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 division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans hold dual citizenship. [1]The full official names of the states of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia all include the word "commonwealth" rather than "state."

The 50 states make up the main 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. Concerns 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]

Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and it includes representatives from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. 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. Additionally, the Electoral College, the body that elects the President and Vice President of the United States, allows each state to choose a number of electors to vote in the election proportional to the number of its representatives and senators in Congress. [4]

New states may be Union" target="_blank">admitted into the Union as provided for in 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. Each newly admitted state has been given full voting rights alongside all the others. [5]

Statehood dates for each of the 50 U.S. states are listed below. 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. (A separate table with dates of AoC ratification is provided below.) They are listed here in the order in which they joined the new (and current) federal government after ratifying the Constitution in 1787. Each subsequent state's admission date is a legally binding deadline established by Congress. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(approved or permitted) Prompted by 1   Delaware Saturday, December 7th, 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania Yesterday, on the 12th of December, 1787 [10]
(ratified) State of Pennsylvania as a Private Colony 3   New Jersey Friday, December 18th, 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, the Former Crown Colony 4   Georgia The date was January 2, 1788. [8]
(ratified) Queen Anne's Georgian Colony 5   Connecticut 9 January 1788 [12]
(ratified) CT, a former British colony and now a state 6   Massachusetts On this day in 1788, February 6 [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) The Province of South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   In the state of New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony under the Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominated Colony of the Crown 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Colony of the British Crown 12   Carolina del Norte Today in 1789: November 21 [14]
(ratified) Colonial North Carolina, 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) Republican State of Vermont 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) (Kentucky is represented by nine counties in Virginia) 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) In the South-Western Part of the Country 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) Part of the Northwest Territories 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Louisiana's Orleans Province 19   Indiana This day in 1816, on December 11
(admitted) Locales in Indiana 20   Mississippi Sunday, December 10th, 1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Area 21   Illinois A Date Certain: December 3, 1818 [23]
(admitted) Portion of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) Located in Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) Province of New Hampshire 24   Missouri Tuesday, August 10, 1821 [26]
(admitted) Separate Section of Missouri 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Geographical Region of Arkansas 26   Michigan January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Region of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The Florida Peninsula and Surrounding Area 28   Texas On this day in 1845, December 29th, [29]
(admitted) Texas Republic 29   Iowa Today in 1846, on the 28th day of December
(admitted) Area of Iowa That Was Once Known As Iowa 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California Date: September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Disordered Lands / The Mexican Cession, Part (g) 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Partial Minnesota Territory 33   Oregon Date: February 14, 1859
(admitted) Area of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Thursday, January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   "West Virginia1" June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada The thirtieth of October, 1864
(admitted) Places in Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Territory of Nebraska 38   Colorado Starting on August 1st, 1876 [37]
(admitted) Location of Colorado's Territory 39   The State of North Dakota1 Tuesday, November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) Specifically the Dakota Territory. 40   Dakota (State) The Date Was November 2, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) Region of Dakota 41   Montana Wednesday, November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) State of Montana 42   Washington 11 November 1889 [42]
(admitted) Located in Washington State 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) The State of Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) It's in Wyoming! 45   Utah It all started on this day in 1896: January 4 [43]
(admitted) The State of Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Both Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory 47   New Mexico 6 January 1912
(admitted) A portion of the state of New Mexico 48   Arizona Monday, February 14, 1912
(admitted) Territory of Arizona 49   Alaska This day in 1959, on January 3:
(admitted) Alaskan territory 50   Hawaii On this day in 1959, August 21st,
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Islands

Moments in time 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 individual states for ratification. When the Articles of Confederation were finally ratified by all 13 states on March 1, 1781, the new government was officially established. There was a change from the Articles of Confederation to the present Constitutional Federal Government on March 4, 1789. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia On this day in 1777 2 Citing South Carolina The date was February 5th, 1778. 3 New York On this day in 1778, February 6 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island 9 February 1778 5 Connecticut 12 February 1778 6 Georgia In other words, on this date in 1778, February 26th, 7 It's in the Granite State, 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 November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware Sunday, February 1st, 1779 13 Maryland Initially published: 2 February, 1781

See also [ edit ]

• The admission of California to the Union was a provision 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 series of violent conflicts broke out between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups, earning the region the nickname "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 granted permission for the people of the Indian Territory and the State of Oklahoma to join the Union as a single state, and the New Mexico and Arizona Admission Act granted similar permission for the people of those territories to join the Union as individual states. calling for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be united as one state.
• It was on January 3, 1959, that Alaska was officially admitted to the Union as a state thanks to the Alaska Statehood Act.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Related Sites [ edit ]

• US State Videos History com
• State formation dates 50states com