TheUnited States of America is afederal republic[1] consisting of 50states, afederal district (Washington, D.C., thecapital city of the United States), five majorterritories, and variousminor islands.[2][3] Both the states and the United States as a whole are each sovereign jurisdictions.[4] TheTenth Amendment to the United States Constitution allows states to exercise all powers of government not delegated to the federal government. Each state has its ownconstitution and government, and all states and their residents are represented in the federalCongress, abicameral legislature consisting of theSenate and theHouse of Representatives. Each state elects two senators, while representatives aredistributed among the states inproportion to the most recentconstitutionally mandated decennialcensus.[5] Additionally, each state is entitled to select a number of electors to vote in theElectoral College, the body that elects thepresident of the United States, equal to the total of representatives and senators in Congress from that state.[6] The federal district does not have representatives in the Senate, but has a non-votingdelegate in the House, and it is also entitled to electors in the Electoral College. Congress canadmit more states, but it cannot create a new state from territory of an existing state or merge two or more states into one without the consent of all states involved, and each new state is admitted on anequal footing with the existing states.[7]
The United States has control over fourteen territories. Five of them (American Samoa,Guam, theNorthern Mariana Islands,Puerto Rico, and theUnited States Virgin Islands) have a permanent, nonmilitary population, while nine of them (the United States Minor Outlying Islands) do not. With the exception ofNavassa Island, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, which are located in theCaribbean, all territories are located in thePacific Ocean. One territory,Palmyra Atoll, is considered to beincorporated, meaning the full body of the Constitution has been applied to it; the other territories areunincorporated, meaning the Constitution does not fully apply to them. Ten territories (the Minor Outlying Islands and American Samoa) are considered to beunorganized, meaning they have not had anorganic act enacted by Congress; the four other territories areorganized, meaning an organic act has been enacted by Congress. The five inhabited territories each have limited autonomy in addition to having territorial legislatures and governors, but residents cannot vote in federal elections, although all are represented by non-voting delegates in the House.
The largest state by population isCalifornia, with a population of 39,538,223 people, while the smallest isWyoming, with a population of 576,851 people; the federal district has a larger population (689,545) than both Wyoming andVermont. The largest state by area isAlaska, encompassing 665,384 square miles (1,723,340 km2), while the smallest isRhode Island, encompassing 1,545 square miles (4,000 km2). The most recent states to be admitted, Alaska andHawaii, were admitted in 1959. The largest territory by population is Puerto Rico, with a population of 3,285,874 people (larger than 21 states), while the smallest is the Northern Mariana Islands, with a population of 47,329 people. Puerto Rico is the largest territory by area, encompassing 5,325 square miles (13,790 km2); the smallest territory,Kingman Reef, encompasses only 0.005 square miles (0.013 km2), or a little larger than 3 acres.
^The original 13 states becamesovereign in July 1776 upon agreeing to theUnited States Declaration of Independence, and each joined the first Union of states between 1777 and 1781, upon ratifying theArticles of Confederation.[9] These states are presented in the order in which each ratified the 1787 Constitution, thus joining the present federal Union of states. Subsequent states are listed in the order of their admission to the Union, and the date given is the official establishment date set byAct of Congress.For further details, seeList of U.S. states by date of admission to the Union
^abcdeRepresented by a non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives.[14]
^Although not organized through a federal organic act or other explicit Congressional directive on governance, the people of American Samoa adopted a constitution in 1967, and then in 1977, elected territorial officials for the first time.[19]
^Although there are no indigenous inhabitants, as of 2009, around 150 U.S. 150U.S. military personnel and civilian contractors were living on the island, staffing theWake Island Airfield and communications facilities.[33]
^Jensen, Merrill (1959).The Articles of Confederation: An Interpretation of the Social-Constitutional History of the American Revolution, 1774–1781. University of Wisconsin Press. pp. xi, 184.ISBN978-0-299-00204-6.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
^abc"State Area Measurements and Internal Point Coordinates". Washington, D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau. Archived fromthe original on March 16, 2018. RetrievedMarch 3, 2018.... provides land, water and total area measurements for the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Island Areas. The area measurements were derived from the Census Bureau's Master Address File/Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER®) database. The boundaries of the states and equivalent areas are as of January 1, 2010. The land and water areas, ... reflect base feature updates made in the MAF/TIGER® database through August, 2010.
^Click on the spreadsheet link labeled "Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places of 20,000 or More""City and Town Population Totals: 2020-2023".census.gov. RetrievedDecember 4, 2024.
^"Navassa Island". Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior. June 12, 2015.Archived from the original on August 15, 2016. RetrievedMarch 3, 2018.
