Federative units of Brazil

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A map of the United States with all 50 states and the District of Columbia. 48 states and the District of Columbia are contigous, located north of Mexico and south of Canada. Alaska is located in the extreme northwest of North America, bordering Yukon and British Columbia, and Hawaii is located in the Pacific Ocean.

The United States of America is a federal republic consisting of 50 states and one federal district (Washington, D.C.).[1] States are the primary subdivisions of the United States, and possess a number of powers and rights under the United States Constitution, such as regulating intrastate commerce, running elections, creating local governments, and ratifying Constitutional amendments. Under the 10th amendment to the Constitution, the states can exercise all powers that are not delegated to the federal government.[2] Each state has its own government, consisting of an executive branch, a legislative branch, and a judicial branch.[3] They are all represented in the federal Congress by two members of the Senate, and is represented proportionally to their population in the House of Representatives.[4] The federal district does not have representatives in the Senate, but has a non-voting delgate in the House. Each state is entitled to electors in the Electoral College, the body that elects the President of the United States, equal to the combined number of senators and representatives that state has in Congress.[5] Congress can admit more states into the United 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.[6]

In addition to the 50 states and federal district, the United States has control over fourteen territories. Five of them (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) have a permanent, nonmilitary population, while nine of them (the United States Minor Outlying Islands) do not. With the exception of Navassa Island, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, which are located in the Caribbean, all territories are located in the Pacific Ocean. One territory, Palmyra Atoll, is considered to be incorporated, meaning the full body of the Constitution has been applied to it; the other territories are unincorporated, 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 enacted by Congress; the four other territories are organized, meaning they have had 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.

Out of the 50 states, California is the most populous, with an estimated 38,041,430 residents as of 2012; Wyoming is the least populous, with an estimated 576,412 residents. The District of Columbia, with an estimated 632,323 residents as of 2012, has a higher population than the two least populous states (Wyoming and Vermont). The largest state by area is Alaska, encompassing 665,384 square miles (1,723,337 square kilometers), while the smallest Rhode Island, encompassing 1,545 square miles (4,002 square kilometers). The first state to ratify the current Constitution was Delaware, which it did on December 7, 1787. The newest state is Hawaii, which was admitted to the Union on August 21, 1959. The largest territory in terms of both population and size is Puerto Rico, which has 3,725,789 residents as of the 2010 census and a total area of 5,325 square miles (13,792 square kilometers).

