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

One of the 50 individual entities that make up the United States and share sovereignty with the federal government is known as a state. Americans hold dual citizenship with the federal republic and the state in which they reside due to the separation of powers. [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 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. In most cases, state governments are responsible for overseeing activities that affect only their respective territories, such as intrastate commerce regulation, election administration, municipal formation, public school policy, and the building and upkeep of roads that are not funded by the federal government. 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 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]

Congress has the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union per 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 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. After signing on to the United States Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the first 13 states formally entered the Union of States between 1777 and 1781 by ratifying the Articles of Confederation. (See below for a separate table detailing the ratification dates of the AoC.) These states are listed in the order in which they joined the new (and current) federal government upon ratification of the Constitution in 1787. Dates of admission for subsequent states are those officially recognized by law. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
formally recognized or approved Originating from 1   Delaware On this day in 1787: [8]
(ratified) The State of Delaware as a Colony[b]. 2   Pennsylvania Monday, December 12th, 1787 [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) Royal New Jersey Colony 4   Georgia Tuesday, January 2, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Queen Anne's Georgian Colony 5   Connecticut Sunday, January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts This day in 1788, on February 6th, you could say: [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Royal Province 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   This is the state of South Carolina1. May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Carolina was a crown colony at the time. 9   Primarily Used in: New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Dominion of New Hampshire 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   Carolina del Norte On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   State of Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Royal Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) The [c]Republic of Vermont 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) Nine counties in Virginia's District in Kentucky[d] 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) State located in the South-Western part of the United States 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Canada's Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Louisiane's Territories 19   Indiana The 11th of December, 1816
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Region 21   Illinois Three Days After Christmas, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Specifically, the area of Illinois that is now known as the territory of 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) (Maine F District) Massachusetts 24   Missouri As of this date in 1821, August 10 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) State of Arkansas 26   Michigan January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Its Name Means "Territory of Michigan" 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The State of Florida 28   Texas Today in 1845 (December 29) [29]
(admitted) Texas Republic 29   Iowa Thursday, December 28th, 1846
(admitted) Part of Iowa was once known as the Iowa Territory. 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) The portion of Wisconsin that was once known as the 31   California Instance created: September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Ungoverned regions / Mexican Cession (part)[g]. 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Split off of Minnesota 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Earlier this month, on January 29th, 1861, [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   Western Virginia June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) State of Virginia (all fifty counties in the Trans-Allegheny area [h]). 36   Nevada Date: October 31, 1864
(admitted) Locale of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado As of today, August 1, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Region 39   The State of North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) Area Including the State of Dakota 40   The Badlands of South Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana Monday, November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Location: Montana 42   Washington 11 November 1889 [42]
(admitted) Located in Washington State 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Geographical ID: The Gem State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) The State of Wyoming 45   Utah The date of January 4, 1896 [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico The date was January 6th, 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) Location: Arizona 49   Alaska On this day in 1959, the calendar turned to:
(admitted) In Alaska's case, this means the territory itself. 50   Hawaii Thursday, August 21, 1959
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Islands

When the Articles of Confederation were ratified [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation were formally approved for ratification by the individual states by the Second Continental Congress. On March 1, 1781, after being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation officially went into effect. The current federal government, established under the Constitution, succeeded the general government under the Articles on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia Tuesday, December 16, 1777 2 This is the state of South Carolina. Dated: February 5th, 1778 3 New York Friday, February 6th, 1778 4 A Place Called Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia A Date in 1778: February 26 7 This New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 To the State of North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware The First of February, 1779 13 Maryland Initially published: 2 February, 1781

See also [ edit ]

• The admission of California to the Union was a provision of the Compromise of 1850, a collection of 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.
• The Enabling Act of 1889 gave the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories the legal authority to organize state governments (with Dakota being split into two 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 New Mexico and Arizona the right to organize a state government and seek admission to the Union. calling for a vote to decide if the two areas should be united as one state.
• Act of Statehood for Alaska, formally admitting that state to the Union as of January 3, 1959

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

References outside the text [ edit ]

• American State Videos History com
• ''Early states'' 50states com