Block Island is an island of the Outer Lands coastal archipelago, located approximately 9 miles (14 km) south of mainland Rhode Island and 14 miles (23 km) east of Long Island's Montauk Point. The island is coterminous with the town of New Shoreham, Rhode Island and is part of Washington County. The island is named after Dutch explorer Adriaen Block, and the town was named for Shoreham, Kent, in England.

Rhode Island is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Island Sound; and shares a small maritime border with New York, east of Long Island. Rhode Island is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020; but it has grown at every decennial count since 1790 and is the second-most densely populated state, after New Jersey. The state takes its name from the eponymous island, though nearly all its land area is on the mainland. Providence is its capital and most populous city.