Federative units

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States

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States of Brazil
State Abbr. Capital Statehood Region Population Area in km2 (sq mi) Deputies
  Acre BR-AC Rio Branco June 15, 1962 North 733,559 164,123.040 (63,368.260) 8 (1.6%)
  Alagoas BR-AL Maceió November 15, 1889 Northeast 3,120,494 27,778.506 (10,725.341) 9 (1.8%)
  Amapá BR-AP Macapá October 5, 1988 North 669,526 142,828.521 (55,146.400) 8 (1.6%)
  Amazonas BR-AM Manaus November 15, 1889 North 3,483,985 1,559,159.148 (601,994.713) 8 (1.6%)
  Bahia BR-BA Salvador November 15, 1889 Northeast 14,016,906 564,733.177 (218,044.699) 39 (7.6%)
  Ceará BR-CE Fortaleza November 15, 1889 Northeast 8,452,381 148,920.472 (57,498.516) 22 (4.3%)
  Espírito Santo BR-ES Vitória November 15, 1889 Southeast 3,514,952 46,095.583 (17,797.604) 10 (1.9%)
  Goiás BR-GO Goiânia November 15, 1889 Central-West 6,003,788 340,111.783 (131,317.894) 17 (3.3%)
  Maranhão BR-MA São Luís November 15, 1889 Northeast 6,574,789 331,937.450 (128,161.766) 18 (3.5%)
  Mato Grosso BR-MT Cuiabá November 15, 1889 Central-West 3,035,122 903,366.192 (348,791.637) 8 (1.6%)
  Mato Grosso do Sul BR-MS Campo Grande October 11, 1977 Central-West 2,449,024 357,145.532 (137,894.661) 8 (1.6%)
  Minas Gerais BR-MG Belo Horizonte November 15, 1889 Southeast 19,597,330 586,522.122 (226,457.457) 53 (10.3%)
  Pará BR-PA Belém November 15, 1889 North 7,581,051 1,247,954.666 (481,837.990) 17 (3.3%)
  Paraíba BR-PB João Pessoa November 15, 1889 Northeast 3,766,528 56,469.778 (21,803.103) 12 (2.3%)
  Paraná BR-PR Curitiba November 15, 1889 South 10,444,526 199,307.922 (76,953.219) 30 (5.8%)
  Pernambuco BR-PE Recife November 15, 1889 Northeast 8,796,448 98,148.323 (37,895.279) 25 (4.9%)
  Piauí BR-PI Teresina November 15, 1889 Northeast 3,118,360 251,577.738 (97,134.708) 10 (1.9%)
  Rio de Janeiro BR-RJ Rio de Janeiro November 15, 1889 Southeast 15,989,929 43,780.172 (16,903.619) 46 (9%)
  Rio Grande do Norte BR-RN Natal November 15, 1889 Northeast 3,168,027 52,811.047 (20,390.459) 8 (1.6%)
  Rio Grande do Sul BR-RS Porto Alegre November 15, 1889 South 10,693,929 281,730.223 (108,776.647) 31 (6%)
  Rondônia BR-RO Porto Velho December 22, 1981 North 1,562,409 237,590.547 (91,734.223) 8 (1.6%)
  Roraima BR-RR Boa Vista October 5, 1988 North 450,479 224,300.506 (86,602.910) 8 (1.6%)
  Santa Catarina BR-SC Florianópolis November 15, 1889 South 6,248,436 95,736.165 (36,963.940) 16 (3.1%)
  São Paulo BR-SP São Paulo November 15, 1889 Southeast 41,262,199 248,222.801 (95,839.359) 70 (13.6%)
  Sergipe BR-SE Aracaju November 15, 1889 Northeast 2,068,017 21,915.116 (8,461.474) 8 (1.6%)
  Tocantins BR-TO Palmas October 5, 1988 North 1,383,445 277,720.520 (107,228.492) 8 (1.6%)

Federal district

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Federal district of Brazil
Federal district Abbr. Creation Region Population Area in km2 (sq mi) Deputies
  Federal District BR-DF April 21, 1960 Central-West 2,570,160 5,779.999 (2,231.670) 8 (1.6%)

Territories

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History

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References

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  • "Definitions of Insular Area Political Organizations". Office of Insular Affairs. Retrieved July 10, 2013.
  • "Delegates and Resident Commissioners". Kids in the House. Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. Retrieved July 9, 2013.
  • "Guide to State and Local Census Geography" (PDF) (pdf). United States Census Bureau. Retrieved July 8, 2013.
  • "Standard Postal Service State Abbreviations and ZIP Codes" (PDF) (pdf). Internal Revenue Service. Retrieved July 9, 2013.
  • "U.S. Insular Areas: Application of the U.S. Constitution" (PDF) (pdf). United States General Accounting Office. November 1997. Retrieved July 9, 2013.

Notes

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Notes

Footnotes

  1. ^ "United States". Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Retrieved July 10, 2013.
  2. ^ "Map Layer Info". National Atlas of the United States. nationalatlas.gov. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
  3. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions About the Minnesota Legislature". Minnesota State Legislature. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
  4. ^ Article I, Section 2, Constitution of the United States (June 21, 1788). Retrieved on July 10, 2013.
  5. ^ Article II, Section 1, Constitution of the United States (June 21, 1788). Retrieved on July 10, 2013.
  6. ^ Article IV, Section 3, Constitution of the United States (June 21, 1788). Retrieved on July 10, 2013.

See also

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