Ordered list of when each state joined the United States

Each of the 50 states in the United States is a sovereign nation in its own right, with equal authority from the federal government and the people. Because of the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans hold dual citizenship. There are four states (Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia) whose official names do not include the word "state," but rather "commonwealth."

U.S. administrative divisions are typically called "states." They have all the authority the US Constitution does not give to the federal government or specifically forbids them from exercising. 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. 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 made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, both of which are elected by the citizens of their respective 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. The Electoral College is the body that officially votes for President and Vice President of the United States. [3] Each state has the right to send a number of electors to the Electoral College equal to the sum of its congressional deputies and senators. [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. No state has been given preferential treatment over another, and all new states have been granted full membership. [5]

You can find the official statehood dates for all 50 states in the table below. 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 with dates of AoC ratification is provided below.) These states are listed in chronological order according to when they ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became part of the newly formed (and still existing) United States of America. Each subsequent admission date is a legally binding 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 Colony [b] 2   Pennsylvania Sunday, December 12th, 1787 [10]
(ratified) PA, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, the former Crown Colony 4   Georgia The date was January 2nd, 1788. [8]
(ratified) Queen Anne's Georgian Colony 5   Connecticut Sunday, January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts Saturday, February 6th, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Province of Massachusetts Bay, British Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) State of Maryland, a Private Colony 8   In the state of South Carolina1 May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   For the state of New Hampshire1, see: June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under the Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominated Colony of the British Empire 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Royal Crown Colony 12   It's in the Tar Heel State, or North The 21st of November, 1789 [14]
(ratified) The North Carolina Colony was a Crown Colony. 13   The Ocean State: 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) Nine counties in Virginia's District in Kentucky(d) 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) The Southwestern Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) A section of the Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) State or Province Forming Part of the Province of Orleans 19   Indiana This day in 1816, on December 11
(admitted) Location: Indiana Territory1 20   Mississippi Dated: 12-10-1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Region 21   Illinois This day in 1818, on December 3rd, [23]
(admitted) Regional Illinois 22   Alabama Instance created: 14 December 1819 [24]
(admitted) Places in Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Maine[f] District). 24   Missouri Observed on August 10th, 1821 [26]
(admitted) Specifically, a section of Missouri. 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) State of Arkansas 26   Michigan Tuesday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Land of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) An Area Including Florida 28   Texas Dated: December 29th, 1845 [29]
(admitted) The State of Texas, Republika 29   Iowa Monday, December 28th, 1846
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) Separate Section of Wisconsin 31   California Sunday, September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Partially Organized Lands / Cession to Mexico 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Separate Section of Minnesota 33   Oregon Sunday, February 14th, 1859
(admitted) Specifically, the Oregon Territory 34   Kansas The Day That Began the Year 1861, January 29 [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   There's no place like West Virginia1 June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada On this day in 1864, October 31st,
(admitted) Locale of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) States Constituting the Nebraska Territory1 38   Colorado Starting 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) Specifically the Dakota Territory. 40   Dakota (State) Wednesday, November 2nd, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) Partial Dakota Territory 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Area encompassing the state of Montana 42   Washington 11 November 1889 [42]
(admitted) Region 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) The State of Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: [43]
(admitted) The Utah Region 46   Oklahoma The date of November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory 47   New Mexico The sixth of January, 1912
(admitted) An Area Now Part of New Mexico 48   Arizona Earlier today, on February 14th, 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska On this day in 1959, January 3
(admitted) Province of Alaska 50   Hawaii On this date in 1959:
(admitted) State of Hawaii

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 the Articles of Confederation were ratified by all 13 states, they became effective 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 Tuesday, December 16, 1777 2 Carolina del Sur The date of February 5, 1778 3 New York A Precise Date: February 6, 1778 4 To the State of Rhode Island On this day in 1778, February 9: 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia February 26th, 1778 7 A New England State: March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 This is the state of North Carolina. April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey Tuesday, November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware Dated: February 1st, 1779 13 Maryland Initially published: 2 February, 1781

See also [ edit ]

• A set of laws passed by Congress in 1850 known as the "Compromise of 1850" included a clause guaranteeing California's entry into the Union.
• The years 1854–1861, just before Kansas became a state, were marked by a string of violent conflicts in the Kansas Territory 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 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. It also granted the people of New Mexico and Arizona the right to do the same. necessitating a vote in a referendum to decide whether or not the two areas should be united as a single state
• The Alaska Statehood Act, which officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Web Resources [ edit ]

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