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 federal government. Since the federal government and the individual states share power, Americans hold dual citizenship. Four U.S. states—Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia—have commonwealth in their official names instead of state.

The 50 states are the main political 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. 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. The government of each state is divided into an executive, legislative, and judicial branch, and is based on republican principles as outlined in the state's own constitution. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of senators and representatives from all 50 states. 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. As of today, there are 50 states, up from the original 13. All newly admitted states have been given full voting rights. [5]

Table 1 shows the dates of statehood for all 50 states. 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. (See the separate table below for the exact dates each AoC was ratified.) 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. The date of admission listed for each subsequent state is the official date set by Act of Congress [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
assented to or confirmed Made up of 1   Delaware Wednesday, December 7th, 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 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 On this day in 1788 [8]
(ratified) Imperial Crown Colony of Georgia 5   Connecticut On this day in 1788, January 9: [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former Crown Colony 6   Massachusetts Dated: February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay, a Royal 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   A New England State: June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under the Crown 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 Colony Under the Crown 12   Carolina del Norte On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   Place Name: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Providence Plantations and the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, a British Crown 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) States Constituting the South-Western Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Canadian Region of the Northwest 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) Hoosier State 20   Mississippi Wednesday, December 10, 1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Region 21   Illinois December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Part of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) Places in Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) State of Massachusetts (Maine(f) District). 24   Missouri Monday, August 10, 1821 [26]
(admitted) Section of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan Tuesday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Land of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Geographical Florida 28   Texas Instance created: December 29, 1845 [29]
(admitted) Free and Independent State of Texas 29   Iowa Monday, December 28th, 1846
(admitted) (Of) The Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) Section of Wisconsin 31   California Nine September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially-Organized Lands / Cession to Mexico 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Split off of Minnesota 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861: [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   There's no place like West Virginia1 June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Virginia (all fifty counties in the Trans-Allegheny area[h]). 36   Nevada October 31st, 1864
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) States Constituting the Nebraska Territory1 38   Colorado One August Day in 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Region 39   North Dakota Monday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) North Dakota (a portion of) 40   Dakota (State) As of today's date, November 2nd, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) Part of Dakota Territory 41   Montana Earlier this week, on November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Location: Montana, USA 42   Washington Tuesday, November 11th, 1889 [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Geographical ID: The Gem State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Wyoming, the State 45   Utah Monday, January 4th, 1896 [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Territories of Oklahoma and Indians in Oklahoma 47   New Mexico January 6th, 1912
(admitted) Land of New Mexico 48   Arizona Day of the Moon (February 14), 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska Sunday, January 3rd, 1959
(admitted) Located in Alaska 50   Hawaii When: 21 August 1959
(admitted) Kingdom of Hawaii

Ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ 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. The current federal government, established under the Constitution, succeeded the general government under the Articles on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia The date was December 16, 1777. 2 Carolina del Sur Day of the Week: February 5, 1778 3 New York On this day in 1778, February 6 4 A Place Called Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut The date was February 12th, 1778. 6 Georgia Dated: February 26th, 1778 7 This New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 This is the state of North Carolina. April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey Sunday, November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware Starting on 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.
• The years 1854–1861, just before Kansas became a state, were marked by a string of violent conflicts in the Kansas Territory between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups.
• In 1889, Congress passed the Enabling Act, which allowed the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories to organize themselves politically as states and 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. It also granted the people of the New Mexico and Arizona Territories the same right. calling for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be combined into one state.
• This was made possible by the Alaska Statehood Act, which officially made January 3, 1959, the day Alaska was admitted to the Union as the 49th state.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

A look at the world outside [ edit ]

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