Delaware was the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
Delaware’s ratifying convention approved the Constitution on December 7, 1787, just over two months after the Constitutional Convention sent the document to the states. Its vote was unanimous: 30 delegates supported ratification and none opposed it.
The order mattered because Article VII required approval from nine of the 13 states for the Constitution to take effect. Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify, followed by New Jersey and Georgia. Delaware’s early approval earned it the nickname “The First State.”
A common mix-up is confusing the first ratifying state with the ninth. New Hampshire supplied the decisive ninth ratification on June 21, 1788, allowing the new constitutional government to proceed. Delaware’s action came much earlier and is part of the broader founding-era history remembered during America250.