Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

A state is one of the fifty individual entities that together make up the United States of America and share sovereignty with the federal government. Due to the separation of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans hold dual citizenship with the United States and the state in which they actually reside. (First) the full official names of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia all include the word "commonwealth" rather than "state."

In the United States, the individual states are the most basic political entities. 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 non-federal road construction and maintenance fall under the purview of state governments. Every state has its own government, with its own constitution and set of laws based on republican principles. [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. The number of representatives each state has in the House of Representatives is based on the population count from 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 responsible for choosing the President and Vice President of the United States, is equal to the sum of the number of its congressional deputies and senators. [4]

As stated in Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution, Congress has 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 new states have been given full voting rights, just like all the others. [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 in the years between 1777 and 1781 by ratifying the Articles of Confederation. (An additional table detailing the ratification of the Acts of Confederation 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 succeeding state's admission date is a legally binding deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
assented to or confirmed Developed from 1   Delaware On this day in 1787: [8]
(ratified) Delaware Colony[b] 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) Colonial Pennsylvania 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) The New Jersey Crown Colony 4   Georgia On this day in 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a Crown Colony 5   Connecticut Earlier today, on January 9th, 1788, [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a Colony of the British Crown 6   Massachusetts A Date: February 6, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Province of Massachusetts Bay, a British Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Maryland Colony was a colonial possession. 8   Southeastern United States, Specifically, the State of South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Province of South Carolina under the Crown 9   This New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under British Rule 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominated Colony of the Crown 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Colony 12   The state of North Carolina1. On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former Crown Colony 13   The Ocean State: 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) Vermont's [c]Republic 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) (Kentucky is represented by nine counties in Virginia) 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Aspects of the South-Western Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Canada's Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) Those Parts of the United States That Are Currently Known as 20   Mississippi Tuesday, December 10, 1817 [22]
(admitted) Specifically, the Mississippi Delta region 21   Illinois Three Days After Christmas, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Part of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama The 14th of December, 1819 [24]
(admitted) Places in Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri Observed on August 10th, 1821 [26]
(admitted) Split Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Region of Arkansas 26   Michigan This day in 1837, on January 26th, [28]
(admitted) State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) Places in Florida 28   Texas Wednesday, December 29, 1845 [29]
(admitted) Texas Republic 29   Iowa Tuesday, December 28th, 1846
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California Nine September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially Organized Lands / Cession to Mexico[g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Part of Minnesota 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) Part of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Friday, January 29, 1861 [33]
(admitted) Specifically, a section of Kansas. 35   In the state of West Virginia1. June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Specifically, the fifty counties that make up Virginia's Trans-Allegheny region. 36   Nevada On this day in 1864, October 31st,
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Expansion of the Nebraska Territory1 38   Colorado Beginning on August 1st, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Region 39   It's in North Dakota1. On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   To the South Dakota1 Sunday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) Partial Dakota Territory 41   Montana Dated: November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) That Part of the Country Known as Montana 42   Washington On this date in 1889 [42]
(admitted) Locale of Washington State 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) It's the state of Idaho. 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) The State of Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: January 4 [43]
(admitted) Territorial Claims in Utah 46   Oklahoma Thursday, November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Territory of Oklahoma and Indian Territory 47   New Mexico Saturday, January 6th, 1912
(admitted) A portion of the state of New Mexico 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska Three days into 1959
(admitted) State of Alaska 50   Hawaii Wednesday, August 21, 1959
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Islands

Ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

Articles of Confederation were approved for ratification by the states on November 15, 1777, after being approved by the Second Continental Congress. After being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation took effect on March 1, 1781. The Articles of Confederation were abolished on March 4, 1789, and the present Constitutional Government was ratified. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia On this day in 1777 2 " South Carolina" On this day in 1778 — February 5 — 3 New York Adopted: February 6th, 1778 4 Location: Providence, Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut The date was February 12th, 1778. 6 Georgia February 26th, 1778 7 Specifically, the state of New Hampshire. March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 State of North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey Tuesday, November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware Monday, February 1st, 1779 13 Maryland Sunday, February 2nd, 1781

See also [ edit ]

• California's inclusion in the Union was made possible by the "Compromise of 1850," a collection of legislative acts passed by Congress.
• During the years 1854–1861, when Kansas was still considered a territory rather than a state, a series of violent conflicts broke out in the 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 gave the people of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory the legal 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 jurisdictions 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 ]

Related Sites [ edit ]

• Videos Relating to Individual U.S. States History com
• Constitutional ratification and statehood formation dates 50states com