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 of America are co-sovereign entities with the central government. Since the federal government and the individual states share power, all U.S. citizens are also citizens of the state in which they currently reside. Commonwealth is used in the official names of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia rather than state.

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. For the most part, matters of local concern are left to the jurisdiction of individual states, such as the management of intrastate trade, the conduct of elections, the formation of municipal governments, the direction of public education, and the building and maintenance of roads not funded by the federal government. Constitutions based on republican ideals and governing bodies that include separate branches of government for executive, legislative, and judicial functions are found in each of the fifty states. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and it is comprised of representatives from all 50 states and their citizens. 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 number of electors a state can choose to represent it in the Electoral College, the body that votes for the President and Vice President of the United States, is equal to the sum of the number of its congressional representatives and senators. [4]

According to the Constitution, Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 gives Congress the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union. 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]

Below is a table with information about when each of the 50 states became independent. When they signed on to the United States Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the original 13 states officially became sovereign nations; between 1777 and 1781, they ratified the Articles of Confederation to form the first United States of America constitution. (A separate table with dates of AoC ratification is provided below.) 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 subsequent state's admission date is a statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted or approved) Constructed from 1   Delaware On this day in 1787: [8]
(ratified) Delaware Colony[b] 2   Pennsylvania During the 12th of 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 Tuesday, January 2, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut On this day in 1788, January 9 [12]
(ratified) State of Connecticut, Royal Colony 6   Massachusetts Sunday, February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   The State of South Carolina1. May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Province of South Carolina under the Crown 9   For the state of New Hampshire1, see: June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under the Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Royal Colony and Dominated State 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) "New York, the Crown Colony" 12   Geographical Indication: North Carolina1 When: Tuesday, November 21, 1789 [14]
(ratified) Colony of the British Crown in North Carolina 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) Vermont's [c]Republic 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) To be exact, Virginia has nine counties in its District of Kentucky(d). 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Continent's Southwestern Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Canada's Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Louisiane's Territories 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi Dated: December 10th, 1817 [22]
(admitted) State of Mississippi 21   Illinois The date was December 3, 1818. [23]
(admitted) A Section of Illinois 22   Alabama As of today, December 14th, 1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri Thursday, August 10th, 1821 [26]
(admitted) A Section of Missouri 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan On this day in 1837, January 26th: [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Those Parts of the United States That Are Currently Cal 28   Texas On this day in 1845, December 29th, [29]
(admitted) Independence, Texas 29   Iowa On this day in 1846:
(admitted) This portion of Iowa Territory is known as: 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) Piece of Wisconsin Territory 31   California Tuesday, September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially Organized Lands / Mexican Cession [g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) A Section of Minnesota 33   Oregon Tuesday, February 14, 1859
(admitted) Area of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Thursday, January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) Section of Kansas Territory 35   "West Virginia1" June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada Tuesday, October 31st, 1864
(admitted) States of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Area encompassing present-day Nebraska 38   Colorado Initially, on August 1st, 1876 [37]
(admitted) Geographical Definition of Colorado 39   Geographical Location: North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) Part of Dakota Territory 40   States of America: South Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) Partial Dakota Territory 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Where We Live Is the Greatest Place on Earth 42   Washington On this date in 1889 [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Where Wyoming Is Located 45   Utah Thursday, January 4, 1896 [43]
(admitted) Utah State 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico 6 January 1912
(admitted) There's a lot of new territory in New Mexico. 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Alaskan Territory. 50   Hawaii Sunday, August 21st, 1959
(admitted) Hawaii, a Territorial State

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 the necessary 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 On this day in 1777 2 Carolina del Sur 05 Février 1778 3 New York On this day in 1778, February 6 4 Providence, Rhode Island Nineteen Seventy-Eighth Day, February 5 Connecticut Friday, February 12th, 1778 6 Georgia Monday, February 26th, 1778 7 This New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 It's in the Tar Heel State, or North April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey Saturday, November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware On this day in 1779: 13 Maryland Wednesday, February 2nd, 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 of 1854–1861, when Kansas was still considered part of the territory of Kansas, a series of violent conflicts broke out between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups, earning the region the nickname "Bleeding Kansas."
• 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.
• Statehood for Oklahoma and Indian Territory Citizens Act; New Mexico and Arizona Admission Act; and the Oklahoma Enabling Act, which granted statehood to Oklahoma and Indian Territory citizens and admitted the new state to the Union as a whole. calling for a vote to decide whether or not the two areas should be merged into one state.
• State of Alaska officially joined the Union on January 3, 1959, thanks to the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Internet resources [ edit ]

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