Professional Cleaning Services Serving Rhode Island

Rhode Island
State
State of Rhode Island
Flag Seal
Nickname(s):  The Ocean State Little Rhody
Motto:  Hope
Anthem: “Rhode Island’s It for Me”
Map of the United States with Rhode Island highlighted
Country	United States
Before statehood	Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
Admitted to the Union	May 29, 1790 (13th)
Capital (and largest city)	Providence
Largest county or equivalent	Providence
Largest metro and urban areas	Greater Boston (combined) Providence (metro and urban)
Government
• Governor	Dan McKee (D)
• Lieutenant governor	Sabina Matos (D)
Legislature	Rhode Island General Assembly
• Upper house	Senate
• Lower house	House of Representatives
Judiciary	Rhode Island Supreme Court
U.S. senators	Jack Reed (D) Sheldon Whitehouse (D)
U.S. House delegation	1: Gabe Amo (D) 2: Seth Magaziner (D) (list)
Area
• Total	1,545 sq mi (4,001 km)
• Land	1,034 sq mi (2,678 km)
• Water	511 sq mi (1,324 km)  33.1%
• Rank	50th
Dimensions
• Length	48 mi (77 km)
• Width	37 mi (60 km)
Elevation	200 ft (60 m)
Highest elevation (Jerimoth Hill)	812 ft (247 m)
Lowest elevation (Atlantic Ocean)	0 ft (0 m)
Population  (2020 Census Results)
• Total	1,098,163
• Rank	45th
• Density	1,006/sq mi (388/km)
• Rank	2nd
• Median household income	$63,870
• Income rank	15th
Demonym	Rhode Islander
Language
• Official language	De jure: None De facto: English
Time zone	UTC−05:00 (Eastern)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−04:00 (EDT)
USPS abbreviation	RI
ISO 3166 code	US-RI
Traditional abbreviation	R.I.
Latitude	41° 09′ N to 42° 01′ N
Longitude	71° 07′ W to 71° 54′ W
Website	ri.gov

Rhode Island (, pronounced “road”) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Island Sound; and shares a small maritime border with New York, east of Long Island. Rhode Island is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020; but it has grown at every decennial count since 1790 and is the second-most densely populated state, after New Jersey. The state takes its name from the eponymous island, though nearly all its land area is on the mainland. Providence is its capital and most populous city.

Native Americans lived around Narragansett Bay before English settlers began arriving in the early 17th century. Rhode Island was unique among the Thirteen British Colonies in having been founded by a refugee, Roger Williams, who fled religious persecution in the Massachusetts Bay Colony to establish a haven for religious liberty. He founded Providence in 1636 on land purchased from local tribes, creating the first settlement in North America with an explicitly secular government. The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations subsequently became a destination for religious and political dissenters and social outcasts, earning it the moniker “Rogue’s Island”.

Rhode Island was the first colony to call for a Continental Congress, in 1774, and the first to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown, on May 4, 1776. After the American Revolution, during which it was heavily occupied and contested, Rhode Island became the fourth state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, on February 9, 1778. Because its citizens favored a weaker central government, it boycotted the 1787 convention that had drafted the United States Constitution, which it initially refused to ratify; it finally ratified it on May 29, 1790, the last of the original 13 states to do so.

The state was officially named the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations since the colonial era but came to be commonly known as “Rhode Island”. On November 3, 2020, the state’s voters approved an amendment to the state constitution formally dropping “and Providence Plantations” from its full name. Its official nickname is the “Ocean State”, a reference to its 400 mi (640 km) of coastline and the large bays and inlets that make up about 14% of its area.