Random US State
Generate a random US state, with the option to include Washington, D.C., and see its abbreviation, capital, and the year that capital took on the role.
Pool: 50 entries.
Press Generate to draw.
Why US states get their own page and their own source
Every other tool on this site draws from one ISO-3166-referenced country dataset (see the About page). A US state is a subdivision of a single country, not a country of its own, so it has no entry in that dataset at all -- putting states in the same pool as countries would either silently drop them or misrepresent fifty subdivisions of one nation as fifty peer nations. This page instead draws from two separate, cited federal and reference sources: the U.S. Census Bureau's own state FIPS/abbreviation table for the abbreviation and code, and a sourced capitals reference for the capital city and the year it took on that role.
The full pool
All 50 states, alphabetically, with abbreviation and capital -- the exact list this page draws from (Washington, D.C. is a 51st, opt-in entry, not shown in this table):
| State | Abbr. | Capital | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | AL | Montgomery | 1846 |
| Alaska | AK | Juneau | 1906 |
| Arizona | AZ | Phoenix | 1889 |
| Arkansas | AR | Little Rock | 1821 |
| California | CA | Sacramento | 1854 |
| Colorado | CO | Denver | 1867 |
| Connecticut | CT | Hartford | 1875 |
| Delaware | DE | Dover | 1777 |
| Florida | FL | Tallahassee | 1824 |
| Georgia | GA | Atlanta | 1868 |
| Hawaii | HI | Honolulu | 1845 |
| Idaho | ID | Boise | 1865 |
| Illinois | IL | Springfield | 1837 |
| Indiana | IN | Indianapolis | 1825 |
| Iowa | IA | Des Moines | 1857 |
| Kansas | KS | Topeka | 1856 |
| Kentucky | KY | Frankfort | 1792 |
| Louisiana | LA | Baton Rouge | 1880 |
| Maine | ME | Augusta | 1832 |
| Maryland | MD | Annapolis | 1694 |
| Massachusetts | MA | Boston | 1630 |
| Michigan | MI | Lansing | 1847 |
| Minnesota | MN | Saint Paul | 1849 |
| Mississippi | MS | Jackson | 1864 |
| Missouri | MO | Jefferson City | 1826 |
| Montana | MT | Helena | 1875 |
| Nebraska | NE | Lincoln | 1867 |
| Nevada | NV | Carson City | 1861 |
| New Hampshire | NH | Concord | 1808 |
| New Jersey | NJ | Trenton | 1784 |
| New Mexico | NM | Santa Fe | 1610 |
| New York | NY | Albany | 1797 |
| North Carolina | NC | Raleigh | 1792 |
| North Dakota | ND | Bismarck | 1883 |
| Ohio | OH | Columbus | 1816 |
| Oklahoma | OK | Oklahoma City | 1910 |
| Oregon | OR | Salem | 1855 |
| Pennsylvania | PA | Harrisburg | 1812 |
| Rhode Island | RI | Providence | 1900 |
| South Carolina | SC | Columbia | 1786 |
| South Dakota | SD | Pierre | 1889 |
| Tennessee | TN | Nashville | 1826 |
| Texas | TX | Austin | 1836 |
| Utah | UT | Salt Lake City | 1858 |
| Vermont | VT | Montpelier | 1805 |
| Virginia | VA | Richmond | 1780 |
| Washington | WA | Olympia | 1853 |
| West Virginia | WV | Charleston | 1885 |
| Wisconsin | WI | Madison | 1838 |
| Wyoming | WY | Cheyenne | 1869 |
Sources and fetch date
State names, USPS abbreviations and FIPS codes: U.S. Census Bureau -- state FIPS codes and USPS abbreviations (fetched 2026-09-17). Capital cities and the year each took on the role: Wikipedia -- List of capitals in the United States (State capitals table) (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0), fetched 2026-09-17).
Frequently Asked Questions
Why isn't this part of the main country generator?
Because a US state isn't a country. ISO 3166-1 -- the standard the rest of this site's country data follows -- has no entries for individual US states; they're a second-level ISO 3166-2 subdivision of one country (the United States), sourced here from a different reference entirely. Mixing the two pools would blur exactly the distinction this site is built to be precise about.
Is Washington, D.C. a state?
No -- it's the federal district that serves as the national capital, deliberately not part of any state (a design choice from the Constitution's drafting, so the seat of federal government wouldn't sit inside, and be politically entangled with, any one state). It's included here only as an opt-in toggle, and shown with a note rather than a "capital" field, since a district that is itself a capital doesn't have one of its own the way a state does.
What is the FIPS code shown for each state?
The Federal Information Processing Standard state code -- a two-digit numeric identifier the U.S. Census Bureau and other federal agencies use to reference a state in data systems, alongside (but separate from) the two-letter USPS postal abbreviation.
How old is the oldest state capital?
Santa Fe, New Mexico's capital, has held that role since 1610 -- the longest-standing state capital in the dataset. At the other end, Oklahoma's capital, Oklahoma City, has held the role since 1910, the most recent of the fifty.
Has every state always had the same capital?
No -- several states moved their capital city at least once before settling on the one shown here; the "capital since" year reflects when the current capital took on that role, not necessarily when the state itself was founded or admitted to the Union.
Every result here is drawn live in your browser with cryptographically-secure randomness -- nothing is predetermined, saved, or replayable. See the Terms.