Full List of States, Capitals & Territories of the US

The United States of America is made up of 50 states, each with its own unique history, culture and geography. With an estimated population of over 400 million people, Washington, D.C., is the nation’s capital, including five large territories, and numerous small islands. Washington, D.C., along with the 48 contiguous states, are located in North America bordering Canada and Mexico. Hawaii is an archipelago in the middle of the Pacific, and Alaska is an outpost in the far northwest of North America that is solely connected to Canada. The Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea are both filled with American territories.

The 50 separate states and the United States as a whole are each sovereign jurisdictions, according to the many rulings of the US Supreme Court. The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution grants states the right to exercise all governmental functions not specifically assigned to the federal government, preventing the states from functioning as administrative divisions of the nation. These include establishing local governments, conducting elections, controlling intrastate trade, and approving constitutional revisions. Each state has a unique constitution based on republican ideals, as well as an executive, legislative, and judicial branch of government.

In the federal Congress, a bicameral body made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, all states and their citizens are represented. Two senators are allocated to each state, while representatives are distributed according to the most recent decennial census, as required by the constitution. Additionally, each state is allowed to choose as many electors to participate in the Electoral College, the body that chooses the president of the United States, as there are senators and representatives from that state in Congress. The Constitution’s Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 gives Congress the power to admit new states to the Union. The number of states has increased from the initial 13 to the present total of 50 since the founding of the United Ones in 1776, and each new state is accepted on an equal basis with the existing states.

The federal district, which is not a part of any state, is under the “exclusive jurisdiction” of Congress, as stated in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. The district lacked an elected municipal government until the 1973 enactment of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which transferred some Congressional responsibilities to an elected mayor and council. However, Congress still has the authority to review and invalidate council-created laws and get involved in municipal matters. The district is not represented in the Senate because it is not a state. But a non-voting delegate has been standing in for its citizens in the House of Representatives ever since 1971. In addition, the district has had the right to choose three electors to represent it in the Electoral College since 1961, when the 23rd Amendment was ratified.

LIST OF STATES IN THE UNITED STATES AND THEIR CAPITALS

Below is a table showing alphabetically all 50 states and their capitals, population, nicknames and the largest cities in each of the various states in the US.

FULL LIST OF TERRITORIES IN THE UNITED STATES

The United States also controls 14 territories in addition to its 50 states and federal district. Nine of them do not have a permanent nonmilitary population, whereas five of them have (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). All of the territories are situated in the Pacific Ocean, with the exception of Navassa Island, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, which are found in the Caribbean. The remaining territories are unincorporated, which means that the Constitution does not completely apply to them.

Palmyra Atoll is one of the territories that is regarded to be incorporated, meaning that the full body of the Constitution has been applied to it. The Minor Outlying Islands and American Samoa are two of the ten territories that are regarded as unorganized, meaning that Congress has not passed an Organic Act into law. The other four territories are regarded as organized, meaning that Congress has passed an Organic Act into law. In addition to having territorial legislatures and governors, the five inhabited territories also each have a non-voting delegate in Congress and limited autonomy, but citizens are not allowed to vote in federal elections.

Here are all 14 territories of the United States of America

• American Samoa
• Baker Island
• Guam
• Howland Island
• Jarvis Island
• Johnston Atoll
• Kingman Reef
• Midway Islands
• Navassa Island
• Northern Mariana Islands
• Palmyra Atoll
• Puerto Rico
• Virgin Islands
• Wake Island