states US
 

Hi,
I am living in Europe.
We have disussion going on about how many states the US has?
Is it 50 or 51 ?????

50

thank you!!

Maybe whomever was saying 51 was counting DC-Washington, DC, the District of Columbia?

But we do have 50 states.

Or Guam, or Puerto Rico, or Iraq . . .

... Or "Superior: Our 51st State" (something the residents of Michigan's Upper Peninsula suggest from time to time.) :)

Of course we can get into the wacky world of semantics. Kentucky claims to be a "commonwealth" not a "state." So does Massachussetts.

Pennsylvania also, I believe.

The latest move for a 51srtstate is NYC - separating from New York State. I don;t think it's going to happen - now that the courts are finally straightening out some of the inequities in funding that were the driving force of the idea.

(New York City taxes support the rest of New York State - as well as 6 or 7 of the poorest states in the US - but was being so underserved in some ares that the state courts finally stepped in - and have mandated that a fairer share of tax money be returned to NYC in services.)

four commonwealths, you forgot to include Virginia

Just wondering, what is the difference btw. a state and a commonwealth?

There are actually a lot of interesting facts about our states. For example, in Louisiana, they have parishes and not counties. Or the offical name of Rhode Island is actually "State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations".

There isn't a difference between Commonwealths and States. Here's a website that speaks about it:

http://www.magazineusa.com/lv2/polit...mmonwealth.asp

I do know Virginia has strange laws of annexation, which I thought were related to its commonwealth status. The counties in southeastern Virginia are incorporated as cities, so you see some huge looking cities on the map, like Chesapeake, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. Norfolk isn't in a county at all. I had thought that all had to do with laws that came along with the state being a commonwealth originally. There might be other vestiges of some sort of English law within the commonwealth states, but basically, it's just a historic designation.

There are several "51st" state options that have not been mentioned. I have seen websites for the following: Statehood for Upstate New York (I guess the Upstate New Yorkers want to give their Downstate brethren a swift kick - can't say that I blame them). California has a secession movement going on up north, there are several northern California counties that think they would be better off without LA and the rest of southern California. They want to call their new state, Jefferson. There are a few Canadian provinces that want to pull out of the Confederation and join the US - websites for Statehood for Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec (George Washinton really wanted Quebec to become the 14th colony - he might get his wish). Also a few independent countries want to join - try websites for Guyana, the Philippines and Cuba (check it out). Guam would like to make itself a bit larger by adding the Northern Marianas, the Marshalls, Micronesia, and Palau and a few other Pacific islands and be admitted as the state of Oceania. It will be interesting to see what happens.

While the net result will still be 50, there are many of us here on the Delmarva Pennusulia who would like to see Del south of Dover, Eastern Shore of Md, and Easterne Shore of Va become one state. Give Wilmington to Pa :)

Another interesting fact about Virginia is that the cities do not reside within a county. They are a separate jurisdiction. In most states, being a resident of a city (Charlotte, e.g.)would also mean that you are a resident of a county (Mecklenburg). Not so in Virginia. A resident of Richmond is not a resident of any county. The surrounding counties, Henrico and Chestefield, do not have any cities within their borders.

Bootcamp,
add one more...........

Crawford, Texas