, the inviolability ends with it.

The Vienna Convention also requires host countries to help sending states obtain the premises they need for their missions.⁹

Military Cemeteries Held in Perpetuity

The American Battle Monuments Commission administers 26 permanent military cemeteries and 30 federal memorials, monuments, and markers spread across 17 foreign countries, plus the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Gibraltar.³ The largest concentrations are in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, and the Philippines.

The ABMC’s holdings are the most secure the U.S. has abroad. The cemetery grounds are not American territory, but their use is granted to the United States in perpetuity, free of any taxes, fees, or other charges, through treaties with each host nation.¹⁰ A host nation would have to break a bilateral treaty to reclaim the land. Total acreage across all 26 sites is not published as a single figure, though individual sites range from small memorial plots to the 172-acre Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

Why There’s No Single Total

The federal government does keep a centralized inventory. The General Services Administration’s Federal Real Property Profile Management System collects data on executive branch real property both within and outside the United States, and agencies must submit year-end inventories by December 15 each year.¹¹ The system has a significant carve-out, though: assets can be excluded “when otherwise required for reasons of national security.” That likely covers a meaningful share of the overseas portfolio.

The fragmentation of these arrangements also makes any total awkward. The DoD’s 758,000 overseas acres are tracked in the Base Structure Report.¹ The State Department’s 25,000-plus properties are counted by property units rather than acreage.² The ABMC’s cemeteries are tracked separately. Other agencies with overseas facilities, from the Department of Energy to NASA, keep their own records. No single public report rolls these into one number, and the mix of owned, leased, and treaty-granted land makes any aggregate a blend of fundamentally different legal relationships.

The best rough answer: the U.S. government controls well over 750,000 acres of foreign land through military installations, holds more than 25,000 diplomatic properties worldwide, and maintains 26 permanent cemeteries on land granted in perpetuity. The true total is larger, but how much larger depends on what counts as “U.S. land.”

1
Department of Defense. Base Structure Report FY2025 Baseline
2
Department of State. Functional Bureau Strategy – Overseas Buildings Operations
3
American Battle Monuments Commission. Burial and Memorialization Statistics
4
The United States Army. Status of Forces Agreement: What is it and who is eligible
5
Yale Law School. Agreement Between the United States and Cuba for the Lease of Certain Areas of Land
6
U.S. Government Accountability Office. GAO-14-769, Overseas Real Property
7
Department of State. Embassy Security, Construction, and Maintenance – Operations
8
United Nations. Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961 – Section: Article 22
9
United Nations. Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961 – Section: Article 21
10
American Battle Monuments Commission. FAQs – Section: Questions about ABMC History and its Burial Policies
11
GSA. FRPP Frequently Asked Questions