Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

A state is one of the 50 individual entities that together make up the United States and share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of the separation of powers that exists between the federal government and the individual states, all U.S. citizens have dual citizenship. The full official names of the states of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia all include the word "commonwealth" rather than "state."

The 50 states are the most basic administrative 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. The federal government does not have jurisdiction over local matters, so states are responsible for things like regulating intrastate commerce, holding elections, forming local governments, establishing public school policy, and constructing and maintaining roads. 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 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]

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 have been given full voting rights. [5]

The following table is a list of all 50 states and their respective dates of statehood 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. (The dates of each ratification of the AoC are listed in a separate table below.) The order in which these states are listed indicates the order in which they ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became part of the newly formed (and still existing) United States of America. Each subsequent state's admission date is a statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
acceptance or approval Created by 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania The 12th of December, 1787 [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) Originally, New Jersey was a British colony. 4   Georgia First Day of the Year, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut This day in 1788, January 9 [12]
(ratified) Kingdom of Connecticut 6   Massachusetts Sixteen years ago today, on February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Colony of the Crown in the Bay of Massachusetts 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial-era colony 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   A New England State: June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Province of New Hampshire under the British 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   Specifically, the state of North Carolina1. On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, the Crown Colony 13   This is the state of Rhode Island1. May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Officially, the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations were a crown colony. 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) There is a republic in Vermont. 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) (Kentucky is represented by nine counties in Virginia) 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) The Southwestern Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Canada's Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana Friday, December 11th, 1816
(admitted) A Landmark in the History of the United States: Indiana 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) Where the Mississippi River Meets the Gulf of Mexico 21   Illinois Three Days After Christmas, 1818 [23]
(admitted) The Illinois Territory, Part 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri Tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) The State of Missouri and Adjacent Areas 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Locale of Arkansas 26   Michigan On this day in 1837, January 26 [28]
(admitted) In the State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) In the Florida Panhandle 28   Texas Sunday, December 29th, 1845 [29]
(admitted) The State of Texas as a Democratic Republic 29   Iowa On this day in 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) Ungoverned regions / Mexican Cession (part)[g]. 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Partial Minnesota Territory 33   Oregon Today in History (February 14th, 1859)
(admitted) Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Thursday, January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   Western Virginia June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) The Commonwealth of Virginia (all fifty counties in the Trans-Allegheny area[h]). 36   Nevada October 31st, 1864
(admitted) In the State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado On this day in 1876, the world changed. [37]
(admitted) The State of Colorado 39   The State of North Dakota1. When: Tuesday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) Pieces of Dakota Territory 40   Specifically, South Dakota1 The date was November 2nd, 1889. [38][i]
(admitted) The Dakotas, or a Portion of It 41   Montana Tuesday, November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington Sunday, November 11th, 1889 [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) State of Wyoming 45   Utah Tuesday, January 4th, 1896 [43]
(admitted) A Land Named Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Native American Lands in Oklahoma 47   New Mexico It all started on January 6th, 1912
(admitted) This is the New Mexico Territory1. 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) Arizona State University 49   Alaska On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Geographical Term for Alaska 50   Hawaii On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Islands

Timeline of the Ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation were formally approved for ratification by the individual states 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 current federal government under the Constitution was established. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia On this day in 1777 2 To the South Tuesday, February 5th, 1778 3 New York Specifically: Sixteen days in February, 1778 4 The State of Rhode Island Nineteen Seventy-Eighth Day, February 5 Connecticut Wednesday, February 12th, 1778 6 Georgia Dated: February 26th, 1778 7 A New England State: March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 It's in the Tar Heel State, or North Carolina. April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey Dated: November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware The First of February, 1779 13 Maryland The date was February 2, 1781.

See also [ edit ]

• The admission of California to the Union was a part of the Compromise of 1850, a set of legislative acts passed by Congress.
• During the years 1854–1861, when Kansas was still considered part of the territory of Kansas, a number of violent conflicts broke out 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 citizens of the Oklahoma Territory 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 citizens of those territories. calling for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be combined into one state.
• Act of Statehood for Alaska, formally admitting that state to the Union as of January 3, 1959

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

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

• State-specific video content from the United States History com
• Dates of statehood 50states com