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

For those unfamiliar, a state is one of the 50 individual entities that together make up the United States and share sovereignty with the federal government. Given the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans hold dual citizenship. Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia are the only states whose full official names do not include the word "state," opting instead for the term "commonwealth."

The 50 states make up the main 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 non-federal road construction and maintenance, are generally under the purview of state governments. 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, and it includes representatives from every state and every citizen. 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 that 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 Constitution specifically vests the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union with Congress in Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1. There are now fifty states, up from the original thirteen that existed when the United States was founded in 1776. All new states have been given full voting rights, just like all the others. [5]

The table below details the official statehood dates for each of the fifty US states. After signing on to the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the original 13 states entered the Union of States in the years between 1777 and 1781. At that time, they also ratified the Articles of Confederation, the country's first constitution. (See below for a separate table detailing the ratification dates of the AoC.) This list of states is presented in the order in which they ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became part of the newly formed and currently functioning federal government. Each succeeding state's admission date is a legally binding deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
approved of or allowed in Produced by 1   Delaware This day in 1787, on the 7th of December, [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania As of today (12 December 1787) [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey The 18th of December, 1787 [11]
(ratified) The New Jersey Crown Colony 4   Georgia The date: January 2nd, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut 9 January 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a Colony under the Crown 6   Massachusetts 6 February 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a Crown Colony 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   For the state of New Hampshire1, see: June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a British Colony 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominant Colony of the British Empire 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   Carolina del Norte On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   The Ocean State: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) The Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, a British colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) Republic of Vermont (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 Part of the Country 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) A section of the Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Louisiana's Orleans Province 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) Hoosier State 20   Mississippi Sunday, December 10th, 1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Area 21   Illinois When: Wednesday, December 3, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Piece of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) In the State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) (Maine F District) Massachusetts 24   Missouri It was August 10th, 1821. [26]
(admitted) Area of Missouri 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) To the East of the Mississippi River, Arkansas 26   Michigan On this day in 1837, January 26th: [28]
(admitted) Michigan State 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) In the Florida Panhandle 28   Texas Friday, December 29th, 1845 [29]
(admitted) Texan Republic 29   Iowa When: Sunday, December 28, 1846
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) Partial Wisconsin Territory 31   California The Nineteen Fifteenth of September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Frontiers without government oversight / Mexican Cession (Part)[g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) This section of Minnesota is called the Minnesota Territory. 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) The Oregon Region, Specifically 34   Kansas Dated: January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) This portion of Kansas Territory 35   "West Virginia1" June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) State of Virginia (all 50 counties in the Trans-Allegheny area[h]). 36   Nevada Last Updated: 31 October, 1864
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) In the State of Nebraska 38   Colorado August 1, 1876 [37]
(admitted) Specifically: The State of Colorado 39   The State of North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   State Name: South Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) Regional portion of Dakotas 41   Montana The Date Was November 8, 1889 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington On this date in 1889 [42]
(admitted) The State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) State of Wyoming 45   Utah A Date: January 4, 1896 [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma The date of November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Both Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory 47   New Mexico Dated: January 6th, 1912
(admitted) A portion of the state of New Mexico 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona. 49   Alaska It all started on this day in 1959, January 3rd.
(admitted) Located in Alaska 50   Hawaii Today in History (August 21st, 1959)
(admitted) State of Hawaii

Ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation were approved by the Second Continental Congress for submission to state legislatures for ratification. On March 1, 1781, the Articles of Confederation became active after being ratified by all 13 states. The current federal government, established under the Constitution, succeeded the general government under the Articles on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia On this day in 1777, December 16: 2 Carolina del Sur 05 Février 1778 3 New York Monday, February 6th, 1778 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island Dated: February 9th, 1778 5 Connecticut On this day in 1778, February 12: 6 Georgia The date was February 26, 1778. 7 Element: New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 Asheville, North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey The date was November 19th, 1778. 12 Delaware The First of February, 1779 13 Maryland The date was February 2nd, 1781.

See also [ edit ]

• One of the acts included in the "Compromise of 1850" legislation package guaranteed that California would be admitted to the Union.
• From 1854 to 1861, Kansas Territory was the site of a series of violent conflicts between pro- and anti-slavery groups known as Bleeding Kansas.
• Upon passage of the Enabling Act in 1889, the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories were given the green light to organize their own state governments (with Dakota being split into two separate states) and apply for admission to 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. call for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be united as a single state
• In 1959, the Alaska Statehood Act was passed, officially welcoming Alaska into the Union.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Inbound links [ edit ]

• Videos Relating to Individual U.S. States History com
• Timelines of nation-state formation 50states com