FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA
Explore America
Click any state to discover what makes it exceptional. Every state is a story.
Texas
(TX)"The Lone Star State"
America's energy powerhouse, home to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, and is the nation's largest exporter of goods.
The Alamo & NASA Space Center
State Heritage Site
Historical Fact: Only state to enter by treaty, and was its own independent republic for 9 years.
Official Motto
"Friendship"
Iconic Brand / Entity
ExxonMobil / AT&T / Tesla / Texas Instruments
State Capitol
Austin
Flag
The 'Lone Star Flag' featuring vertical blue stripe and horizontal red and white stripes.
Seal
Depicts a five-pointed star surrounded by olive and live oak branches.
Admission to the Union
December 29, 1845 (28th state)
40 of 538 electoral votes — 7.4% of the Electoral College.
- It is illegal to sell one's own organs.
- It is illegal to shoot a buffalo from the second story of a hotel.
- The only U.S. state to enter the Union via treaty as an independent republic.
- First state to establish a space control and astronaut training center (NASA Houston).
- Interstate Compact for Adult Offender Supervision · 2002
- Multistate Tax Commission · 1967
- ERCOT — The Texas Interconnection · 1970
- Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) · 1996
Same Region
South States· 15 total
The Fifty Constitutions
State Constitutions
Unlike the federal Constitution, every state has its own constitution. Some are short and durable; others run to hundreds of thousands of words and have been amended hundreds of times. Pick a state on the map to read its constitution.
Texas
- Severely limits executive powers of the governor, dividing authority.
- Bars the state from creating personal income taxes without voter referendums.
The average US state constitution runs about 31,612 words — more than four times the length of the federal Constitution (roughly 7,600 words).
The State Budget
How States Make Money
Every state raises its money differently. Some have no income tax, some have no sales tax, and a few live off oil and gas. Click a source to see what it's made of.
Shares of general revenue, fiscal year 2024
Select a revenue source to see how Texas raises it.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State Government Finances, fiscal year 2024. "General revenue" excludes liquor stores, utilities and insurance trusts.
Federalism in Practice
Interstate Cooperation
The Constitution lets states enter compacts with one another, with the consent of Congress. The result is a web of agreements governing rivers, bridges, power grids, and disaster response across state lines. Pick an agreement to see its members.
Divides the Colorado River between an Upper Basin (CO, WY, UT, NM) and a Lower Basin (AZ, NV, CA). It allocated more water than the river reliably carries — the root of today's shortage negotiations.
The negotiators, chaired by Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover, used streamflow records from an unusually wet stretch of years and concluded the river carried about 16.4 million acre-feet annually. The long-run average is closer to 13 million. Every drought crisis since has been an argument with the arithmetic of 1922.
Signed at Bishop's Lodge — Santa Fe, New Mexico
National Ranking
Top 5 · GDP
National Ranking
Top 5 · Population
E Pluribus Unum — Out of Many, One
The United States of America is a federal republic of 50 diverse states spanning ancient forests, endless plains, deep canyons, and majestic coastlines. From the founding thirteen colonies along the Atlantic coast to the towering volcanic peaks of the Pacific Northwest, each state contributes its own unique economy, heritage, and character to the shared tapestry of the Union.
States Directory (50)
Alabama
Montgomery
Alaska
Juneau
Arizona
Phoenix
Arkansas
Little Rock
California
Sacramento
Colorado
Denver
Connecticut
Hartford
Delaware
Dover
Florida
Tallahassee
Georgia
Atlanta
Hawaii
Honolulu
Idaho
Boise
Illinois
Springfield
Indiana
Indianapolis
Iowa
Des Moines
Kansas
Topeka
Kentucky
Frankfort
Louisiana
Baton Rouge
Maine
Augusta
Maryland
Annapolis
Massachusetts
Boston
Michigan
Lansing
Minnesota
St. Paul
Mississippi
Jackson
Missouri
Jefferson City
Montana
Helena
Nebraska
Lincoln
Nevada
Carson City
New Hampshire
Concord
New Jersey
Trenton
New Mexico
Santa Fe
New York
Albany
North Carolina
Raleigh
North Dakota
Bismarck
Ohio
Columbus
Oklahoma
Oklahoma City
Oregon
Salem
Pennsylvania
Harrisburg
Rhode Island
Providence
South Carolina
Columbia
South Dakota
Pierre
Tennessee
Nashville
Texas
Austin
Utah
Salt Lake City
Vermont
Montpelier
Virginia
Richmond
Washington
Olympia
West Virginia
Charleston
Wisconsin
Madison
Wyoming
Cheyenne