In order of their admission to the United States, the following list of states has been compiled.

Each of the 50 states in the United States is a sovereign nation in its own right, with equal authority from the federal government. Due to the separation of powers between the federal government and the states, Americans hold dual citizenship with the federal republic and the state in which they reside. The full official names of the states of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia all include the word "commonwealth" rather than "state."

The 50 states make up the main divisions of the USA. They have all the authority that isn't specifically given to or forbidden to the federal government. In most cases, local matters that affect a state's citizens fall under the purview of that state's government. This includes, but is not limited to, intrastate commerce, elections, the formation of local governments, public school policy, and the construction and maintenance of roads that are not funded by the federal government. In a republican system of government, each individual state has its own constitution outlining the roles of the executive, legislature, and judiciary. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are two senators and at least one representative from each state, with the size of each state's delegation in the House of Representatives determined by that state's population as of the most recent decennial census required by the Constitution. In addition, the Electoral College, the body that chooses the President and Vice President of the United States, grants each state a number of electors equal to the sum of its congressional deputies and senators. [4]

The Constitution clearly gives Congress the power to decide whether or not to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union in Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1. A total of 50 states now make up the United States, up from the 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 on July 4th, 1776, and ratified the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States, between 1777 and 1781. (An additional table detailing the ratification of the Acts of Confederation is provided below.) Each state is listed in the order in which it ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became a part of the newly formed (and still existing) federal government. Each subsequent state's admission date is a statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted or approved) Incorporated from 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) The State of Delaware, or the Delaware Colony[b]. 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a colonial possession 3   New Jersey Dated: December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia On this day in 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) The Connecticut Colony, a British Crown Colony 6   Massachusetts The sixth of February in the year 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   This New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The New Hampshire Colony was a Crown Colony. 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominated Colony of the Crown 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   Carolina del Norte In the year 1789, on November 21st, [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   In the state of Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Royal Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) The [c]Republic of Vermont 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) 9 counties in Virginia's District in Kentucky(d) 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 On this date in 1816:
(admitted) Geographical Region Including Indiana 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) Specifically, the Mississippi Delta region 21   Illinois On this day in 1818 — December 3 — [23]
(admitted) Regional Illinois 22   Alabama On this day in 1819, December 14 [24]
(admitted) Regional Identifier for Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) State of Massachusetts (Maine[f] District). 24   Missouri Thursday, August 10th, 1821 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan Monday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) An Area Including Florida 28   Texas Tuesday, December 29th, 1845 [29]
(admitted) Independence, Texas 29   Iowa On this day in 1846:
(admitted) Area of Iowa That Was Once Known As Iowa 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) An Area of Wisconsin 31   California Nine September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Regions without government control / Mexican Cession (Part)[g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Piece of Minnesota Territory 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861: [33]
(admitted) An Area of Kansas 35   That State in the Mountaineer State June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) 50 counties in the state of Virginia that are located in the Trans-Allegheny region. 36   Nevada October 31st, 1864
(admitted) Places in Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado On this day in 1876, the world changed. [37]
(admitted) Region of Colorado 39   Location: North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) This portion of Dakota Territory 40   Dakota (State) Dated: November 2nd, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) South Dakota Section 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Geographical Region Including Montana 42   Washington The Eleventh of November, 1889 [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) The State of Wyoming 45   Utah As of today's date, January 4th, 1896 [43]
(admitted) Geographical Utah 46   Oklahoma On this day in 1907, November 16 [44]
(admitted) Bordering Oklahoma is Indian Territory. 47   New Mexico On this day in 1912, January 6
(admitted) This is the New Mexico Territory1. 48   Arizona It all started on this date in 1912: February 14
(admitted) Geographical Arizona 49   Alaska On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii The date of August 21, 1959
(admitted) The Hawaiian Islands as a Territorial Unit

Dates of Articles of Confederation Ratification [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation were approved by the Second Continental Congress and sent to the individual states for ratification. After being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation took effect on March 1, 1781. It was on March 4, 1789, that the Articles of Confederation were formally dissolved and the present Federal Constitution came into effect. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia Dated: December 16th, 1777 2 To the South Friday, February 5th, 1778 3 New York On this day in 1778, February 6 4 That place called Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia On this day in 1778, February 26th, 7 Granite State, New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 Carolina del Norte April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey Sunday, November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware Dated: February 1st, 1779 13 Maryland The date was 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.
• The Enabling Act of 1889 gave the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories the legal right to organize themselves into new states and join the Union.
• Enabling Act for the State of Oklahoma; allowing citizens of the Indian Territory to organize a state government and seek admission to the Union as a single state; allowing citizens of the New Mexico and Arizona Territories to organize a state government and seek admission to the Union as individual states. calling for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be united as a state.
• On January 3, 1959, Alaska was officially admitted to the Union as a result of the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

References outside the text [ edit ]

• US State Videos History com
• Dates of statehood 50states com