List of U.S. states by date of admission to the Union facts for kids

Map of the United States with names and borders of states

The order in which the original 13 states ratified the 1787 Constitution, then the order in which the others were admitted to the Union

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 of the United States 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 from
1	Delaware	December 7, 1787 (ratified)	Colony of Delaware
2	Pennsylvania	December 12, 1787 (ratified)	Proprietary Province of Pennsylvania
3	New Jersey	December 18, 1787 (ratified)	Crown Colony of New Jersey
4	Georgia	January 2, 1788 (ratified)	Crown Colony of Georgia
5	Connecticut	January 9, 1788 (ratified)	Crown Colony of Connecticut
6	Massachusetts	February 6, 1788 (ratified)	Crown Colony of Massachusetts Bay
7	Maryland	April 28, 1788 (ratified)	Proprietary Province of Maryland
8	South Carolina	May 23, 1788 (ratified)	Crown Colony of South Carolina
9	New Hampshire	June 21, 1788 (ratified)	Crown Colony of New Hampshire
10	Virginia	June 25, 1788 (ratified)	Crown Colony and Dominion of Virginia
11	New York	July 26, 1788 (ratified)	Crown Colony of New York
12	North Carolina	November 21, 1789 (ratified)	Crown Colony of North Carolina
13	Rhode Island	May 29, 1790 (ratified)	Crown Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
14	Vermont	March 4, 1791 (admitted)	Vermont Vermont Republic
15	Kentucky	June 1, 1792 (admitted)	Virginia (nine counties in its District of Kentucky)
16	Tennessee	June 1, 1796 (admitted)	Southwest Territory
17	Ohio	March 1, 1803 (admitted)	Northwest Territory (part)
18	Louisiana	April 30, 1812 (admitted)	Orleans Territory of Orleans
19	Indiana	December 11, 1816 (admitted)	Indiana Territory
20	Mississippi	December 10, 1817 (admitted)	Mississippi Territory
21	Illinois	December 3, 1818 (admitted)	Illinois Territory (part)
22	Alabama	December 14, 1819 (admitted)	Alabama Territory
23	Maine	March 15, 1820 (admitted)	Massachusetts (District of Maine)
24	Missouri	August 10, 1821 (admitted)	Missouri Territory (part)
25	Arkansas	June 15, 1836 (admitted)	Arkansas Territory
26	Michigan	January 26, 1837 (admitted)	Michigan Territory
27	Florida	March 3, 1845 (admitted)	Florida Territory
28	Texas	December 29, 1845 (admitted)	Texas Republic of Texas
29	Iowa	December 28, 1846 (admitted)	Iowa Territory (part)
30	Wisconsin	May 29, 1848 (admitted)	Wisconsin Territory (part)
31	California	September 9, 1850 (admitted)	Unorganized territory / Mexican Cession (part)
32	Minnesota	May 11, 1858 (admitted)	Minnesota Territory (part)
33	Oregon	February 14, 1859 (admitted)	Oregon Territory (part)
34	Kansas	January 29, 1861 (admitted)	Kansas Territory (part)
35	West Virginia	June 20, 1863 (admitted)	Virginia (50 Trans-Allegheny region counties)
36	Nevada	October 31, 1864 (admitted)	Nevada Territory
37	Nebraska	March 1, 1867 (admitted)	Nebraska Territory
38	Colorado	August 1, 1876 (admitted)	Colorado Territory
39	North Dakota	November 2, 1889 (admitted)	Dakota Territory (part)
40	South Dakota	November 2, 1889 (admitted)	Dakota Territory (part)
41	Montana	November 8, 1889 (admitted)	Montana Territory
42	Washington	November 11, 1889 (admitted)	Washington Territory
43	Idaho	July 3, 1890 (admitted)	Idaho Territory
44	Wyoming	July 10, 1890 (admitted)	Wyoming Territory
45	Utah	January 4, 1896 (admitted)	Utah Territory
46	Oklahoma	November 16, 1907 (admitted)	Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory
47	New Mexico	January 6, 1912 (admitted)	New Mexico Territory
48	Arizona	February 14, 1912 (admitted)	Arizona Territory
49	Alaska	January 3, 1959 (admitted)	Alaska Territory of Alaska
50	Hawaii	August 21, 1959 (admitted)	Hawaii Territory of Hawaii

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
13 1	Virginia	December 16, 1777
12 2	South Carolina	February 5, 1778
08 3	New York	February 6, 1778
11 4	Rhode Island	February 9, 1778
01 5	Connecticut	February 12, 1778
03 6	Georgia	February 26, 1778
06 7	New Hampshire	March 4, 1778
10 8	Pennsylvania	March 5, 1778
05 9	Massachusetts	March 10, 1778
09 10	North Carolina	April 5, 1778
07 11	New Jersey	November 19, 1778
02 12	Delaware	February 1, 1779
04 13	Maryland	February 2, 1781

See also

In Spanish: Anexo:Estados de Estados Unidos por orden de ingreso a la Unión para niños

• 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
• Proposals for a 51st state