U.S. state
constituent political entity sharing sovereignty as the United States of America U.S. State Also known as: Commonwealth (in four states) Category Federated state Location United States Number 50 Populations Smallest: Wyoming, 579,315 Largest: California, 39,536,653 [1] Areas Smallest: Rhode Island, 1,545 square miles (4,000 km 2 ) Largest: Alaska, 665,384 square miles (1,723,340 km 2 ) [2] Government State government Subdivisions County (or equivalent) A state is a constituent political entity of the United States. There are currently 50 states, which are bound together in a union with each other. Each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a defined geographic territory and shares its sovereignty with the United States federal government. Due to the shared sovereignty between each state and the federal government, Americans are citizens of both the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. [3] State citizenship and reside...