Map of USA with state and territory names 2

The

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

is a federal republic consisting of 50 states, a

federal district A federal district is a type of administrative division of a federation, usually under the direct control of a federal government and organized sometimes with a single municipal body. Federal districts often include capital districts, and they ...

(

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, the

capital city A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encompasses t ...

of the United States), five major

territories A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

, and various minor islands. Both the states and the United States as a whole are each sovereign jurisdictions. Radan, 2007, p. 12 The

Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution The Tenth Amendment (Amendment X) to the United States Constitution, a part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified on December 15, 1791. It expresses the principle of federalism, also known as states' rights, by stating that the federal govern ...

allows states to exercise all powers of government not delegated to the federal government. Each state has its own

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

and government, and all states and their residents are represented in the federal

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

, a bicameral legislature consisting of the Senate and the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

. Each state is represented by two senators, while representatives are

distributed Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations *Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a varia ...

among the states in proportion to the most recent constitutionally mandated decennial

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

. 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 The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

, equal to the total of representatives and senators in Congress from that state. The federal district does not have representatives in the Senate, but has a non-voting

delegate Delegate or delegates may refer to: * Delegate, New South Wales, a town in Australia * Delegate (CLI), a computer programming technique * Delegate (American politics), a representative in any of various political organizations * Delegate (Unit ...

in the House, and it is also entitled to electors in the Electoral College. Congress can admit more states, but it cannot create a new state from territory of an existing state or merge of two or more states into one without the consent of all states involved, and each new state is admitted on an

equal footing The equal footing doctrine, also known as equality of the states, is the principle in United States constitutional law that all states admitted to the Union under the Constitution since 1789 enter on equal footing with the 13 states already in ...

with the existing states. The United States has control over fourteen

. Five of them (

American Samoa American Samoa ( sm, Amerika Sāmoa, ; also ' or ') is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the island country of Samoa. Its location is centered on . It is east of the Internationa ...

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

, the

Northern Mariana Islands The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI; ch, Sankattan Siha Na Islas Mariånas; cal, Commonwealth Téél Falúw kka Efáng llól Marianas), is an unincorporated territory and commonw ...

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) have a permanent, nonmilitary population, while nine of them (the

United States Minor Outlying Islands The United States Minor Outlying Islands is a statistical designation defined by the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 3166-1 code. The entry code is ISO 3166-2:UM. The minor outlying islands and groups of islands consist ...

) do not. With the exception of

Navassa Island Navassa Island (; ht, Lanavaz; french: l'île de la Navasse, sometimes ) is a small uninhabited island in the Caribbean Sea. Located northeast of Jamaica, south of Cuba, and west of Jérémie on the Tiburon Peninsula of Haiti, it is subject ...

, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, which are located in the Caribbean, all territories are located in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

. One territory,

Palmyra Atoll Palmyra Atoll (), also referred to as Palmyra Island, is one of the Northern Line Islands (southeast of Kingman Reef and north of Kiribati). It is located almost due south of the Hawaiian Islands, roughly one-third of the way between Hawaii a ...

, is considered to be incorporated, meaning the full body of the Constitution has been applied to it; the other territories are

unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

, meaning the Constitution does not fully apply to them. Ten territories (the Minor Outlying Islands and American Samoa) are considered to be unorganized, meaning they have not had an

organic act In United States law, an organic act is an act of the United States Congress that establishes a territory of the United States and specifies how it is to be governed, or an agency to manage certain federal lands. In the absence of an organ ...

enacted by Congress; the four other territories are organized, 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 is

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, with a population of 39,538,223 people, while the smallest is Wyoming, with a population of 576,851 people; the federal district has a larger population (689,545) than both Wyoming and

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

. The largest state by area is

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

, encompassing 665,384

square mile The square mile (abbreviated as sq mi and sometimes as mi2)Rowlett, Russ (September 1, 2004) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved February 22, 2012. is an imperial and US unit of measure for area. One square mile is an ar ...

s (1,723,337

square kilometer Square kilometre ( International spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures) or square kilometer (American spelling), symbol km2, is a multiple of the square metre, the SI unit of area or surface area. 1 km2 is ...

s), while the smallest is

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

, encompassing 1,545 square miles (4,001 square kilometers). The most recent states to be admitted, Alaska and

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

, were admitted in 1959. The largest territory by population is

, with a population of 3,285,874 people (larger than 21 states), while the smallest is the

, with a population of 47,329 people. Puerto Rico is the largest territory by area, encompassing 5,325 square miles (13,791 square kilometers); the smallest territory,

Kingman Reef Kingman Reef is a largely submerged, uninhabited, triangle-shaped reef, geologically an atoll, east-west and north-south, in the North Pacific Ocean, roughly halfway between the Hawaiian Islands and American Samoa. It has an area of 3 hectar ...

, encompasses only 0.005 square miles (0.01 square kilometers).

States

Federal district

Territories

Inhabited territories

Uninhabited territories

Disputed territories

Explanatory notes

References

External links

State Resource Guides, from the Library of Congress

State and Territorial Governments on USA.gov
{{Interwiki extra, qid=Q35657

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

United States, States * States and territories States jv:Pamérangan pulitik Amérika Sarékat