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River

Mississippi River

3,766 km from source to mouth · United States.

United StatesUnited StatesFlows into Gulf of Mexico1st longest in United States

Follow the riverMonth by month

SourceMouthMemphisMinneapolisSt. Louis
The river and every tributary in its basin, drawn from RiverATLAS (CC BY 4.0).

In numbers

Length

3,766km

Average flow

12,700m³/s

Basin

2,981,000km²

Drop

448m

from 444 m to -4 m

Country

1

The journey

From source to mouth

3,766 km of river and 68 stops on the way: 23 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

444 m-4 m
Minneapolis429,954 people584 km
Saint Paul311,527 people607 km
Rock Island37,108 people1,167 km
Davenport101,724 people1,169 km
St. Louis301,578 people1,657 km
Cape Girardeau39,540 people1,860 km
Memphis633,104 people2,288 km
Greenville29,670 people2,599 km
Vicksburg21,573 people2,763 km
Baton Rouge227,470 people3,095 km
New Orleans383,997 people3,308 km
01,0002,0003,0003,766 km
  1. 0 kmLake Itascaat 444 m
  2. 0 kmHall Lake1.1 km²
  3. 2 kmLake Itasca4.0 km²
  4. 11 kmMallard Lake0.4 km²
  5. 11 kmRobinson Lake0.3 km²
  6. 18 kmLaSalle Lake0.9 km²
  7. 39 kmBootleg Lake0.8 km²
  8. 42 kmFern Lake0.7 km²
  9. 50 kmLake Marquette1.8 km²
  10. 53 kmLake Irving2.3 km²
  11. 58 kmLake Bemidji26 km²
  12. 71 kmSwenson Lake1.5 km²
  13. 77 kmAndrusia Lake6.2 km²
  14. 81 kmLost Lake0.5 km²
  15. 89 kmCass Lake77 km²
  16. 127 kmLake Winnibigoshish248 km²
  17. 130 kmLittle Winnibigoshish Lake4.0 km²
  18. 152 kmBall Club Lake17 km²
  19. 166 kmLittle White Oak Lake2.0 km²
  20. 174 kmSkunk Lake0.6 km²
  21. 181 kmLittle Rice Lake0.5 km²
  22. 188 kmBass Lake11 km²
  23. 194 kmHale Lake0.5 km²
  24. 195 kmMcKinney Lake0.4 km²
  25. 196 kmPaper Mill Reservoir1.8 km²
  26. 216 kmLittle Cow Horn Lake0.6 km²
  27. 242 kmBall Bluff Lake0.8 km²
  28. 260 kmBig Sandy Lake30 km²
  29. 327 kmRabbit Lake4.5 km²
  30. 334 kmFool Lake0.9 km²
  31. 337 kmColes Lake0.5 km²
  32. 342 kmLower Mission Lake6.1 km²
  33. 346 kmFawn Lake0.4 km²
  34. 353 kmHorseshoe Lake0.3 km²
  35. 355 kmCampbell Lake0.3 km²
  36. 357 kmTamarack Lake0.3 km²
  37. 363 kmGreen Lake8.9 km²
  38. 364 kmGilbert Lake1.1 km²
  39. 378 kmHardy Lake0.4 km²
  40. 457 kmLittle Rock Lake5.2 km²
  41. 474 kmSt. Cloud68,881 people
  42. 491 kmClear Lake0.4 km²
  43. 499 kmRice Lake0.3 km²
  44. 556 kmHayden Lake0.3 km²
  45. 569 kmCoon Rapids63,599 people
  46. 584 kmMinneapolis429,954 people
  47. 585 kmSaint Anthony Falls
  48. 595 kmMinnehaha Falls
  49. 596 kmHidden Falls
  50. 607 kmSaint Paul311,527 people
  51. 782 kmWinona25,948 people
  52. 826 kmLa Crosse52,680 people
  53. 1,013 kmDubuque59,667 people
  54. 1,161 kmMoline42,985 people
  55. 1,167 kmRock Island37,108 people
  56. 1,169 kmDavenport101,724 people
  57. 1,294 kmBurlington23,982 people
  58. 1,419 kmQuincy39,463 people
  59. 1,619 kmAlton25,676 people
  60. 1,657 kmSt. Louis301,578 people
  61. 1,860 kmCape Girardeau39,540 people
  62. 2,288 kmMemphis633,104 people
  63. 2,599 kmGreenville29,670 people
  64. 2,763 kmVicksburg21,573 people
  65. 3,095 kmBaton Rouge227,470 people
  66. 3,278 kmKenner66,448 people
  67. 3,292 kmMetairie143,507 people
  68. 3,292 kmMetairie Terrace142,489 people
  69. 3,308 kmNew Orleans383,997 people
  70. 3,766 kmGulf of Mexicoat -4 m

Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.

Primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States

At the mouth it carries 12,743 m³/s on average: 5.1 Olympic pools every second. It drops from 444 m to -4 m, 0.1 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 2,981,000 km², about the size of AR. 78.6 million people live in it. Highest water: March and May. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (48% of a year's flow).

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

  • MemphisLargest city on its banks · 633,104 people
  • Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 13 km from the cityCar hire at MEM airport (Memphis)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
  • On the water794 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
  • Kayak and canoe10 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
  • From May to June and from August to OctoberThe best months to visit

Mississippi River, month by month

Highest water: March and May

Best months to visit: from May to June and from August to October.

11,700
-2°68 mmJan
22,700
0°69 mmFeb
30,500
6°91 mmMar
30,100
13°97 mmApr
37,500
18°109 mmMay
28,000
23°104 mmJun
21,100
25°110 mmJul
17,800
24°99 mmAug
16,400
20°94 mmSep
15,000
14°73 mmOct
17,600
7°82 mmNov
22,800
0°84 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 11,700 m³/s in the lowest month to 37,500 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.

Plan the trip

Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car

Car hire at MEM airport (Memphis)Discover CarsSee 

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

The basin

Mississippi River: the basin in numbers

3,179,496 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Heavily regulatedReservoirs can hold 48% of a year's flow: dams shape its seasons.
  • 78.6millionpeople live in the basin
  • 25/km²people per km²
  • 663maverage altitude of the basin
  • 781mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 10.1°Caverage air temperature
  • 3%protected areas
  • 0.9%covered by lakes
  • 328km³held in reservoirs

What covers the basin

  • 27% Forest
  • 38% Cropland
  • 27% Pasture
  • 2% Towns and cities

RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.

Along the river

Mississippi River: what you find on the way

  • 290DamsLake Bemidji Dam, Knutson Dam, Winnibigoshish Dam and 287 more
  • 42WeirsRum River Dam, Saint Anthony Falls Upper Dam, Saint Anthony Falls and 39 more
  • 90LocksMississippi River, Lock and Dam 1, Lock and Dam 3 and 87 more
  • 24WaterfallsShingle Creek Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, Shadow Falls and 21 more
  • 8RapidsWalnut Eddy, Shelf, Cascade and 5 more
  • 2Canoe put-insRivers Edge Plaza, Catsh Creek Canoe Launch
  • 593Boat rampsGulsvig Landing, Coffee Pot Landing, Lee Ferry Access and 590 more
  • 45Ferry piersTurkey River, Cassville, Riverbend Commons Ferry Terminal and 42 more
  • 148MarinasWatergate Marina, Twin City Marina, Captains Bay Marina (Hub's) and 145 more
  • 8Boat rentalsBoathouse, Paddle Hoppers, Mississippi River Paddle Share and 5 more
  • 27River beachesSouth Shore Beach, Diamond Point Beach, Tioga Beach and Picnic Area and 24 more

From OpenStreetMap, within 3.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Mississippi River in our other atlases

What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.

