Statehood admission dates are listed in order for the 50 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. For example, 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 isn't given to or taken away by the federal government in 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. Each state has a government that includes an executive, legislative, and judicial branch, and a constitution based on republican principles. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Each state is guaranteed a minimum of two senators and a maximum of its number of representatives in the House of Representatives as determined by 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, allows each state to send a number of electors to the vote equal to the sum of its congressional deputies and senators. [4]

Congress has the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union per Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution. A total of 50 states now make up the United States, up from the original 13. There has been no discrimination against any of the new states in their admission. [5]

The table below details the official statehood dates for all 50 US states. 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 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. Each subsequent state's admission date is a statutory deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
Accepted or confirmed Composed of 1   Delaware It was the 7th of December, 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania Friday, December 12th, 1787 [10]
(ratified) State of Pennsylvania as a Private Colony 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) Royal Establishment of New Jersey 4   Georgia On this day in 1788 [8]
(ratified) Georgia, a British Crown Colony 5   Connecticut 9 January 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts The sixth of February in the year 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 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) New Hampshire, a British Crown Colony 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominated Colony of the Crown 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) The New York Crown Colony 12   Carolina del Norte Today in 1789: November 21 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British 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) There is a republic in Vermont. 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) (9 counties in its District in Kentucky[d]) Virginia. 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) The Southwestern Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Region of the Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Orleans Territory 19   Indiana On this date in 1816, December 11
(admitted) Frontier State of Indiana 20   Mississippi Wednesday, December 10, 1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Valley 21   Illinois December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Region of Illinois 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) Specifically, the State of Massachusetts (Maine[f] District). 24   Missouri Tenth of August, 1821 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan It's the 26th of January, 1837. [28]
(admitted) Formerly Known as: Michigan Territory1 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The State of Florida 28   Texas It's the 29th of December, 1845 [29]
(admitted) Confederate States of America 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) Section of Minnesota Territory 33   Oregon Wednesday, February 14, 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas The 29th of January, 1861 [33]
(admitted) A Section of Kansas 35   Appalachia's West Virginia1 June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) West Virginia (all fifty counties in the Trans-Allegheny area[h]) 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 Starting on August 1st, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The Colorado Area 39   State of North Dakota1 Sunday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) Area Including the State of Dakota 40   Dakota (State) The date of November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana Dated: November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington On this date in 1889 [42]
(admitted) It's in Washington State. 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) In the state of Wyoming. 45   Utah Tuesday, January 4th, 1896 [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma Dated: November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico 6 January 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona Tuesday, February 14, 1912
(admitted) The State of Arizona 49   Alaska The Third of January, 1959
(admitted) In Alaska's case, this means the territory itself. 50   Hawaii Monday, August 21st, 1959
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Islands

When the Articles of Confederation were ratified [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation were approved by the Second Continental Congress and sent to the states for ratification. After being ratified by the necessary 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 Saturday, December 16th, 1777 2 In the state of South Carolina 05 Février 1778 3 New York The sixth of February, 1778 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island Thursday, February 9, 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia February 26th, 1778 7 In the state of New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 To the State of North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey On this day in 1778, November 19 12 Delaware Sunday, February 1st, 1779 13 Maryland Dated: February 2nd, 1781

See also [ edit ]

• California's inclusion in the Union was made possible by the "Compromise of 1850," a collection 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 right to organize themselves into states (with Dakota being split into two separate states) and to 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. The New Mexico and Arizona Admission Acts did the same for the people of those territories. a vote on whether or not the two areas should be united as a single state is needed.
• On January 3, 1959, Alaska officially joined the Union as a result of the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Internet resources [ edit ]

• American State Videos History com
• Dates of statehood 50states com