The order in which the states joined the United States

Each of the fifty United States' individual states is a sovereign nation within the United States, equal in status to the federal government but with certain limited powers reserved for itself. Due to the division of powers between the federal government and the individual states, Americans hold dual citizenship. Some states' official names include the word "commonwealth" rather than "state," such as in Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

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. In most cases, state governments are vested with the authority to manage matters of local significance, such as the conduct of intrastate commerce, the organization of elections, the formation of local governments, the direction of public schools, and the building and maintenance of roads that are not funded by the federal government. In a republican system of government, each individual state has its own constitution outlining the roles of the executive, legislature, and judiciary. [2]

The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature made up of senators and representatives from all 50 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. Furthermore, 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 Electoral College equal to the sum of the state's representatives and senators in Congress. [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. The United States was founded in 1776, and since then the number of states has grown from 13 to the current 50. All newly admitted states have been given full voting rights. [5]

See below for a chronological listing of when each of the 50 states became independent. 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. (An AoC ratification timeline is provided in a separate table 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. The dates of admission for subsequent states are those officially recognized by law. [a]

List of U S states [ edit ]

State Date
(accepted or approved) Constructed from 1   Delaware It was the 7th of December, 1787 [8]
(ratified) The State of Delaware as a Colony[b]. 2   Pennsylvania The 12th of December, 1787 [10]
(ratified) Pennsylvania, a Crown Colony 3   New Jersey On this day in 1787: [11]
(ratified) New Jersey, a Crown Colony 4   Georgia Time: Tuesday, January 2, 1788 [8]
(ratified) The Georgia Colony was a Crown Colony. 5   Connecticut Dated: January 9th, 1788 [12]
(ratified) Connecticut, a former British colony 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-era colony 8   Carolina del Sur May 23, 1788 [8]
(ratified) Colonial South Carolina, a Crown Colony 9   A New England State: 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) Imperial New York 12   Carolina del Norte Today in 1789: November 21 [14]
(ratified) North Carolina, a former British colony 13   Specifically, the state of Rhode Island1 May 29, 1790 [8]
(ratified) Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Royal Colony 14   Vermont March 4, 1791 [15]
(admitted) Republic of Vermont (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) Territory in the Northwest 18   Louisiana April 30, 1812 [21]
(admitted) Area Known as Orleans 19   Indiana On this date in 1816:
(admitted) Area containing Indiana 20   Mississippi The date was December 10, 1817. [22]
(admitted) The Mississippi Valley 21   Illinois The date was December 3rd, 1818. [23]
(admitted) Part of Illinois Territory 22   Alabama Dated: 12/14/1819 [24]
(admitted) Its own separate jurisdiction, the State of Alabama 23   Maine March 15, 1820 [25]
(admitted) State of Massachusetts (Maine[f] District). 24   Missouri On this day in 1821, August 10: [26]
(admitted) Separate Section of Missouri 25   Arkansas June 15, 1836 [27]
(admitted) The Arkansas Valley 26   Michigan As of today, January 26th, 1837 [28]
(admitted) The State of Michigan 27   Florida March 3, 1845
(admitted) This is Florida Country. 28   Texas Wednesday, December 29, 1845 [29]
(admitted) Texas Confederate States 29   Iowa Dated: December 28th, 1846
(admitted) An Area of Iowa 30   Wisconsin May 29, 1848 [30]
(admitted) A Section of Wisconsin 31   California Sunday, September 9, 1850 [31]
(admitted) Wilderness / Mexican Cession (Part)[g] 32   Minnesota May 11, 1858 [32]
(admitted) The State of Minnesota and Adjacent Lands 33   Oregon 14 February 1859
(admitted) A Section of Oregon Territory 34   Kansas On this day in 1861: [33]
(admitted) The State of Kansas and Adjacent Areas 35   Western Virginia June 20, 1863 [34]
(admitted) Fifty counties in Virginia's Trans-Allegheny area. 36   Nevada Sunday, October 31st, 1864
(admitted) This is Nevada Country. 37   Nebraska March 1, 1867
(admitted) The State of Nebraska 38   Colorado Beginning on August 1st, 1876 [37]
(admitted) This is Colorado Country. 39   This state is located in the northern part of the United States. On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) This portion of Dakota Territory 40   Western Dakota On this day in 1889, November 2 [38][i]
(admitted) Area Including the State of Dakota 41   Montana Tuesday, November 8th, 1889 [41]
(admitted) State of Montana 42   Washington Monday, November 11, 1889 [42]
(admitted) Western Washington 43   Idaho July 3, 1890
(admitted) Idaho is a territory in the United States. 44   Wyoming July 10, 1890
(admitted) The State of Wyoming 45   Utah On this day in 1896: [43]
(admitted) Location: Utah 46   Oklahoma November 16th, 1907 [44]
(admitted) The Indian and Oklahoma Territories 47   New Mexico 6 January 1912
(admitted) The State of New Mexico 48   Arizona Date: February 14th, 1912
(admitted) Geographical Arizona 49   Alaska Day of the Year: January 3, 1959
(admitted) Alaskan Territory 50   Hawaii Monday, August 21st, 1959
(admitted) Aloha! Hawaii!

Times of Articles of Confederation ratification [ edit ]

By a vote of 15 to 1, the Second Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation on November 15, 1777. After being ratified by all 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 Yesterday, on the sixteenth of December, 1777 2 State of South Carolina As of this date in 1778 (2/5) 3 New York Tuesday, February 6th, 1778 4 The Ocean State: Rhode Island Sunday, February 9, 1778 5 Connecticut Twelve days after Valentine's Day, 1778 6 Georgia Tuesday, February 26, 1778 7 To 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 The 19th of November, 1778 12 Delaware The First of February, 1779 13 Maryland It all started on February 2nd, 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.
• The years 1854–1861, just before Kansas became a state, were marked by a string of bloody 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 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 a single state.
• The Alaska Statehood Act, which officially made Alaska a state on January 3, 1959.

Notes [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Connections outside the text [ edit ]

• "Videos of the 50 States" History com
• dates of statehood 50states com