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The United States of America is a federal republic consisting of 50 states and a federal district (Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States). The U.S. also possesses five major territories and nine minor islands. Both the states and the United States as a whole are each sovereign jurisdictions. The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution allows states to exercise all powers of government not delegated to the federal government. Each state has its own constitution and government. All states and their residents are represented in the federal Congress, a bicameral legislature consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Each state elects two senators, while representatives are distributed among the states in proportion to the most recent constitutionally mandated decennial census.
Each state is entitled to select a number of electors to vote in the Electoral College, the body that elects the nation's president and vice president, 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 in the House, and it is 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 two or more states into one without the consent of all states involved. Each new state is admitted on an equal footing with the existing states.
The United States asserts sovereignty over fourteen territories outside the 50 states and federal district—five of them (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands) with a permanent, non-military population. Nine others (the United States Minor Outlying Islands) are mostly uninhabited. With the exception of Navassa Island, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, which are located in the Caribbean, all U.S. territories are located in the Pacific Ocean. One, Palmyra Atoll, is considered to be incorporated, meaning the full body of the Constitution has been applied to it. The other territories are officially unincorporated, meaning that the Constitution does not fully apply to them. Ten territories (the Minor Outlying Islands and American Samoa) are considered to be unorganized, i.e., an organic act of administration has not been adopted by Congress. The four other territories are organized, meaning an organic act has been approved. The five inhabited territories each have limited autonomy and elect their own territorial legislatures and governors. However, their residents cannot vote in federal elections, including the U.S. presidential elections, although they are represented by non-voting delegates in the U.S. Congress (specifically, in the House of Representatives).
The largest state by population is California, with a population of 39,538,223 people. 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. The largest state by area is Alaska, encompassing 665,384 square miles (1,723,340 km2). The smallest is Rhode Island, encompassing 1,545 square miles (4,000 km2). The most recent states to be admitted, Alaska and Hawaii, were admitted in 1959. The largest territory by population is Puerto Rico, with a population of 3,285,874 people, larger than 21 states. The smallest is the Northern Mariana Islands, with a population of 47,329 people. Puerto Rico is the largest territory by area, encompassing 5,325 square miles (13,790 km2). The smallest territory, Kingman Reef, encompasses 0.005 square miles (0.013 km2), or a little larger than 3 acres.
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