The United States of America was created in the 18th century with the Declaration of Independence by 13 British colonies in North America. The country expanded its territory throughout the 19th and 20th centuries with Hawaii being the 50th and final state admitted on Aug. 21, 1959.
Today's U.S consists of the contiguous lower 48 states and the District of Columbia and the non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii. The total area of these states is 9.6 million square kilometers, according to Nations Encyclopedia, excluding the nation's territories and dependencies. While the U.S. is the third-largest country in the world by area, sometimes, good things come in small packages.
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According to World Atlas, Rhode Island is the smallest state with a total area of 3,144 square kilometers. Following Rhode Island, Delaware and Connecticut are the smallest states by area.
While Rhode Island might be tiny, it's not the smallest in terms of population in the U.S. The state with the least population is Wyoming, according to World Population Review. Wyoming, which is approximately 80 times larger in area than Rhode Island, has a population short of 600,000. This is about half of Rhode Island's population.
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Maybe you're tired of driving around the big states and want to move to the smaller ones or, perhaps, you're helping your child do their homework. Whatever the case, here are the top 10 smallest states in the U.S., by size, according to the World Atlas.
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Delaware was the first of 13 original states to be ratified into the U.S. Constitution on Dec. 7, 1787. Because of this, the state was officially nicknamed "The First State" in 2002, according to Delaware's official website.
Holding the title for the second smallest state in the country, Delaware has a total area of 5,130 square kilometers approximately, according to World Atlas.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What is the smallest state in the US? These are the 10 smallest states across America.