Talk:List of states and territories of the United States

Request for comment on proposed changes to the list

There is a clear consensus to use the second image, the map with the 50 states, District of Columbia, and 5 major U.S. territories.

Cunard (talk) 10:29, 26 January 2020 (UTC)

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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In the article List of states and territories of the United States, there is a dispute about which map should be used in the article. One map features only the 50 states and District of Columbia (with Alaska and Hawaii in insets), while the other map features the 50 states, District of Columbia, and 5 major U.S. territories in insets. There is also a dispute about whether to include a map of the Exclusive Economic Zone of the U.S. within the "Territories" section, alongside (or replacing) the world map currently in that section. Also, there is a dispute about whether to include a short section describing Native American reservations (which in some cases are considered first-order administrative divisions like the states and territories). 15:56, 29 November 2019 (UTC)

Maps:

Map with only the 50 states and District of Columbia

Map with the 50 states, District of Columbia, and 5 major U.S. territories

Exclusive Economic Zone map

• Support adding the map featuring the 50 states, District of Columbia, and 5 major U.S. territories. Because this is an article about states and territories, the map should feature both. The U.S. Minor Outlying Islands are uninhabited and don't need to be on the map. Also, the Exclusive Economic Zone map should be featured alongside the other map in the territories section. In addition, I support adding a section about Native American reservations (they are already considered first-order administrative divisions, like the states and territories, in various Wikipedia templates). LumaP15 (talk) 20:49, 30 November 2019 (UTC)

• Oppose This article is about states, territories, and DC, which are the principal administrative units of the United States with federal representation in Congress. In theory, every territory can become a state, and most territories have become states. In contrast, reservations are semi-sovereign entities with no federal representation and no constitutional role. They fall outside the scope of this article and are thus not included and are instead covered in List of Indian reservations in the United States. Moreover, including some but not all territories in a map is incredibly inaccurate and confusing, and the EEZ has no relevance here at all. This has already been discussed and rejected, so this RfC is both poorly thought out and formatted. This is a featured list and has passed an extensive peer review - massive poorly thought out changes like this could put this status in jeopardy. Toa Nidhiki05 21:43, 30 November 2019 (UTC)

• Support including the map showing states and the inhabited territories. The article, per its title, is about states and territories. The EEZ map is useful as a locator showing the relative geographic positions of the components of US across the globe, but isn't the ideal map for this purpose, the one currently on the page does a decent job. Without a proposed map showing Native American reservations I won't take a position on that part of the rfc. Fitnr 02:05, 3 December 2019 (UTC)

• Support the 2nd image It is the most clear and relevant.HAL333 00:50, 4 December 2019 (UTC)

• Strong Support for the 2nd image to be clear, the one captioned "Map with the 50 states, District of Columbia, and 5 major U.S. territories" best features the subject of the article clearly and in detail. The EEZ should be included alongside the current world-map in the territories section to supplement but not replace it. I see no need to include information on reservations in this article, and if we did there would need to be a page move. However, there should be a link, possibly in the hatnote, to List of Indian reservations in the United States. 2604:2000:8FC0:4:617F:E9A7:AF1C:4546 (talk) 17:02, 12 December 2019 (UTC)

• Support the 2nd image It is the most clear and relevant. BeenAroundAWhile (talk) 02:38, 16 December 2019 (UTC)
• Support the 2nd image - Among the options presented here clearly the best choice.--Staberinde (talk) 21:15, 18 December 2019 (UTC)
• Support 2nd image - better to include the territories, and I appreciate that the insets are clearly marked as such (rather than hawaii being in a lake in mexico). I still think it could be better organized, but it's the better of the two. — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 17:25, 26 December 2019 (UTC)

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The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:U.S. state which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 07:47, 5 February 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 30 June 2020

Washington D.C. has been granted statehood. Please make appropriate charges to page. 2600:8802:1400:C33:6033:72C6:1879:FC6C (talk) 05:38, 30 June 2020 (UTC)

 Not done: The US House passed the bill, but that doesn't make DC a state yet. - BilCat (talk) 06:04, 30 June 2020 (UTC)

At the very least, both houses of Congress would need to pass the bill, but also there would be constitutional issues that would not apply to other states: The Constitution provides for the existence of a district constituting the capital that would not be a part of any state, and a later amendment says that district can appoint members of the electoral college. If that district were pared down to a few building with no permanent residents, would it still appoint electors? And if not, three-fourths of the states would have to ratify an amendment superseding that earlier one. Michael Hardy (talk) 20:21, 5 July 2020 (UTC)

Exactly, but I didn't want to "overwhelm" the user in my reply. :) - BilCat (talk) 20:24, 5 July 2020 (UTC)

Second map (territories map)

In the current map in the territories section, the location of Palmyra Atoll, Kingman Reef, and Jarvis Island is incorrect. They are incorrectly shown as being southeast of Hawaii, when in fact they are actually south-southwest of Hawaii. There is a new map (very similar to the current map) which has been added to various articles — this map shows the correct location of Palmyra Atoll, Kingman Reef, and Jarvis Island. This is the map:

