Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

For those unfamiliar, 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 division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans hold dual citizenship. The full official names of the states 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 is not specifically given to or forbidden to the federal government by the United States Constitution. Local matters, such as intrastate commerce, elections, the formation of local governments, public school policy, and non-federal road construction and maintenance, are generally 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, 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. 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. Moreover, the Electoral College, the body that chooses the President and Vice President of the United States, grants each state a number of electors equal to the sum of its congressional deputies and senators. [4]

Constitutional law states that Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 gives Congress the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states to the Union. Originally consisting of 13 states, the United States now includes 50. All newly admitted states have been given full voting rights. [5]

You can find the official statehood dates for all 50 states in the table below. By signing on to the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the first 13 states were officially established, and from 1777 to 1781, they all became part of the original Union of States by ratifying the Articles of Confederation. (See below for a separate table detailing the ratification dates of the AoC.) The order in which these states are listed reflects 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. In the following sections, each state's admission date is the statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
approved of or allowed in Developed from 1   Delaware Tuesday, December 7th, 1787 [8]
(ratified) Deleware Colony[b]. 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) Proprietary Province of Pennsylvania 3   New Jersey The 18th of December, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony that became a state in the United States 4   Georgia On this day in 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut Dated: January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a Colony under the Crown 6   Massachusetts Saturday, February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Colony of the Crown in the Bay of Massachusetts 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a Crown Colony 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   Specifically, the state of New Hampshire1. June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The State of New Hampshire as a Royal Colony 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Virginia Colony and Dominion 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) Kingdom of New York 12   This is the state of North Carolina1. On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former Crown Colony 13   In the state of Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Royal Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) This is a free and independent Vermont republic. 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) (Kentucky is represented by nine counties in Virginia) 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Lands to the West of the Mississippi 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 Friday, December 11th, 1816
(admitted) The State of Indiana 20   Mississippi On this day in 1817, December 10 [22]
(admitted) This is Mississippi Country. 21   Illinois As of today, December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Part 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 Tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) This portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan This day in 1837, on January 26th, [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan, or the Upper Peninsula 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The State of Florida 28   Texas Thursday, December 29, 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) Part of Wisconsin was once known as the 31   California The Nineteenth Day of September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Disordered Lands / The Mexican Cession, Part (g) 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) A Section of Minnesota 33   Oregon Instance Date: February 14, 1859
(admitted) It's true that Oregon only makes up a portion of the territory. 34   Kansas On this day in 1861: [33]
(admitted) Area Including Kansas 35   Appalachia's West Virginia1 June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Specifically, the fifty counties that make up Virginia's Trans-Allegheny region. 36   Nevada Sunday, October 31st, 1864
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Its Name for the State of Nebraska 38   Colorado Initially, on August 1st, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Region 39   The State of North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) Area Including the State of Dakota 40   "South Dakota1" The date was November 2, 1889. [38][i]
(admitted) Region of Dakota 41   Montana Wednesday, November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Region of Montana 42   Washington Dated: November 11th, 1889 [42]
(admitted) Territorial Government of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Geographical ID: The Gem State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Colorado State 45   Utah On this day in 1896: January 4 [43]
(admitted) Territory of Utah 46   Oklahoma Dated: November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Locations in Indian Territory and Oklahoma 47   New Mexico Sunday, January 6th, 1912
(admitted) Places in New Mexico that Are Not in Texas 48   Arizona On this day in 1912, February 14th,
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska Sunday, January 3rd, 1959
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii The date of August 21, 1959
(admitted) Oahu, Hawaii

Timelines for the ratification of 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. After being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation took effect on March 1, 1781. 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 Citing South Carolina Sunday, February 5th, 1778 3 New York Adopted: February 6th, 1778 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island Sunday, February 9, 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia The 26th of February, 1778 7 Specifically, the State of 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 Thursday, November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware The First of February, 1779 13 Maryland Wednesday, February 2nd, 1781

See also [ edit ]

• The admission of California to the Union was a provision of the Compromise of 1850, a collection of acts passed by Congress.
• In the years leading up to Kansas's admission to the Union as a state, from 1854 to 1861, the territory was the site of a series of violent conflicts between pro- and anti-slavery groups known as "Bleeding Kansas."
• The Enabling Act of 1889 gave the people of the Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories the right to organize their own governments and seek admission to the Union as individual states (the Dakotas were to be split in half).
• The Oklahoma Enabling Act gave 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.
• On January 3, 1959, Alaska was officially admitted to the Union as a result of the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Internet resources [ edit ]

• State-specific video content from the United States History com
• Constitutional ratification and statehood formation dates 50states com