Delaware was the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, doing so on December 7, 1787.
The ratification convention in Delaware approved the Constitution unanimously, with 30 votes in favor and none against. Pennsylvania followed five days later, on December 12, 1787. Delaware’s early approval later earned it the nickname “The First State.”
Article VII established the ratification process and stated that approval by nine states would be sufficient for the Constitution to take effect among the ratifying states. New Hampshire became the ninth state on June 21, 1788, while Rhode Island was the last of the original thirteen states to ratify, on May 29, 1790.
Delaware’s first-place status is sometimes confused with the order in which states signed the Constitution at the 1787 Constitutional Convention. Ratification occurred afterward, through state conventions, and Delaware led that process.