  The 50 states and the District of Columbia

  Incorporated, unorganized territory

  Unincorporated territory with Commonwealth status

  Unincorporated, organized territory

  Unincorporated, unorganized territory

Should this map replace the current territories map? The map above shows the correct location of Palmyra Atoll, Kingman Reef, and Jarvis Island. LumaP15 (talk) 14:43, 28 July 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 5 November 2020

state number of votes state number of votes state number of votes Alabama 9 Kentucky 8 North Dakota 3 Alaska 3 Louisiana 8 Ohio 18 Arizona 11 Maine 4 Oklahoma 7 Arkansas 6 Maryland 10 Oregon 7 California 55 Massachusetts 11 Pennsylvania 20 Colorado 9 Michigan 16 Rhode Island 4 Connecticut 7 Minnesota 10 South Carolina 9 Delaware 3 Mississippi 6 South Dakota 3 District of Columbia 3 Missouri 10 Tennessee 11 Florida 29 Montana 3 Texas 38 Georgia 16 Nebraska 5 Utah 6 Hawaii 4 Nevada 6 Vermont 3 Idaho 4 New Hampshire 4 Virginia 13 Illinois 20 New Jersey 14 Washington 12 Indiana 11 New Mexico 5 West Virginia 5 Iowa 6 New York 29 Wisconsin 10 Kansas 6 North Carolina 15 Wyoming 3 43.224.1.153 (talk) 11:58, 5 November 2020 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Seagull123 Φ 17:31, 5 November 2020 (UTC)

It looks like this was a request to add a table showing the number of each state's electoral votes. But we already show each state's number of representatives, so readers can just add 2 to each number to get the electoral vote, aside from DC. Station1 (talk) 18:38, 5 November 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 18 May 2021

can i have edited request please 2603:9001:4102:D200:90E5:704B:1444:D05D (talk) 22:54, 18 May 2021 (UTC)

 Not done: this is not the right page to request additional user rights. You may reopen this request with the specific changes to be made and someone will add them for you, or if you have an account, you can wait until you are autoconfirmed and edit the page yourself. — IVORK _Talk 01:45, 19 May 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 16 August 2021

Add numbers (S. No.) to the table of the states Aaykay1 (talk) 04:13, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. (pinging Aaykay1) — Lauritz Thomsen (talk) 09:49, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 15 September 2021

Huntsville has surpassed Birmingham as the largest city in Alabama in regard to population as of 2020. The list on this page should be updated to show that Huntsville is the largest city in Alabama instead of Birmingham. Yuriyk94 (talk) 19:28, 15 September 2021 (UTC)

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. (pinging Yuriyk94) — LauritzT (talk) 04:30, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 25 February 2022

The amount of representatives per state is, or at the very least soon will be, incorrect. Updating the amount from 2010s to 2020s is requested. Fili999999 (talk) 10:44, 25 February 2022 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. BilCat (talk) 10:48, 25 February 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 14 November 2022

Pjohnson47 (talk) 19:58, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

I would like to edit a few documents to make them correct. Thank you.

 Not done: this is not the right page to request additional user rights. You may reopen this request with the specific changes to be made and someone may add them for you, or if you have an account, you can wait until you are autoconfirmed and edit the page yourself. Cannolis (talk) 20:09, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

Yes 2001:8F8:1129:F804:D435:F05:BFE5:DEE8 (talk) 08:19, 4 April 2024 (UTC)

Area columns

The list has 13 columns, and six of them (!) are for area.

Now, there's already a list where you can learn all about the areas of US states: List of U.S. states and territories by area. Funnily enough, right now this article doesn't even link there, despite duplicating most of its content.

Look at how other countries' lists treat area: France (one column), Germany (one column), Mexico (one column). The odd one out is Canada at three columns.

I think we could do with Total area mi2 and Total area km2, and add a link to the US area table. Wizmut (talk) 17:27, 30 October 2023 (UTC)

Agree. No compelling reason to break out land and water, and it makes the table too wide on my screen. Station1 (talk) 18:00, 30 October 2023 (UTC)

I think there's valid reason to have them split out, but there's no reason km needs to be its own subcolumn, especially given that unit of measurement isn't used in the US. I would actually favor first and foremost removing km entirely per MOS:UNIT, or at the very least merging the km tables together using Template:Convert; this would eliminate half of the columns. There are some interesting oddities with the US when it comes to area (Michigan is the 11th-largest state, for example, but that's because it's 2nd in water area - in land area it is only 22nd), so I think there is value here. Toa Nidhiki05 19:33, 30 October 2023 (UTC)

Area is an interesting topic for the US, which is why there's List of U.S. states and territories by area.

"Merging" the miles and kilometers into one column wouldn't improve readability or save much (if any) space. See these two edits on another list: [1][2]. The alignment gets thrown out of whack.

I also dream of having just one unit, but I can't find any example of an article about the US that doesn't use both miles and km. Wizmut (talk) 19:44, 30 October 2023 (UTC)

Population columns

Population for all states, federal district, and territories 70.123.44.73 (talk) 20:47, 14 January 2024 (UTC)

Adding official state names

I made these changes to most US states but they got reverted, saying I should ask for consensus, so here I am. I propose adding the official state names after the shortened name. Similar to how France's says "France, officially the French Republic," the US states would say "Texas, officially the State of Texas." The four self-designated commonwealths already have them, so it's only fair the rest of the states get their full names, even if almost all of them are "State of [NAME]." Most countries are either "[NAME] Republic" or "Republic of [NAME]," so I see further reason for this state name change. Ukrainian and Russian Oblasts are "[NAME] Oblast," Poland has "[NAME] Voivodeship," Mexico has "Free and Sovereign State of [NAME]," etc. etc. I think it's only fair that US states receive the same treatment as all these other country's subdivisions (and the countries themselves). Thank you for your time. Erin (PhoenixCaelestis) (talk) 11:47, 18 September 2024 (UTC)

The only reason the 4 that call themselves commonwealths have them is that it's enough of a distinction to warrant mentioning. There's really no reason to add this to every state though. Toa Nidhiki05 17:56, 18 September 2024 (UTC)