Listed here are the U.S. states in order of their admission to the Union.

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."

Individual 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. Most matters not specifically delegated to the federal government fall under the purview of the respective state governments. This includes, but is not limited to, intrastate commerce, elections, the formation of local governments, public school policy, and non-federal road construction and maintenance. Republican principles form the basis for each state's constitution and government, which is made up of an executive, legislative, and judicial branch. [2]

Congress is a bicameral legislature, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, in which all states and their citizens have a voice. Each state has two senators and at least one representative, with the size of each state's delegation in the House of Representatives determined by the state's population as of the most recent decennial census required by the Constitution. There's also the Electoral College, which votes for the President and Vice President of the United States, of which each state gets a certain number of representatives and senators to represent it. [4]

The power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union is delegated to Congress by Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution. There are now fifty states, up from the original thirteen that existed when the United States was founded in 1776. All new members have been granted full membership with all other states. [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 entered the Union of States in the years between 1777 and 1781 by ratifying the Articles of Confederation. (An additional table detailing dates of AoC ratification is provided below.) These states are listed in the order in which they joined the new (and current) federal government upon ratification of the Constitution in 1787. Each subsequent state's admission date is a legally binding statute. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted; approved) Prompted by 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware Colony[b] 2   Pennsylvania As of today (12 December 1787) [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia First Day of the Year, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut Tuesday, January 9, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts 6 February 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   New Hampshire1 (state) June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under the Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Royal Colony and Independent State 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   Cary, North Carolina1 On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former Crown Colony 13   The Ocean State: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, a Colony of the British Crown 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) The Republic of Vermont 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) In its District of Kentucky[d], Virginia includes nine counties. 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) The Southwestern Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) North West Territories, Segment 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Located in the Orleans Territory 19   Indiana The 11th of December, 1816
(admitted) Those Parts of the United States That Are Currently Cal 20   Mississippi Sunday, December 10th, 1817 [22]
(admitted) Area encompassing the present-day state of Mississippi 21   Illinois December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Substantial Area of Illinois 22   Alabama On this day in 1819, December 14 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) State of Massachusetts (Maine[f] District). 24   Missouri On this day in 1821 — August 10 [26]
(admitted) The State of Missouri and Adjacent Areas 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Region of Arkansas 26   Michigan Friday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Specifically, the State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The State of Florida 28   Texas On this date in 1845: [29]
(admitted) Democratic Socialists of America 29   Iowa Yesterday, on the 28th of December, 1846
(admitted) This portion of Iowa Territory is known as: 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California This day in 1850, on September 9 [31]
(admitted) Ungoverned regions / Mexican Cession (part)[g]. 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Partial Minnesota Territory 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas The Day That Began the Year 1861, January 29 [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   Western Virginia June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada The 31st of October, 1864
(admitted) States of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Location: Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) Said of the area now known as Colorado: 39   The Great Land of North Dakota1 Instance Date: November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) Regional portion of Dakotas 40   Dakota (State) This day in 1889, November [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of the Dakotas 41   Montana Dated: November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Montana, the Wild West 42   Washington 11 November 1889 [42]
(admitted) In the State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Geographical ID: The Gem State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) In the state of Wyoming. 45   Utah Thursday, January 4, 1896 [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Territories of Oklahoma and Indians in Oklahoma 47   New Mexico 6 January 1912
(admitted) Region of New Mexico 48   Arizona Sunday, February 14th, 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska The date was January 3, 1959.
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii When: 21 August 1959
(admitted) Location: Hawaii

A timeline of the ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

Articles of Confederation were approved for ratification by the states on November 15, 1777, after being approved by the Second Continental Congress. On March 1, 1781, after ratification by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation took effect. The Articles of Confederation were abolished and replaced by the present Constitutional government on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia Dated: 12-16-1777 2 Specifically, the State of South Carolina On this day in 1778 — February 5 — 3 New York Sixteen years ago today, on February 6th, 1778 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia Friday, February 26th, 1778 7 The state of 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 Dated: November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware The First of February, 1779 13 Maryland Day of the Sun, 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 gave the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories the right to organize themselves into states (with Dakota being split into two separate states) and apply for admission to the Union.
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act granted the people of the Indian Territory and the State of Oklahoma the right to organize a state government and seek admission to the Union as a single state. The New Mexico and Arizona Admission Acts did the same for the people of those territories. calling for a vote to decide whether or not the two jurisdictions should be merged into one state.
• Legislation that officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Internet resources [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 States" History com
• Dates of statehood 50states com