The Admission Date of Each U.S. State

The United States consists of 50 sovereign states. Each state has its own unique date of admission except for North and South Dakota, both admitted on November 2, 1889.

Even the original colonies that became the first 13 states were admitted gradually, starting with Delaware in December of 1787 and ending with Rhode Island in May of 1790. For the original 13 colonies, the official admission date is the date on which they ratified the U.S. Constitution.

• 1787

1. Delaware (December 7, 1787)
2. Pennsylvania (December 12, 1787)
3. New Jersey (December 18, 1787)

• 1788

4. Georgia (January 2, 1788) 5. Connecticut (January 9, 1788) 6. Massachusetts (February 6, 1788) 7. Maryland (April 28, 1788) 8. South Carolina (May 23, 1788) 9. New Hampshire (June 21, 1788) 10. Virginia (June 25, 1788) 11. New York (July 26, 1788)

• 1789

1. 12. North Carolina (November 21, 1789)

• 1790

1. 13. Rhode Island (May 29, 1790)

Rhode Island

Rhode Island faced controversy over its admission, just as the states that were territories before becoming states did. Some called Rhode Island “Rogue Island” for the overall lack of cooperation with the other colonies in forming a union. Not only were they the only prospective estate that boycotted the Constitutional Convention in 1787, but they also objected to the Constitution for several reasons.

For one thing, they thought that it gave too much power to the federal government and thus threatened the sovereignty of the states. Rhode Island had also issued its own currency, so they had problems with a shared monetary plan. They also didn’t like the fact that the new constitution continued to allow slavery and failed to include a Bill of Rights. Both their human rights concerns were addressed later in U.S. history, but their principled objections interfered with their entry into the Union.

1791 14. Vermont (March 4, 1791)

1792 15. Kentucky (June 1, 1792)

1796 16. Tennessee (June 1, 1796)

Tennessee

Tennessee is famous for the Tennessee Plan. Congress wouldn’t admit Tennessee as a state because the Federalists, the majority party in Congress, thought they might elect representatives from the other party and lose the Federalists their majority. Tennessee, losing patience, went ahead and voted on their constitution, elected senators and Members of Congress, and sent their chosen representatives to Washington to insist on their admission.

Congress didn’t agree. They sent the Tennessee delegation home. However, a few months later Congress admitted Tennessee and the delegation came back to Washington.

1803 17. Ohio (March 1, 1803)

1812 18. Louisiana (April 30, 1812)

Louisiana

Louisiana was one of the most controversial of the early states. Not only did Louisiana bring up the perennial arguments over slavery, but many people were worried that the territory, previously part of New France, would side with France and Britain in the War of 1812. Louisiana was a French and Spanish-speaking state with Creole population that maintained a separate culture, it was a largely Catholic state, and it had a completely different legal system from that of the United States. Americans wondered whether Louisiana would be able to fit in.

There were also border disputes going on, a problem which Ohio also faced.

Anti-statehood Arguments against Louisiana

1816 19. Indiana (December 11, 1816)

1817 20. Mississippi (December 10, 1817)

1818 21. Illinois (December 3, 1818)

1819 22. Alabama (December 14, 1819)

1820 23. Maine (March 15, 1820)

1821 24. Missouri (August 10, 1821)

1836 25. Arkansas (June 15, 1836)

1837 26. Michigan (January 26, 1837)

Arkansas and Michigan

Arkansas and Michigan were admitted as a pair, with Arkansas allowing slavery and Michigan forbidding it. At the time they were admitted, Congress was trying to avoid civil war by admitting states in pairs of this type. It didn’t work; the United States Civil War began a little more than two decades later. Both states were very controversial.

Arkansas didn’t actually have the number of residents that was traditionally required for statehood. It was a wild and lawless place with a great deal of corruption and violence in its government. It was a slave state in terms of the laws in place when it was admitted, but apart from a few plantations in the southern part of the state, there was not a great deal of support for slavery among the people. Many Arkansans fought on the side of the North when the Civil War began.

