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. Because of the separation of powers that exists in the United States, citizens of the federal republic are also citizens of the state in which they currently reside. Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia are the only states whose full official names do not include the word "state," opting instead for the term "commonwealth."

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. 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. There is a separate government in each state, with its own constitution based on republican ideals and its own executive, legislative, and judicial branches. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of senators and representatives from each state. 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]

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. U.S. statehood has increased from its original 13 in 1776 to its current 50. All newly admitted states have been given full voting rights. [5]

In the table below, you'll find 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 between 1777 and 1781 by ratifying the Articles of Confederation. (An additional table detailing the ratification of the Acts of Confederation is provided below.) In the order in which they joined the new (and current) federal government after ratifying the Constitution in 1787, these states are listed below. Each subsequent state's admission date is a legally binding statute. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
admitted; approved Prompted by 1   Delaware The Seventh of December, 1787 [8]
(ratified) The State of Delaware, a British Colony[b] 2   Pennsylvania Thursday, December 12th, 1787 [10]
(ratified) Proprietary Province of Pennsylvania 3   New Jersey Thursday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia Initially published: January 2, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut The 9th of January, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts Saturday, February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) State of Maryland as a Private Colony 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) South Carolina, a former British colony 9   This New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The State of New Hampshire as a Royal Colony 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Queen Anne's Dominions and the Virginia Colony 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Colony of the British Crown 12   Carolina del Norte On this day in 1789 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   The Ocean State, Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, British Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) Republic of Vermont (Vermont) 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) Northern Virginia (including nine counties in its District of Kentucky[d]) 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Area Located To The Southwest 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Canada's Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Territory of Orleans 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) Situated in the state of Indiana 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) State of Mississippi 21   Illinois Instanced on December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) State of Illinois, Part 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Maine[f] District). 24   Missouri Tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) Partial Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Region of Arkansas 26   Michigan Today in History (January 26th, 1837) [28]
(admitted) This is Michigan Country. 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The State of Florida 28   Texas The 29th of December, 1845 [29]
(admitted) Texas Republic 29   Iowa Yesterday, on the 28th of December, 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 / Mexican Cession [g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Region of Minnesota 33   Oregon The date was February 14, 1859.
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Wednesday, January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) Regional Kansas 35   Western Virginia June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) There are 50 counties in the Trans-Allegheny area of Virginia. 36   Nevada This day in 1864, on October 31st,
(admitted) 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) Geographical Definition of Colorado 39   There's a lot of room in North Dakota1 This day in 1889, November [38][i]
(admitted) Area Including the State of Dakota 40   Dakota (State) Earlier today, on November 2nd, 1889, [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana On this day in 1889, November 8 [41]
(admitted) Located in the state of Montana. 42   Washington The Eleventh Day of November, 1889 [42]
(admitted) Territorial Government of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) A Territorial Statement for Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) Wyoming, The Old West 45   Utah On this day in 1896: [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma The date was November 16th, 1907. [44]
(admitted) There's Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory. 47   New Mexico 6 January 1912
(admitted) This is the New Mexico Territory1. 48   Arizona Today in History (February 14th, 912)
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska On this date in 1959:
(admitted) Geographical Term for Alaska 50   Hawaii On this day in 1959, August 21st,
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Islands

When the Articles of Confederation were ratified [ edit ]

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

State Date 1 Virginia On this day in 1777 2 State of South Carolina It was on this day in 1778, February 5th, that the Declaration of 3 New York Friday, February 6th, 1778 4 In the state of Rhode Island Dated: February 9th, 1778 5 Connecticut The date was February 12th, 1778. 6 Georgia A Date in 1778: February 26 7 In the state of New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 A Place Called North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey Sunday, 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 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 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.
• On January 3, 1959, Alaska officially became a state thanks to the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Websites outside the scope of this paper [ edit ]

• U.S. State Videos History com
• "Independence Day" 50states com