Statehood admission dates are listed in order for the 50 United States.

A state is one of the 50 individual entities that make up the United States and share sovereignty with the federal government. Due to the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans hold dual citizenship. In their official state names, Commonwealth states like Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia distinguish themselves from other states by using the term "commonwealth."

United States administrative divisions are called "states." They have all the authority that isn't 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 fall under the purview of state governments. Republican principles form the basis for each state's constitution and government, which is made up of an executive, legislative, and judicial branch. [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. There are two senators and at least one representative from each state, with the size of each state's delegation in the House of Representatives determined by that state's population as of the most recent decennial census required by the Constitution. As an added measure, [3] 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 Congress equal to the sum of its representatives 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. As of today, there are 50 states, up from the original 13. All newly admitted states are treated on par with the others. [5]

The table below details the official statehood dates for all 50 US states. 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. (A separate table with dates of AoC ratification is provided below.) These states are listed in the order in which they joined the new (and current) federal government upon ratification of the Constitution in 1787. Each subsequent state's admission date is a legally binding statute. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(approved or permitted) Produced by 1   Delaware When: 7 December 1787 [8]
(ratified) Delaware [b] Colony. 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Proprietary Province 3   New Jersey 18 December 1787 [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia It all began on January 2nd, 1788. [8]
(ratified) Royal Georgian Colony 5   Connecticut The Nineteen Eighty-First Day of the Year, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts The 6th of February, 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   This New Hampshire1 June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony of the British Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominant Colony of the British Empire 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) New York, a Colony of the British Crown 12   The state of North Carolina1 In the year 1789, on November 21st, [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   The Ocean State: Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) State of Vermont Republic[c] 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) (Kentucky is represented by nine counties in Virginia) 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) Area Located To The Southwest 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) The Northwest Territories, Fractional 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Area Known as Orleans 19   Indiana Friday, December 11th, 1816
(admitted) Hoosier State 20   Mississippi Sunday, December 10th, 1817 [22]
(admitted) In the Mississippi Territory1 21   Illinois The date was December 3, 1818. [23]
(admitted) Part of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) Places in Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 24   Missouri A.D. 10th, 1821 [26]
(admitted) A Portion of Missouri Territory 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) Arkansas State 26   Michigan Thursday, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) Land of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The Florida Peninsula 28   Texas On this day in 1845, December 29th, [29]
(admitted) TX Republic 29   Iowa On this day in 1846:
(admitted) A Portion of Iowa Territory 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) This is a section of Wisconsin. 31   California Nine September, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Disordered Lands / The Mexican Cession, Part (g) 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) The State of Minnesota, or a Portion of It 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) Area of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas Wednesday, January 29th, 1861 [33]
(admitted) A Portion of Kansas 35   Western Virginia June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) State of Virginia (all 50 counties in the Trans-Allegheny area[h]). 36   Nevada Date: October 31, 1864
(admitted) The State of Nevada 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) Expansion of the Nebraska Territory1 38   Colorado Starting on August 1st, 1876 [37]
(admitted) In the Colorado Territory1 39   State of North Dakota1 On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 40   This is South Dakota1. As of today's date, November 2nd, 1889 [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana Friday, November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) The State of Montana 42   Washington On this date in 1889 [42]
(admitted) State of Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Idaho, the Territorial State 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) The State of Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: January 4 [43]
(admitted) UT - Utah Valley 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico January 6th, 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona 14 February 1912
(admitted) Pardon my ignorance, but I wasn't aware that Arizona 49   Alaska Three days into 1959
(admitted) Arctic Alaskan Territories 50   Hawaii Monday, August 21st, 1959
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Islands

Timeline of the Ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Second Continental Congress voted to send the Articles of Confederation to the individual states for ratification. After being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation became effective on March 1, 1781. When the Articles of Confederation were ratified on March 4, 1789, the new federal government under the Constitution took over from the old. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia On this day in 1777 2 Carolina del Sur Monday, February 5th, 1778 3 New York On this day in 1778, February 6 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island Sunday, February 9, 1778 5 Connecticut Twelve days after Valentine's Day, 1778 6 Georgia Monday, February 26th, 1778 7 This New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 Cary, North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware The First of February, 1779 13 Maryland The Date Is February 2, 1781

See also [ edit ]

• The admission of California to the Union was a part of the Compromise of 1850, a set of congressional acts.
• There were a number of violent conflicts in Kansas Territory between anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups in the years 1854-1861. This period is 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 their respective territories. 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 ]

Internet resources [ edit ]

• A Collection of Videos Representing Each State in the United States History com
• Constitutional ratification and statehood formation dates 50states com