Date of admission to the Union is listed for each of the 50 states in the United States.

The 50 individual states that make up the United States are co-sovereign entities with the central government. Due to the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans hold dual citizenship. [1]The full official names of the states of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia all include the word "commonwealth" rather than "state."

The 50 states are the most basic administrative divisions of the USA. They have all the authority that is not specifically given to or forbidden to the federal government by the United States Constitution. Local matters, such as intrastate commerce, elections, the formation of local governments, public school policy, and the construction and maintenance of roads not funded by the federal government, are generally under the purview of the respective state's government. Each of the fifty states has a government that consists of an executive, legislative, and judicial branch, and a constitution based on republican principles. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and it is comprised of representatives from all 50 states and their citizens. There are two senators for every state and at least one representative, with the size of a state's delegation in the House based on its population as determined by the most recent decennial census required by the Constitution. Additionally, the Electoral College, the body that elects the President and Vice President of the United States, allows each state to choose a number of electors to vote in the election proportional to the number of its representatives and senators in Congress. [4]

The Constitution specifically vests the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union in Congress through Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1. In the 240 years since the United States' founding in 1776, the number of states has increased from its original 13. A new state is admitted to the union on the same terms as the existing ones. [5]

Below is a table with information about when each of the 50 states became independent. After signing on to the United States Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the first 13 states formally became independent nations in their own right in July 1777 and July 1781, respectively, and formally joined the Union of States by ratifying the Articles of Confederation, the country's first constitution, in each of those (A separate table detailing dates of AoC ratification is provided below.) States are listed in the order in which they ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became part of the newly formed (and still existing) federal government. After that, each subsequent state's admission date is a legally binding statute. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted or approved) Produced by 1   Delaware Tuesday, December 7th, 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania Thursday, December 12th, 1787 [10]
(ratified) Colonized Pennsylvania Province 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) Jersey, a former British colony now a state 4   Georgia The date was January 2nd, 1788. [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut Monday, January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Colony of Connecticut Under the Crown 6   Massachusetts Dated: February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Colony of the Crown in the Bay of Massachusetts 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) State of South Carolina, a British Crown Colony 9   This New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Royal New Hampshire Colony 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominated Crown Colony and Currently Reigning Monarchy 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   Here in good ol' NC On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   The Ocean State: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Royal Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) The Republic of Vermont 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) (Kentucky is represented by nine counties in Virginia) 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) The Southwestern Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Canada's Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana As of today's date, December 11th, 1816
(admitted) Area containing Indiana 20   Mississippi Tuesday, December 10, 1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Region 21   Illinois Monday, December 3, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Specifically, the area of Illinois that is now known as the territory of 22   Alabama The 14th of December, 1819 [24]
(admitted) Location: Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) Region of Maine(f): Massachusetts 24   Missouri Observed on August 10th, 1821 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan This day in 1837, on January 26th, [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Florida's Homestead 28   Texas Dated: December 29th, 1845 [29]
(admitted) Texas Republic 29   Iowa Yesterday, on the 28th of December, 1846
(admitted) Part of Iowa was once known as the Iowa Territory. 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) State of Wisconsin, Inc. 31   California Sunday, September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially Organized Lands / Mexican Cession [g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Split off of Minnesota 33   Oregon Tuesday, February 14, 1859
(admitted) State of Oregon and Adjacent Areas 34   Kansas On this day in 1861: [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   We're in the Mountain State. June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) (There are 50 counties in the Trans-Allegheny area of Virginia) 36   Nevada October 31st, 1864
(admitted) Places in Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Geographical Region Known As Nebraska 38   Colorado On this day in 1876, August 1. [37]
(admitted) Region of Colorado 39   The Great Plains State of North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) Region of Dakota 40   Location: South Dakota1 Monday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana Day that November 8th, 1889, Began [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington When: November 11th, 1889 [42]
(admitted) Washington State 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Places in Wyoming 45   Utah Time: Thursday, January 4, 1896 [43]
(admitted) It's the State of Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico January 6th, 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona Day of the Moon (February 14), 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska On this date in 1959:
(admitted) In Alaska's case, this means the territory itself. 50   Hawaii On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Islands

Ratification dates for the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Second Continental Congress voted to send the Articles of Confederation to the individual states for ratification. On March 1, 1781, after being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation officially went into effect. The Articles of Confederation were abolished and the present Constitution ratified on March 4, 1789, ushering in the modern federal government. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia Dated: December 16th, 1777 2 Carolina del Sur The date of February 5, 1778 3 New York Dated: February 6th, 1778 4 A Place Called Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia The date was February 26, 1778. 7 A New England State: March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 The State of North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware The First of February, 1779 13 Maryland As of today, February 2, 1781

See also [ edit ]

• The admission of California to the Union was a part of the Compromise of 1850, a set of legislative acts passed by Congress.
• During the years 1854–1861, when Kansas was still considered part of the territory rather than a state, a series of violent conflicts broke out in the territory between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups.
• This was made possible by the Enabling Act of 1889, which allowed the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories to organize themselves politically as states (with Dakota being split in half) and apply for admission to the Union.
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act granted permission for the people of the Indian Territory and the State of Oklahoma to join the Union as a single state, and the New Mexico and Arizona Admission Act granted similar permission for the people of those territories to join the Union as individual states. calling for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be united as one state.
• The Alaska Statehood Act, which officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

A look at the world outside [ edit ]

• State-specific video content from the United States History com
• Timelines of nation-state formation 50states com