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

There are 50 separate entities that together make up the United States, and each of these states has some degree of autonomy within the federal government. Due to the separation of powers that exists in the United States, each individual citizen has dual citizenship: that of the federal republic and the state in which they currently reside. [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 main administrative divisions of the USA. They have all the authority that isn't given to or restricted to the federal government. Concerns 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 left to the discretion of the respective state governments. Republican principles form the basis for each state's constitution and government, which is made up of an executive, legislative, and judicial branch. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. 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. In addition, the Electoral College, the body that chooses the President and Vice President of the United States, allows each state to send a number of voters to vote there that is equal to the sum of its congressional deputies and senators. [4]

The Constitution specifically gives Congress the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union 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 newly admitted states have been given full voting rights. [5]

The table below details the dates of statehood for all 50 US states. After signing on to the United States Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the original 13 states entered the Union of States in the years between 1777 and 1781 and ratified the Articles of Confederation. (See below for a separate table detailing the ratification dates of the AoC.) The 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. Each subsequent state's admission date is a legally binding statute. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
accepted; confirmed Developed from 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) The State of Delaware as a Colony[b] 2   Pennsylvania On this day in 1787, December 12 [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Colonial Colony 3   New Jersey Today in 1787, on December 18th, [11]
(ratified) Jersey, a former British colony now a state 4   Georgia On this day in 1788 [8]
(ratified) A British Colony in the State of Georgia 5   Connecticut Wednesday, January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former Crown Colony 6   Massachusetts 6 February 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Royal Province 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Maryland Colony was a private colony. 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Colonial South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   Element: New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under British Rule 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominion of the Crown and Proud Colony 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   Carolina del Norte Thursday, November 21st, 1789 [14]
(ratified) Colonial North Carolina, a Crown 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) Western Hemisphere's Southwest Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Territory in the Northwest 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) District of Orleans 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi On this day in 1817, December 10: [22]
(admitted) Land Located in the State of Mississippi 21   Illinois Sunday, December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Part of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama It was on this date in 1819, December 14th, that [24]
(admitted) Locales Found in Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) Location: Maine(f) District, Massachusetts 24   Missouri Saturday, August 10th, 1821 [26]
(admitted) Specifically, a section of Missouri. 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan Monday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Location: Michigan, USA 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The State of Florida 28   Texas Sunday, December 29th, 1845 [29]
(admitted) The State of Texas as a Democratic Republic 29   Iowa Monday, December 28th, 1846
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) An Area of Wisconsin 31   California Nine September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Disordered Lands / The Mexican Cession, Part (g) 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) State of Minnesota and Adjacent Lands 33   Oregon Monday, February 14, 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861, January 29: [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   A state located in western Virginia. June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada October 31st, 1864
(admitted) Places in Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Its Name for the State of Nebraska 38   Colorado One August Day in 1876 [37]
(admitted) In the Colorado Territory1 39   The State of North Dakota1 As of today's date, November 2nd, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   It's in the Badlands of South Dakota1. Wednesday, November 2nd, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) Partial Dakota Territory 41   Montana Tuesday, November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Where We Live Is the Greatest Place on Earth 42   Washington When: November 11th, 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 Dated: January 4th, 1896 [43]
(admitted) Territory of Utah 46   Oklahoma Wednesday, November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) State of Oklahoma and Native American Lands 47   New Mexico The sixth of January, 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) Territorial Status: Arizona 49   Alaska On this date in 1959:
(admitted) In Alaska's case, this means the territory itself. 50   Hawaii On this day in 1959 (August 21)
(admitted) Located in Hawaii's territorial waters

Ratification dates for the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

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

State Date 1 Virginia It was on December 16th, 1777, that 2 Carolina del Sur Dated: February 5th, 1778 3 New York Specifically: Sixteen days in February, 1778 4 Providence, Rhode Island Earlier today, on February 9th, 1778, 5 Connecticut Tuesday, February 12th, 1778 6 Georgia February 26th, 1778 7 This 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 Saturday, November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware Dated: February 1st, 1779 13 Maryland Two-Fourths of February, 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.
• Between 1854 and 1861, when Kansas was still part of the territory, a series of violent conflicts broke out between pro- and anti-slavery groups that came to be known as "Bleeding Kansas."
• The Enabling Act of 1889 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 to apply for admission to the Union.
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act granted the people of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory 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 on whether or not the two areas should be combined into one state.
• Upon passage of the Alaska Statehood Act on December 2, 1958, Alaska was officially admitted to the Union as the 49th state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Connecting to the Outside World: Some Useful Resources [ edit ]

• United States of America Video Map History com
• "Independence Day" 50states com