Rhode Island


(Details)	(Details)

List of states

Capital:

Providence

State motto:

Hope (Hope)

Surface:

3,144 km²

Residents:

1,056,426 (2016 estimated) (334 U / km²)

Member since:

May 29, 1790

Time zone:

Eastern: UTC − 5 / −4

The highest point:

247 m ( Jerimoth Hill )

Average Height:

60 m

Deepest point:

0 m ( Atlantic Ocean )

Governor :

Gina Raimondo ( D )

Post / Office / ISO

RI / RI / US-RI

Map of Rhode Island

Rhode Island ( English pronunciation [ ˌɹoʊ̯dˈaɪ̯lənd ] ) is the smallest state in the United States and part of the New England region . The official name of Rhode Island is State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations . Adriaen Block , a Dutch researcher, named the country “Rhode Eylandt” because of its red earth, which over the years became the English Rhode Island. The nicknames Rhode Islands are The Ocean State and Little Rhody . The origin of the state is today's capital Providence , which was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams and is located on Narragansett Bay .

geography

Position and extent

Rhode Island counties

Located in New England, Rhode Island is bordered by Massachusetts to the north and east , the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and Connecticut to the west . The eponymous island of Rhode Island is located in Narragansett Bay .

With its total size of 3144 km² it is the smallest US state in terms of area. Its land area of 2709 km² is about as large as the Saarland (2569 km²), Vorarlberg (2533 km²) or the canton of Ticino (2812 km²). The water area is 438 km², which is about 13.9% of the total area.

Rhode Island extends in a north-south direction of 65 km between 41 ° 18'N to 42 ° 1'N and in an east-west direction 50 km between 71 ° 8'W to 71 ° 53'W.

structure

The state is divided into the counties of Providence , Kent , Bristol , Newport and Washington .

county	Resident July 1, 2005	Administrative headquarters
Bristol	52,743	Bristol
Kent	171,590	East Greenwich
Newport	83,740	Newport
Providence	639.453	Providence
Washington	128,463	South Kingstown

Rivers and bodies of water

The coastline is almost 800 kilometers long. A six-kilometer coastal footpath runs between the Atlantic Ocean and the gardens and parks of the mansions on the edge of Newport.

population

Population development
Census	Residents	± in%
1790	68,825	-
1800	69.122	0.4%
1810	76,931	11.3%
1820	83.059	8th %
1830	97.199	17%
1840	108,830	12%
1850	147,545	35.6%
1860	174,620	18.4%
1870	217.353	24.5%
1880	276,531	27.2%
1890	345.506	24.9%
1900	428,556	24%
1910	542.610	26.6%
1920	604.397	11.4%
1930	687.497	13.7%
1940	713,346	3.8%
1950	791.896	11%
1960	859.488	8.5%
1970	946.725	10.1%
1980	947.154	0%
1990	1.003.464	5.9%
2000	1,048,319	4.5%
2010	1,052,567	0.4%
2015 estimate	1,056,298	0.4%
Before 1900, 1900–1990, 2000, 2015 estimate

Population density

Rhode Island has 1,052,567 inhabitants (as of the 2010 census ), of which 81.4% are white, 5.7% African-American, 12.4% Central or Latin American, 2.9% Asian, 0.6% Indians.

Rhode Island is grappling with a population decline. In the 2010 US census, only Michigan experienced a population decline. In Rhode Island, the population increased by only 0.4%, or 4,248 people, in 10 years. The US authorities now estimate that the population fell by 0.1 percent or 1,265 people between April 1, 2010 (census) and July 1, 2011. For many states on the east coast, this ends the phase of population growth that has sometimes lasted well over 100 years.

Religions

A little over 51% of Rhode Island's residents are Catholic . The Anglican Episcopal Church has 26,756 and the American Baptist Churches USA 20,997. This makes Rhode Island one of only five US states in which a single religious group has an absolute majority. (The others are the majority Catholic states of Massachusetts and New Mexico, as well as Mississippi, where Baptists make up the majority of the population, and the Mormon Utah ). Christians from all walks of life make up 64% of the population, followed by 2% Jews and 2% others. In addition there are 37% non-denominational and religious people of different views.

education

Brown University , Providence
Bryant University , Smithfield
Community College of Rhode Island , Providence
Gibbs College , Cranston
Johnson & Wales University , Providence
Naval War College , Newport
New England Institute of Technology , Warwick
Providence College , Providence
Rhode Island College , Providence
Rhode Island School of Design , Providence, with the Rhode Island School of Design Museum
Roger Williams University , Bristol
Salve Regina University , Newport
University of Rhode Island , Kingston

Biggest cities

List of cities in Rhode Island

history

Native Americans, including the Wampanoag , Narraganset, and Niantic , lived throughout the area that is now Rhode Island. Most of the Indians were killed by the white colonialists or perished from diseases brought in. The Narragansett language practically died out and was no longer spoken. The language was preserved in the book A Key into the Languages of America (1643) by the anthropologist, state philosopher, politician, and theologian Roger Williams , a Baptist who had been banished from the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony . The descendants of the Narragansett are recognized in Rhode Island today. In 1511, for the first time, a European explorer took note of the coasts of what would later become the Rhode Islands. The Portuguese navigator Miguel Corte-Real sailed past the coast without landing there.