Michigan was actually at war with Ohio when it began trying to gain admission as a state. It was not a very large war and there were very few casualties, but the border dispute delayed the admission of Michigan. As a no-slave state, Michigan was supposed to be paired with Florida, which was having its own disputes and problems. Arkansas’s representative slipped into Florida’s place while the Florida representative was back in Florida trying to sort things out.

Florida eventually was admitted in partnership with Iowa.

Florida and Anti-statehood Movements

1845 27. Florida (March 3, 1845) 28. Texas (December 29, 1845)

1846 29. Iowa (December 28, 1846)

1848 30. Wisconsin (May 29, 1848)

1850 31. California (September 9, 1850)

1858 32. Minnesota (May 11, 1858)

1859 33. Oregon (February 14, 1859)

1861 34. Kansas (January 29, 1861)

Kansas and Oregon

Kansas and Oregon were both contentious states admitted on the verge of the Civil War. Kansas was known as “Bleeding Kansas” for the level of violence there on the eve of the war. There Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed new states to vote whether to allow slavery or not, and Kansas suffered over the vote on whether to be a free state or a slave state.  Guerrilla outlaws, gangs from neighboring states coming into Kansas to disrupt voting by voting illegally for their side of the question, and unofficial armies built up and did battle in the streets. President James Buchanan believed that the only way to stop the violence was to admit Kansas as a state. Kansas was admitted as a free state, even though the territory had two governments — one for slavery and one against — at the time of its admission.

Oregon entered as a free state, but we should not imagine that this was because the people of Oregon wanted equality for all people. In fact, Oregon did not allow black people to enter the state or to live there or own land. There were some slaveholders in Oregon Territory with their enslaved workers. Oregon required that those workers be freed — and forced to leave Oregon. Oregon was the only state admitted with an exclusionary clause like that, and it cause a great deal of argument in Congress. The law stayed on the books until 1926.

1863 35. West Virginia (June 20, 1863)

1864 36. Nevada (October 31, 1864)

1867 37. Nebraska (March 1, 1867)

1876 38. Colorado (August 1, 1876)

1889 39. North Dakota (November 2, 1889) 40. South Dakota (November 2, 1889) 41. Montana (November 8, 1889) 42. Washington (November 11, 1889)

1890 43. Idaho (July 3, 1890) 44. Wyoming (July 10, 1890)

1896 45. Utah (January 4, 1896)

1907 46. Oklahoma (November 16, 1907)

1912 47. New Mexico (January 6, 1912) 48. Arizona (February 14, 1912)

1959 49. Alaska (January 3, 1959) 50. Hawaii (August 21, 1959)

Since Puerto Rico’s annexation

Seven territories have been admitted as states since Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States by Spain, and all of them have had to struggle for statehood. Both Utah and Idaho  faced challenges based on the large numbers of residents who were members of the Mormon Church (now called the Church of Latter-day Saints). The Mormon church allowed and even encouraged polygamy, which was contrary to federal law. Mormons also had a custom of voting in a bloc, in whatever direction the central church decreed. Both of these characteristics were serious obstacles to statehood.

Oklahoma was made up of both the Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory when it was finally admitted, but many different options were considered before that. Separate Native American states were suggested. It was also suggested that Oklahoma be a state specifically for black people. Though various ideas were considered, in the end the entire state of Oklahoma entered the Union as a single state.

New Mexico and Arizona could probably have become states sooner if they had been willing to join together, but Arizona would not agree to that. There state would have been the state of Montezuma. Arizona had some of the same issues over the Mormon Church that Utah and Idaho faced, and it was also considered a wild frontier state. Both Arizona and New Mexico faced concerns over language since both had more Spanish speakers than English speakers.

Alaska and Hawaii, the most recent states to be admitted, faced many quandaries in their struggles for statehood. Diversity of the population was an issue in both cases for the people of the time, who were inclined to hold racist attitudes. Hawaii was suspected of disloyalty and communism. Alaska was considered just too far away to be a state.

Yet, in spite of all these challenges, all 50 states were admitted, though some had to fight for decades to accomplish it. Puerto Rico has voted four times to become a state and has been a territory for longer than any of the current states, but no territory has ever yet been refused statehood permanently.