  • 3waterfalls on the riverCascadyas
  • 79lakes on its wayLakeyas
  • 1mountain at the sourcePeakyas

Waterfalls (3)

On the river, by Cascadyas

  1. Saint Anthony Fallskm 565
  2. Minnehaha Fallskm 574
  3. Hidden Fallskm 575

Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗

Lakes and reservoirs (79)

Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas

  1. Lake Itascakm 2 · 11 m deep4.0km²
  2. Lake Bemidjikm 5626km²
  3. Cass Lakekm 8677km²
  4. Lake Winnibigoshishkm 123248km²
  5. Ball Club Lakekm 14617km²
  6. Big Sandy Lakekm 25130km²
  7. Tunica Lakekm 2,30011km²
  8. Lake Bruinkm 2,73310.0km²

71 more on LakeyasLakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

Mountains at the source (1)

Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas

  1. Anchor Hill9.6 km away

Open Peakyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Mississippi River: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Mississippi River: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth240 km across

Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.

Photos

Mississippi River in pictures

Dubois n Mississippi River P7280468 Missouri n Mississippi River
Chris Light · CC BY-SA 4.0
First Bridge over the Mississippi River
Ganesha811 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Mississippi Headwaters at Lake Itasca
Greg Gjerdingen · CC BY 2.0
Mississippi River from Eunice, Arkansas
Magnolia677 · CC BY 4.0

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

Tributaries (116)

Missouri RiverUnited StatesUnited States3,726 km2,500 m³/sjoins at km 1,575Arkansas RiverUnited StatesUnited States2,364 km240 m³/sjoins at km 2,448Ohio RiverUnited StatesUnited States1,579 km8,000 m³/sjoins at km 1,879White RiverUnited StatesUnited States1,162 km740 m³/sjoins at km 2,418Des Moines RiverUnited StatesUnited States845 km250 m³/sjoins at km 1,318Wisconsin RiverUnited StatesUnited States692 km340 m³/sjoins at km 900St. Francis RiverUnited StatesUnited States686 km400 m³/sjoins at km 2,305Minnesota RiverUnited StatesUnited States534 km120 m³/sjoins at km 581Iowa RiverUnited StatesUnited States520 km280 m³/sjoins at km 1,203Rock RiverUnited StatesUnited States459 km190 m³/sjoins at km 1,133Illinois RiverUnited StatesUnited States432 km660 m³/sjoins at km 1,538

Also: Yazoo River, Big Black River, Saint Croix River, Kaskaskia River, Chippewa River, Black River, Wolf River, Apple River, Big Muddy River, Crow Wing River, Maquoketa River, Turkey River, Meramec River, Galena River, Wapsipinicon River, Crow River, Minnehaha Creek, Elk River, Bayou Pierre, Hatchie River, Skunk River, Trempealeau River, Upper Iowa River, Vermillion River

In the same basin

Tennessee RiverUnited StatesUnited States1,049 km2,000 m³/sRed RiverUnited StatesUnited States2,189 km1,900 m³/sYellowstone RiverUnited StatesUnited States1,114 km390 m³/sPlatte RiverUnited StatesUnited States500 km200 m³/sCanadian RiverUnited StatesUnited States1,458 km200 m³/sAllegheny RiverUnited StatesUnited States523 km560 m³/sCumberland RiverUnited StatesUnited States1,107 km860 m³/sWabash RiverUnited StatesUnited States960 km1,000 m³/sKansas RiverUnited StatesUnited States238 km210 m³/sCimarron RiverUnited StatesUnited States1,123 km1,100 m³/s

Nearby

Rivers nearby

Atchafalaya RiverUnited StatesUnited States270 km240 m³/s201 km awayMobile RiverUnited StatesUnited States72 km1,900 m³/s211 km awayAlabama RiverUnited StatesUnited States640 km950 m³/s259 km awayRed RiverUnited StatesUnited States2,189 km1,900 m³/s316 km awayApalachicola RiverUnited StatesUnited States180 km470 m³/s420 km awayChattahoocheeUnited StatesUnited States702 km290 m³/s459 km awaySabine RiverUnited StatesUnited States820 km270 m³/s448 km awayFlint RiverUnited StatesUnited States240 km640 m³/s459 km away

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q1497) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata
FlowWaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Climate along the riverWorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Towns, bridges, damsWikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0
Along the river© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Our other atlasesCascadyas, Lakeyas, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST

Every source and licence is on the data sources page.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit
lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit
mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit
waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit
islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit
riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit