Ways to use this list
- Capital quiz: spin a state and the first player to name its capital scores a point. The hardest are capitals that are not the biggest city, such as Albany, Tallahassee and Springfield.
- State of the day: spin each morning, find the state on a wall map and add one fact to a class chart, such as its state bird, its nickname or the year it joined.
- Neighbour game: press Midwest or South, spin, and name every state that borders the one you land on; Missouri and Tennessee each touch eight others.
- Road trip planning: spin three states and plan a route that links them, with the driving time and one place to stop in each.
- History lesson: press Original 13, which lists the first states in the order they approved the Constitution, and give each pupil one of the old colonies to research.
- State reports: with Remove the winner on, each student draws a different state for a poster on its flag, landscape, biggest city and best-known landmark.
Press Spin the wheel, tap the game or press the Space bar. Change the list in the box as you
like: add your own, delete what doesn't suit you, or write *2 after an entry to give it double the
chance. The game buttons switch the same list to a duck race, hat, claw machine and more.
The full list (50 entries)
- Alabama – Montgomery (1819)
- Alaska – Juneau (1959)
- Arizona – Phoenix (1912)
- Arkansas – Little Rock (1836)
- California – Sacramento (1850)
- Colorado – Denver (1876)
- Connecticut – Hartford (1788)
- Delaware – Dover (1787)
- Florida – Tallahassee (1845)
- Georgia – Atlanta (1788)
- Hawaii – Honolulu (1959)
- Idaho – Boise (1890)
- Illinois – Springfield (1818)
- Indiana – Indianapolis (1816)
- Iowa – Des Moines (1846)
- Kansas – Topeka (1861)
- Kentucky – Frankfort (1792)
- Louisiana – Baton Rouge (1812)
- Maine – Augusta (1820)
- Maryland – Annapolis (1788)
- Massachusetts – Boston (1788)
- Michigan – Lansing (1837)
- Minnesota – Saint Paul (1858)
- Mississippi – Jackson (1817)
- Missouri – Jefferson City (1821)
- Montana – Helena (1889)
- Nebraska – Lincoln (1867)
- Nevada – Carson City (1864)
- New Hampshire – Concord (1788)
- New Jersey – Trenton (1787)
- New Mexico – Santa Fe (1912)
- New York – Albany (1788)
- North Carolina – Raleigh (1789)
- North Dakota – Bismarck (1889)
- Ohio – Columbus (1803)
- Oklahoma – Oklahoma City (1907)
- Oregon – Salem (1859)
- Pennsylvania – Harrisburg (1787)
- Rhode Island – Providence (1790)
- South Carolina – Columbia (1788)
- South Dakota – Pierre (1889)
- Tennessee – Nashville (1796)
- Texas – Austin (1845)
- Utah – Salt Lake City (1896)
- Vermont – Montpelier (1791)
- Virginia – Richmond (1788)
- Washington – Olympia (1889)
- West Virginia – Charleston (1863)
- Wisconsin – Madison (1848)
- Wyoming – Cheyenne (1890)
Questions people ask
Does it include all 50 states?
Yes: all 50, each listed below with its capital and the year it joined the Union. Washington, D.C. is a federal district rather than a state, and territories such as Puerto Rico, Guam and the US Virgin Islands are not states either, so type them on new lines if you want them.
How are the four regions chosen?
The buttons follow the US Census Bureau, which splits the country into the Northeast (9 states), the Midwest (12), the South (16) and the West (13). A few placings surprise people: Oklahoma, Delaware and West Virginia count as the South, and Missouri counts as the Midwest.
Which state joined first, and which joined last?
Delaware was first, approving the Constitution on 7 December 1787, and it still calls itself the First State. Alaska and Hawaii were the last two, both admitted in 1959: Alaska in January and Hawaii in August, which makes Hawaii the 50th state.
Which are the biggest and smallest states?
Alaska is by far the largest by area, more than twice the size of Texas, which comes second. Rhode Island is the smallest. Counting people changes the order: California has the most residents and Wyoming the fewest.
Why is a state capital often not its biggest city?
Many capitals were chosen in the 1700s and 1800s because they were central or a compromise between rival towns, and other cities grew faster later. That is why Albany, not New York City, runs New York, and Sacramento, not Los Angeles, runs California. Phoenix, Boston and Denver are capitals that are also the biggest city in their state.
Is there a world version?
Yes: the random country generator picks from all 195 countries and can narrow to one continent. For places within the US, the random US city generator has at least one city from every state.