Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

The 50 individual states that make up the United States are co-sovereign entities with the central 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. Four U.S. states—Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia—have commonwealth in their official names instead of state.

Individual states are the most basic administrative divisions of the USA. Any authority not specifically granted to or denied to the federal government by the United States Constitution is implicitly granted to the states. 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. Government in each state is divided into an executive, a legislature, and a judiciary, and is based on a unique set of constitutional safeguards based on republican ideals. [2]

The United States Congress, or simply Congress, is a bicameral legislature made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. 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 the state's population as of the most recent decennial census required by the Constitution. Additionally, 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 election proportional to the number of its representatives and senators in Congress. [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. As of today, there are 50 states, up from the original 13. 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 original 13 states entered the Union of States in the years between 1777 and 1781 and ratified the Articles of Confederation. (A separate table detailing the ratification of the Acts of Confederation 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
(accepted or approved) Developed from 1   Delaware 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) Province of Pennsylvania that is under Proprietary Rule 3   New Jersey Thursday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia Two Hundred and Eighty-Eighth Day of the Year [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) The State of Connecticut, a Colony of the British Crown 6   Massachusetts The sixth of February, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Colony of the Crown in the Bay of Massachusetts 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) State of Maryland, a Private Colony 8   The State of South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Province of South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   Primarily Used in: 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, a Royal Colony 12   In the state of North Carolina1 On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) Originally, North Carolina was a British colony. 13   The Ocean State: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, a Colony of the British Crown 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) State of Vermont Republic[c] 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) In its District of Kentucky[d], Virginia includes nine counties. 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) Located in the Orleans Territory 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) Its Location: The Indiana Territory1 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) In the Mississippi Territory1 21   Illinois Time: Wednesday, December 3, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Part of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama This day in 1819, on December 14 [24]
(admitted) Its own separate jurisdiction, the State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) To be specific, the District of Maine[f] in Massachusetts. 24   Missouri Monday, August 10, 1821 [26]
(admitted) Partial Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Arkansas State 26   Michigan January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The State of Florida 28   Texas Friday, December 29, 1845 [29]
(admitted) United States of America, Texas, Republic 29   Iowa The 28th of December, 1846
(admitted) The Iowa Territory, Part 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) Region of Wisconsin 31   California Nine September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Chaos-stricken regions / the Mexican Cession, Part (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 This day in 1861, January 29 [33]
(admitted) Some of Kansas Territory 35   Specifically, the state of West Virginia1. June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada Last Updated: 31 October, 1864
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Expansion of the Nebraska Territory1 38   Colorado First of August, 1876 [37]
(admitted) Location of Colorado's Territory 39   The State of North Dakota1 Wednesday, November 2nd, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) Section of Dakota Territory 40   A State in the Midwestern U.S. Tuesday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington On this date in 1889 [42]
(admitted) Western Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) 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) Land of Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico January 6th, 1912
(admitted) This is the New Mexico Territory1. 48   Arizona The Date Is February 14, 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Alaska, a territory 50   Hawaii On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Location: Hawaii

A timeline of the ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation were approved for ratification by the states by the Second Continental Congress. In 1781, after being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation took effect. This present federal government, established under the Constitution, succeeded the general government established under the Articles on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia On this day in 1777 2 Carolina del Sur The date of February 5, 1778 3 New York Thursday, February 6th, 1778 4 A Place Called Rhode Island Tuesday, February 9, 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia The date was February 26, 1778. 7 This New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 The state of North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey A Date: Tuesday, November 19, 1778 12 Delaware The First of February, 1779 13 Maryland The date was February 2nd, 1781.

See also [ edit ]

• The admission of California to the Union was one of the provisions of the Compromise of 1850, a set of congressional acts.
• 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 right 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, and the New Mexico and Arizona Admission Acts did the same for the people of those territories. calls for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be united as a single state.
• Legislation that officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Connecting to the Outside World: Some Useful Resources [ edit ]

• United States of America Video Map History com
• State formation dates 50states com