States in the United States, listed by their official admission to the Union.

Any one of the 50 individual states that make up the United States and share sovereignty with the federal 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. In their official state names, Commonwealth states like Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia distinguish themselves from other states by using the term "commonwealth."

The 50 states are the most basic administrative divisions of the USA. The United States states have all the authority that is not specifically given to the federal government or expressly forbidden to the states by the United States Constitution. As a rule, it is up to the individual states to handle matters that affect its citizens directly, such as intrastate commerce, elections, the formation of municipalities, public education policy, and the building and upkeep of roads not funded by the federal government. A republican form of government, with separate executive, legislative, and judicial branches, exists in each of the 50 states, all of which are governed by their own constitutions. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of senators and representatives from all 50 states. There are two senators for every state and at least one representative, with the size of a state's delegation to 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]

According to the Constitution, Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 gives Congress the power to Union" target="_blank">admit new states into the Union. There are now fifty states, up from the original thirteen that existed when the United States was founded in 1776. All newly admitted states have been given full voting rights. [5]

The table below details the official statehood dates for each of the 50 US states. When they signed on to the United States Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the original 13 states officially became sovereign nations; between 1777 and 1781, they ratified the Articles of Confederation to form the first United States of America constitution. (A separate table detailing the ratification dates of the AoC is provided below.) This list of states is presented in the order in which they ratified the Constitution in 1787 and thus became part of the newly formed and currently functioning federal government. Each succeeding state's admission date is a statutory deadline mandated by federal law. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted or confirmed) Developed from 1   Delaware On this day in 1787: [8]
(ratified) [b]The Colony of Delaware. 2   Pennsylvania Dated: 12 December 1787 [10]
(ratified) The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a Proprietary State 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a former British colony. 4   Georgia The date was January 2nd, 1788. [8]
(ratified) The Georgian Colony was a Crown Colony. 5   Connecticut 9 January 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 6   Massachusetts 6 February 1788 [8]
(ratified) Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Crown Colony 7   Maryland April 28, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Maryland, a colonial possession 8   Southeastern United States, Specifically, the State of South May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) State of South Carolina, a British Crown Colony 9   Specifically, the state of New Hampshire1. June 21, 1788 [8]
(ratified) New Hampshire, a Colony of the Crown 10   Virginia June 25, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Virginia, Dominated Colony of the Crown 11   New York July 26, 1788 [13]
(ratified) Kingdom of New York 12   The state of North Carolina1. On this day in 1789 [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) Democratic Socialist State of Vermont 15   Kentucky June 1, 1792 [16]
(admitted) In its District of Kentucky[d], Virginia includes nine counties. 16   Tennessee June 1, 1796 [18]
(admitted) The Southwestern Region 17   Ohio March 1, 1803 [19][e]
(admitted) North West Territories, Segment 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) French for "Orange Land"; the Orleans Region 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) Location: Indiana Territory1 20   Mississippi The 10th of December, 1817 [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Delta Area 21   Illinois Instanced on December 3rd, 1818 [23]
(admitted) An Area of Illinois 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) Region of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) District of Maine (Massachusetts) 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 January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) The Florida Peninsula 28   Texas Tuesday, December 29th, 1845 [29]
(admitted) Democratic Socialists of America 29   Iowa On this day in 1846:
(admitted) Specifically, the portion of Iowa's territory that is called 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California Sunday, September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Wilderness area / Mexican Cession (section)[g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) Split off of Minnesota 33   Oregon Sunday, February 14th, 1859
(admitted) State of Oregon and Adjacent Areas 34   Kansas It all began on this date in 1861: January 29. [33]
(admitted) The State of Kansas, or Part of It 35   The Mountain State, or West Virginia1. June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada When October 31st, 1864 rolled around,
(admitted) Nevada, State of 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) States Constituting the Nebraska Territory1 38   Colorado Initially, on August 1st, 1876 [37]
(admitted) The State of Colorado 39   The State of North Dakota1 Two thousand and eleven on November [38][i]
(admitted) Specifically the Dakota Territory. 40   The State of South Dakota1. The date was November 2nd, 1889. [38][i]
(admitted) A Portion of Dakota Territory 41   Montana November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) Territory of Montana 42   Washington Tuesday, November 11th, 1889 [42]
(admitted) Western Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Boise, Idaho 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) The State of Wyoming 45   Utah The date of January 4, 1896 [43]
(admitted) Locale of Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) Native American Lands in Oklahoma 47   New Mexico The date was January 6th, 1912
(admitted) Places in New Mexico that Are Not in Texas 48   Arizona Earlier today, on February 14th, 1912
(admitted) Territory of Arizona 49   Alaska On this date in 1959, January 3
(admitted) Region of Alaska 50   Hawaii When: 21 August 1959
(admitted) Hawaii's Home Islands

Ratification of the Articles of Confederation [ edit ]

On November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation were approved by the Second Continental Congress for submission to state legislatures for ratification. After being ratified by all 13 states, the Articles of Confederation became effective on March 1, 1781. The Articles of Confederation, which governed the states, were abolished on March 4, 1789, and the present Constitution, which governs the federal level, was ratified. [45]

State Date 1 Virginia On this day in 1777 2 This is the state of South Carolina. 05 Février 1778 3 New York On this day in 1778, February 6 4 Providence, Rhode Island Wednesday, February 9th, 1778 5 Connecticut Tuesday, February 12th, 1778 6 Georgia As of today (26 February) in 1778 7 This New Hampshire March 4, 1778 8 Pennsylvania March 5, 1778 9 Massachusetts March 10, 1778 10 Asheville, North Carolina April 5, 1778 11 New Jersey Dated: November 19th, 1778 12 Delaware A Day in History: February 1st, 1779 13 Maryland Two-Fourths of February, 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 of 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."
• Enabling Act of 1889, allowing citizens of the Dakota (to be split into two states), Montana, and Washington territories to organize state governments and apply for admission to the Union.
• 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 the people of those territories. calling for a vote on whether or not the two areas should be united as one state.
• With the passage of the Alaska Statehood Act on December 21, 1958, Alaska was officially admitted to the Union as the 49th state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Websites outside the scope of this paper [ edit ]

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