Geographic contiguity is the characteristic ingeography of political or geographical land divisions, as a group, not being interrupted by other land or water. Such divisions are referred to as beingcontiguous. In theUnited States, for example, the "48 contiguous states" excludesHawaii andAlaska, which do not share borders with otherU.S. states.^[1]

Other examples of geographical contiguity might include the "contiguousEuropean Union" excluding member states such as Ireland, Sweden, Finland (betweenÅland andTurku Archipelago), Malta and Cyprus (these being non-contiguous), or the "contiguous United Kingdom" referring to all parts of the country exceptingNorthern Ireland (it being geographically non-contiguous).

Two or more contiguousmunicipalities can be consolidated into one, or one municipality can consist of many noncontiguous elements. For example, theFinancially Distressed Municipalities Act allows the commonwealth ofPennsylvania to merge contiguous municipalities to reducefinancial distress.

Geographic contiguity is important inbiology, especiallyanimal ranges. For a particular species, its habitat may be a 'contiguous range', or it might be broken, requiring periodic, typically seasonal migrations (see:Disjunct distribution). The same concept of contiguous range is true for human transportation studies in an attempt to understand census geography.^[2] It also comes into play with electoral geography and politics.^[3]

In United Statesreal property andmineral rights law, touching of two tracts at a common corner (ascheckerboarded land) is generally consideredcontiguous.^[4]