51st state

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The 51st state in American political discourse refers to the concept of granting statehood to one of the United States' territories, splitting one or more of the existing states up to form a new state, or granting statehood to the District of Columbia, thereby increasing the number of states in the Union (something that has not happened since Hawaii was admitted in 1959) from 50 to 51.

Voters in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have both voted for statehood in referenda.^[1][2][3] As statehood candidates, their admission to the Union requires congressional approval.^[4] American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands are other U.S. territories that could potentially become U.S. states.^[5]

The phrase can be used in a positive sense, meaning that a region or territory is so aligned, supportive, and conducive with the United States, that it is like a U.S. state, or in a pejorative sense, meaning an area or region is under excessive American cultural or military influence or control. People who believe their local or national culture has become too Americanized sometimes use the term in reference to their own countries.^[6] Before Alaska and Hawaii became states of the United States in 1959, the equivalent expression was "the 49th state".