Listed here are the U.S. states in the order in which they were admitted to the Union.

One of the fifty entities that make up the United States and share sovereignty with the federal government is a state. Due to the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans hold dual citizenship. [1]The full official names of the states of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia all include the word "commonwealth" rather than "state."

All of the United States can be broken down into its constituent parts, but states are the most basic level. They have all the authority that isn't specifically given to or forbidden to the federal government. Generally speaking, matters of local concern are under the purview of state governments, which include the likes of regulating intrastate commerce, conducting elections, forming local governments, establishing public school policy, and constructing and maintaining non-federal roads. Generally speaking, republican principles form the basis for each individual state's constitution and government, which is made up of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature, composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives, from which citizens of all 50 states and the District of Columbia can elect their own representatives. At the federal level, each state has two senators and at least one representative, while the size of a state's delegation in the House is determined by the state's population as of the most recent decennial census required by the Constitution. Furthermore, the Electoral College, the body that elects the President and Vice President of the United States, allows each state to choose a number of electors to vote in the Electoral College equal to the sum of the state's representatives and senators in Congress. [4]

The Constitution specifies that Congress has 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]

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 officially became independent nations in their own right and, between 1777 and 1781, ratified the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States. (A separate table with dates of AoC ratification is provided below.) These states are listed in the order in which they joined the new (and current) federal government upon ratification of the Constitution in 1787. Each subsequent state's admission date is a statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
assented to or confirmed Developed from 1   Delaware Specifically: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania Friday, December 12th, 1787 [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey Thursday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, the former Crown Colony 4   Georgia On this day in 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) CT, a former British colony and now a state 6   Massachusetts Adopted: 6 February 1788 [8]
(ratified) Province of Massachusetts Bay, British 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   This New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under the Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominated Colony of the Crown 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, the "Crown Colony" 12   The state of North Carolina1 On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) Province of the British Crown in North America 13   The Ocean State: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, a Royal Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) The Republic of Vermont 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) District of Kentucky[d] (consisting of nine counties) in the Commonwealth of Virginia. 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Southwestern Acreage 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Canada's Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) New Orleans Area 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi Tuesday, December 10, 1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Valley 21   Illinois December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Section of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri Wednesday, August 10, 1821 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Land of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Florida, the Old Florida 28   Texas On this date in 1845: [29]
(admitted) The State of Texas, Republika 29   Iowa Last Updated: 28 December, 1846
(admitted) Section of Iowa That Was Once Known As 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California The Nineteenth Day of September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially Organized Lands / Cession to Mexico 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) A Portion of Minnesota 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861: January 29 [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   Mountain State of West Virginia1 June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) West Virginia (all fifty counties in the Trans-Allegheny area[h]) 36   Nevada Tuesday, October 31st, 1864
(admitted) Area Known as Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado Initially, on August 1st, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Region 39   The State of North Dakota1 The date was November 2, 1889. [38][i]
(admitted) Part of the Dakota Territory 40   Dakota (State) Day of the Dead, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) This portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana Monday, November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington 11 November 1889 [42]
(admitted) In the State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Locale of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) The State of Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: January 4 [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma The Date Was November 16, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory 47   New Mexico The date January 6th, 1912
(admitted) It's the State of New Mexico 48   Arizona Thursday, February 14th, 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska Time: Wednesday, January 3, 1959
(admitted) Alaska, a territory 50   Hawaii When: 21 August 1959
(admitted) Hawaiian Home Islands

Ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On this day in 1777, the Articles of Confederation were approved by the Second Continental Congress and sent to the individual states for ratification. All 13 states had to ratify the Articles of Confederation for them to become effective, and that didn't happen until March 1. 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 Dated: February 6th, 1778 4 Place Name: Rhode Island Earlier today, on February 9th, 1778, 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia 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 November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware First day of February, 1779 13 Maryland On this day in 1781, February 2

See also [ edit ]

• The admission of California to the Union was one of the provisions of the Compromise of 1850, a set of legislative acts passed by Congress.
• Violence between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups in Kansas Territory occurred frequently between 1854 and 1861, a period known as "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.
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act gave the people of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory the right to organize a state government and gain 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 jurisdictions should be united into one state.
• Legislation that officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Internet resources [ edit ]

• Videos of the 50 United States History com
• "Independence Day" 50states com