A state of the United States is one of the 50 constituent entities that shares its sovereignty with the federal government. Americans are citizens of both the federal republic and of the state in which they reside, due to the shared sovereignty between each state and the federal government. Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names.
States are the primary subdivisions of the United States. They possess all powers not granted to the federal government nor prohibited to them by the Constitution of the United States. In general, state governments have the power to regulate issues of local concern, such as regulating intrastate commerce, running elections, creating local governments, public school policy, and non-federal road construction and maintenance. Each state has its own constitution grounded in republican principles, and government consisting of executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
All states and their residents are represented in the federal Congress, a bicameral legislature consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Each state is represented by two senators, and at least one representative, while the size of a state's House delegation depends on its total population, as determined by the most recent constitutionally mandated decennial census. Additionally, each state is entitled to select a number of electors to vote in the Electoral College, the body that elects the president and vice president of the United States, equal to the total of representatives and senators in Congress from that state.
Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution grants to Congress the authority to admit new states into the Union. Since the establishment of the United States in 1776, the number of states has expanded from the original 13 to 50. Each new state has been admitted on an equal footing with the existing states.
List of U.S. states The following table is a list of all 50 states and their respective dates of statehood. The first 13 became states in July 1776 upon agreeing to the United States Declaration of Independence, and each joined the first Union of states between 1777 and 1781, upon ratifying the Articles of Confederation, its first constitution. (A separate table is included below showing AoC ratification dates.) These states are presented in the order in which each ratified the 1787 Constitution and joined the others in the new (and current) federal government. The date of admission listed for each subsequent state is the official date set by Act of Congress.
State Date(admitted or ratified)Formed from1(ratified)Colony of Delaware 2(ratified)Proprietary Province of Pennsylvania3(ratified)Crown Colony of New Jersey4(ratified)Crown Colony of Georgia5(ratified)Crown Colony of Connecticut6(ratified)Crown Colony of Massachusetts Bay7(ratified)Proprietary Province of Maryland8(ratified)Crown Colony of South Carolina9(ratified)Crown Colony of New Hampshire10(ratified)Crown Colony and Dominion of Virginia11(ratified)Crown Colony of New York12 (ratified)Crown Colony of North Carolina13(ratified)Crown Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 14(admitted)15(admitted)Virginia (nine counties in its District of Kentucky)16(admitted)Southwest Territory17(admitted)Northwest Territory (part)18(admitted)19(admitted)Indiana Territory20(admitted)Mississippi Territory21 (admitted)Illinois Territory (part)22 (admitted) Alabama Territory23(admitted)Massachusetts (District of Maine)24(admitted)Missouri Territory (part)25(admitted) Arkansas Territory26(admitted)Michigan Territory27(admitted)Florida Territory28(admitted)29(admitted)Iowa Territory (part)30(admitted)Wisconsin Territory (part)31(admitted)Unorganized territoryMexican Cession (part)32(admitted)Minnesota Territory (part)33(admitted)Oregon Territory (part)34(admitted)Kansas Territory (part)35(admitted)Virginia (50 Trans-Allegheny region counties)36(admitted)Nevada Territory37(admitted)Nebraska Territory 38(admitted)Colorado Territory39(admitted)Dakota Territory (part)40(admitted)Dakota Territory (part)41(admitted)Montana Territory42(admitted)Washington Territory43(admitted)Idaho Territory44(admitted)Wyoming Territory45(admitted)Utah Territory46(admitted)Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory47(admitted)New Mexico Territory48(admitted)Arizona Territory49(admitted)50(admitted)
Articles of Confederation ratification dates The Second Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation for ratification by the individual states on November 15, 1777. The Articles of Confederation came into force on March 1, 1781, after being ratified by all 13 states. On March 4, 1789, the general government under the Articles was replaced with the federal government under the present Constitution. State Date Virginia South Carolina New York Rhode Island Connecticut Georgia New Hampshire Pennsylvania Massachusetts North Carolina New Jersey Delaware Maryland
See also Territorial evolution of the United States Enabling Act of 1802, authorizing residents of the eastern portion of the Northwest Territory to form the state of Ohio Missouri Compromise, 1820 federal statute enabling the admission of Missouri (a slave state) and Maine (a free state) into the Union Toledo War, 1835–36 boundary dispute between Ohio and the adjoining Michigan Territory, which delayed Michigan's admission to the Union Texas annexation, the 1845 incorporation of the Republic of Texas into the United States as a state in the Union Legal status of Texas Compromise of 1850, a package of congressional acts, one of which provided for the admission of California to the Union Bleeding Kansas, a series of violent conflicts in Kansas Territory involving anti-slavery and pro-slavery factions in the years preceding Kansas statehood, 1854–61 Enabling Act of 1889, authorizing residents of Dakota, Montana, and Washington territories to form state governments (Dakota to be divided into two states) and to gain admission to the Union Oklahoma Enabling Act, authorizing residents of the Oklahoma and Indian territories to form a state government and to be admitted to the union as a single state, and, authorizing the people of New Mexico and Arizona territories to form a state government and be admitted into the Union, requiring a referendum to determine if both territories should be admitted as a single state Alaska Statehood Act, admitting Alaska as a state in the Union as of January 3, 1959 Hawaii Admission Act, admitting Hawaii as a state in the Union as of August 21, 1959 Legal status of Hawaii List of states and territories of the United States Federalism in the United States 51st state
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