The colony, later named Rhode Island and Providence Plantations , was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams . The colony's constitution, drafted by Williams, was democratic and granted members of all denominations full freedom of belief and conscience. Rhode Island outlawed slavery as early as 1652. During the American Revolutionary War , Rhode Island was a theater of war.

British troops occupied Newport between 1777 and 1778 and persuaded the rebels to move to Bristol.

In the Battle of Rhode Island in the summer of 1778, the attempt to drive the British from Narragansett Bay failed. The British later wanted to concentrate on New York and left Newport without a fight.

In 1780 the French landed at Newport under the command of Rochambeau and held their headquarters there. The French were so popular there that the legal discrimination against Catholics was lifted. On May 29, 1790, Rhode Island became the 13th state of the United States as one of the Thirteen Colonies .

During the American Civil War , Rhode Island added 25,236 men to the Northern Army, 1,685 died. In 1866, Rhode Island abolished segregation . Between the 1860s and 1880s immigrants immigrated from England, Ireland, Germany, Sweden and Quebec. At the end of the 19th century, immigrants came increasingly from the Mediterranean area. In the early 20th century, Rhode Island had a booming industry. 28,817 Rhode Island men fought in World War I , 612 of whom died. The Spanish flu hit Rhode Island hard after the war.

In the 1920s and 1930s the number of immigrants increased, which gave the Ku Klux Klan a boost. The Watchman Industrial School in Scituate, Rhode Island , a school for black children, was reportedly set on fire by the clan.

The Rhode Island Democratic Party has dominated local politics since the Great Depression . In March 2010, Rhode Island was hit by a flood. Among other things, the Pawtuxet River overflowed its banks.

Movie and TV

The fictional town of "Quahog" in Rhode Island is the location of the American cartoon series Family Guy .

Films directed by Bobby Farrelly are often set in his native Rhode Island. The films include, for example, Dumb and Dumber or Me, Both & Them .

Providence is the location of the television series of the same name .

politics

Rhode Island State Capitol

The Rhode Island Constitution dates back to 1842 and has been changed many times. At the head of the executive is the governor , who is elected for four years. The Legislative Rhode Islands ( General Assembly ) consists of a Senate with 50 and a House of Representatives with 100 members. Both are elected for two years. Rhode Island sends two MPs to the United States House of Representatives and has four electors in the presidential election. Rhode Island has the largest electoral density for its area.

For a long time, Senator Lincoln Chafee was by far the most liberal Republican in the Senate, until he was voted out of office in 2006 in favor of Sheldon Whitehouse . Chafee later resigned from the Republican Party and won the November 2010 gubernatorial election in Rhode Island as an independent candidate. He has been a member of the Democratic Party since 2013 .

In 2009 there was an initiative by primarily Afro-American citizens of the state to have the addition of the state name ... and Providence Plantations due to its reference to the age of slavery in the USA by the legislature deleted.

Governors

congress

Culture and sights

Regular events

The so-called Newport Folk Festival has been held in Newport since 1958 . The festival was founded by George Wein , who founded the Newport Jazz Festival five years earlier , and Albert Grossman , who later became Bob Dylan's manager . Over the years, many later well-known musicians made their first appearance here. B. Joan Baez , Arlo Guthrie, and James Taylor .

Economy and Infrastructure

The real gross domestic product per capita (English per capita real GDP) was USD 54,365 in 2016 (national average of the 50 US states: USD 57,118; national ranking: 24 of 50). The unemployment rate was 4.3% in November 2017 (national average: 4.1%).

Economic sectors are tool making, textile industry, metal processing industry, plastics industry, shipbuilding, tourism, medical research, oceanic research institutions, fishing and agriculture (2%).

traffic

air traffic

The state has a number of airports , from which the Theodore Francis Green State Airport in the city of Providence is served by major American airlines.

railroad

The only railroad company in Rhode Island is the Providence and Worcester Railroad . It operates the former New Haven route from New York , NY to Boston , Massachusetts and the route to Worcester, Massachusetts .

Amtrak has set up its high-speed service in the northeast corridor on this route with the Acela Express . The only stop for the Acela Express trains in Rhode Island is Providence. The other Amtrak trains (called Northeast Regional) also stop in Westerley and Kingston.

literature

Patrick T. Conley: The Rhode Island State Constitution. Oxford University Press, New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-19-977871-3 .
William McLoughlin: Rhode Island: A History. W. W. Norton, New York 1986, ISBN 0-393-30271-7 .