Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

A state is one of the fifty individual entities that together form the United States and share sovereignty with the federal government. 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."

The fifty states constitute the most basic administrative divisions of the USA. 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. Republican principles form the basis for each state's constitution and government, which is made up of an executive, legislative, and judicial branch. [2]

Congress, the federal legislature, consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives, two houses that each have members elected from all 50 states and their residents. There are two senators and at least one representative from each state, with the size of each state's delegation in the House of Representatives determined by that 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 responsible for choosing the President and Vice President of the United States, is equal to the sum of its congressional deputies. [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. There are now fifty states, up from the original thirteen that existed when the United States was founded in 1776. All newly admitted states are treated on par with the others. [5]

All 50 states and their respective dates of statehood are listed below. In July 1776, upon agreeing to the United States Declaration of Independence, the first 13 colonies became states; between 1777 and 1781, they ratified the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States, and became full members of the Union. (The dates of each ratification of the AoC are listed in a separate table below.) Each state is listed in the order in which it ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became a part of the newly formed (and still existing) federal government. When a new state is admitted, the date on the list is the one officially recognized by law. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted; confirmed) Produced by 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) The State of Delaware as a Colony[b]. 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Proprietary Province 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former Crown Colony 4   Georgia The date was January 2, 1788. [8]
(ratified) A British Colony in the State of Georgia 5   Connecticut On this day in 1788, January 9 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts Dated: February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   Southeastern United States, Specifically, the State of South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   Granite State, 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) Province of New York under the Crown 12   Carolina del Norte Tuesday, November 21st, 1789 [14]
(ratified) Province of the British Crown in North America 13   To the State of Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 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) States Constituting the South-Western Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) The Northern and Western Areas of the Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) The Province of Orleans 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) Those Parts of the United States That Are Currently Called Indiana 20   Mississippi This day in 1817, on the 10th, [22]
(admitted) In the Mississippi Territory1 21   Illinois December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Part of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Sunday, December 14th, 1819 [24]
(admitted) States of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri Monday, 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) Territorial Government of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The State of Florida 28   Texas Saturday, December 29th, 1845 [29]
(admitted) Texas Confederate States 29   Iowa Dated: December 28th, 1846
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California Saturday, September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially Organized Lands / Cession to Mexico[g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) A section of Minnesota 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Monday, January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   "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) Land of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Territory of Nebraska 38   Colorado The First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The State of Colorado 39   To the north: North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) Regional portion of Dakotas 40   Western Dakota On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Section of Dakota Territory 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington On this date in 1889 [42]
(admitted) Location: The State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Places in Idaho that are technically part of the United States 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) It's in Wyoming! 45   Utah On this day in 1896: [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma The Date Is 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 Dated: January 3rd, 1959
(admitted) Region of Alaska 50   Hawaii Monday, August 21st, 1959
(admitted) Kingdom of Hawaii

Ratification dates for 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. The Articles of Confederation were ratified by the required number of states (13) and went into effect on March 1, 1781. The Articles of Confederation were abolished and the current Federal Constitution put into effect on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia Friday, December 16th, 1777 2 Carolina del Sur 05 Février 1778 3 New York Tuesday, February 6th, 1778 4 A Place Called Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia Tuesday, February 26th, 1778 7 Granite State, New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 Carolina del Norte April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey Wednesday, November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware On this day in 1779: February 1 13 Maryland The date was February 2, 1781.

See also [ edit ]

• The admission of California to the Union was one of the provisions 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 of Kansas, a series of violent conflicts broke out between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups.
• The Enabling Act of 1889 granted the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories the right to organize themselves into new states and join 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. 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 areas should be combined into one state.
• The Alaska Statehood Act officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

The term "external links" is used to indicate [ edit ]

• State-specific video content from the United States History com
• "Independence Day" 50states com