States by Order of Entry Into the Union

Updated January 6, 2022 | Infoplease Staff

The first (and last) U.S. states

The original 13 colonies were a group of British territories in North America. Among the Thirteen colonies, Virginia was the first to be settled by English people. Depending on how we define "states" in this instance, the first state to create its own constitution was Connecticut. The first state to be settled by Europeans at all would be Florida; St. Augustine, Florida is the oldest continuous European settlement in the U.S.

However, the states of today are legally distinct from the colonies. The first state in the sense of "one of the current 50 states of America" would be the first one to enter into the Union by adopting the U.S. Constitution.

Replacing the Articles of Confederation

Many people mistakenly believe that the United States Constitution was created after the Revolution. But, the country was first governed under the Articles of Confederation, drafted in 1781 (the same year as Yorktown). The Articles proved insufficient to meet the challenges the country faced. Legislators met to discuss revisions to the Articles, but the representatives decided that it would be better to replace them entirely with a new document. That document became the Constitution, the details of which were hammered out at the Constitutional Convention.

To adopt the Constitution as the new law of the land, it had to be ratified by 2/3 of the states in the Confederation (as per its own Article VII). Ratification required that each state elect representatives to a ratification convention within the state

The American states assumed their present forms in 1788, when the ninth and final necessary state ratified the United States Constitution. The date each state joined the Union is shown in the table below (usually coinciding with a territory being granted statehood). Five states were added during the 20th century. Alaska and Hawaii were the last states to join the Union -- both in 1959.

Joining the Union

Article 4, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution lays out how a new state can join the Union:



New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new States shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.

State Entered Union Year Settled
Delaware Dec. 7, 1787 1638
Pennsylvania Dec. 12, 1787 1682
New Jersey Dec. 18, 1787 1660
Georgia Jan. 2, 1788 1733
Connecticut Jan. 9, 1788 1634
Massachusetts Feb. 6, 1788 1620
Maryland Apr. 28, 1788 1634
South Carolina May 23, 1788 1670
New Hampshire June 21, 1788 1623
Virginia June 25, 1788 1607
New York July 26, 1788 1614
North Carolina Nov. 21, 1789 1660
Rhode Island May 29, 1790 1636
Vermont Mar. 4, 1791 1724
Kentucky June 1, 1792 1774
Tennessee June 1, 1796 1769
Ohio Mar. 1, 1803 1788
Louisiana Apr. 30, 1812 1699
Indiana Dec. 11, 1816 1733
Mississippi Dec. 10, 1817 1699
Illinois Dec. 3, 1818 1720
Alabama Dec. 14, 1819 1702
Maine Mar. 15, 1820 1624
Missouri Aug. 10, 1821 1735
Arkansas June 15, 1836 1686
Michigan Jan. 26, 1837 1668
Florida Mar. 3, 1845 1565
Texas Dec. 29, 1845 1682
Iowa Dec. 28, 1846 1788
Wisconsin May 29, 1848 1766
California Sept. 9, 1850 1769
Minnesota May 11, 1858 1805
Oregon Feb. 14, 1859 1811
Kansas Jan. 29, 1861 1727
West Virginia June 20, 1863 1727
Nevada Oct. 31, 1864 1849
Nebraska Mar. 1, 1867 1823
Colorado Aug. 1, 1876 1858
North Dakota Nov. 2, 1889 1812
South Dakota Nov. 2, 1889 1859
Montana Nov. 8, 1889 1809
Washington Nov. 11, 1889 1811
Idaho July 3, 1890 1842
Wyoming July 10, 1890 1834
Utah Jan. 4, 1896 1847
Oklahoma Nov. 16, 1907 1889
New Mexico Jan. 6, 1912 1610
Arizona Feb. 14, 1912 1776
Alaska Jan. 3, 1959 1784
Hawaii Aug. 21, 1959 1820

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