Ohio

Remains of ancient peoples dating to 9000 BCE have been found in Ohio. The Adena and Hopewell cultures built burial and ceremonial mounds, among them the Serpent Mound effigy, built by the Adena culture between 500 BCE and 100 CE; both cultures had disappeared from the area by about 300–400 CE.⁠[1][2]

Present-day Ohio was largely unoccupied when the first Europeans arrived in the 17th century; in the 18th century, villages of the Miami, Huron (Wyandot), Shawnee, DelawareDelawareDelaware is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic region on the East Coast, with its capital at Dover and Wilmington as its largest city. On December 7, 1787, it became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, entering the Union as the 1st state, and it had a population of 989,948 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry, Iroquois (Mingo) and Ottawa appeared in the area.⁠[1][2]

Britain and France contested the region west of the Appalachian Mountains, and at the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, France ceded the region to Britain.⁠[1][2]

The United States gained the region in the American Revolution (1775–83). After the Peace of Paris in 1783, Congress created the Northwest Territory north of the Ohio River, and the Ordinance of 1785 set up an orderly pattern of survey and settlement.⁠[1]

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 created a government for the Northwest Territory and set a method for admitting new states once a territory reached 60,000 inhabitants.⁠[3][1]

After the Northwest Territory was established, U.S. forces fought the Northwest Indian Confederation of the Shawnee, Delaware, Ottawa, Ojibwa, Miami, Potawatomi and other peoples. Harmar’s expedition was routed in two engagements in October 1790, and St. Clair’s force was crushed on November 4, 1791, in one of the worst defeats ever suffered by the U.S. military. On August 20, 1794, Anthony Wayne’s troops broke the warriors’ line at the Battle of Fallen Timbers near Fort Miami.⁠[4]

On August 3, 1795, Wayne, Little Turtle and their delegations concluded the Treaty of Greenville at Fort Greenville, under which the Native nations ceded most of the future state of Ohio and parts of what became IndianaIndianaIndiana is a state in the Midwestern United States; its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. It was admitted to the Union on December 11, 1816, as the 19th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 6,785,528.Open the full entry, IllinoisIllinoisIllinois is a state of the United States that borders Lake Michigan and the states of Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Iowa; its capital is Springfield and its largest city is Chicago. It was admitted to the Union on December 3, 1818, as the 21st state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 12,812,508.Open the full entry and MichiganMichiganMichigan is a state of the United States nearly surrounded by the Great Lakes and made up of the Upper and Lower peninsulas; its capital is Lansing and its largest city is Detroit. It was admitted to the Union on January 26, 1837, as the 26th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 10,077,331.Open the full entry.⁠[4]

Chillicothe became the territorial capital in 1800. A census schedule of December 1801 showed about 45,000 residents in the Territory Northwest of the Ohio.⁠[5][3]

The House passed the enabling bill on April 9, 1802; amended in conference, it was signed into law on April 30 as “An act to enable the People of the Eastern division of the territory Northwest of the river Ohio to form a Constitution and State Government.”⁠[3]

The constitutional convention opened in Chillicothe on November 1, 1802, and adopted Ohio’s first constitution on November 29; it was sent to Congress with a letter from Agent Thomas Worthington and the convention’s address. The constitution called for a bicameral legislature.⁠[3][5]

On February 19, 1803, Congress passed an act declaring that Ohio had adopted a constitution under the 1802 Enabling Act and had become a state. After elections in January 1803, the General Assembly first met in Chillicothe on March 1; a 1953 resolution of Congress made March 1 the official date of statehood.⁠[3][6]

Thomas Worthington, Ohio’s first U.S. senator, presented his credentials, dated September 15, 1803, on the first day of the 8th Congress.⁠[3]

From 1803 to 1810 the General Assembly met in a two-story stone building in Chillicothe; the capital moved temporarily to Zanesville from 1810 to 1812 and returned to Chillicothe from 1812 to 1816. The permanent capital was to be “not more than 40 miles from what may be deemed the common center of the state,” and in 1816 the General Assembly first met in the new brick Statehouse in Columbus.⁠[6]

Ohio was a major battleground in the War of 1812, and Oliver Hazard Perry’s victory over a British fleet on Lake Erie helped end the threat from Native peoples and their British suppliers.⁠[1]

The cornerstone of the present Ohio Statehouse was laid on July 4, 1839; delayed by an eight-year work stoppage, a cholera epidemic and budget shortages, it was completed in 1861 at a final cost of more than $1,300,000, against an original estimate of $450,000.⁠[6]

By 1850 Ohio had nearly two million residents and was the third most populous state; its industrial structure was built between 1850 and 1880, making it one of the first great industrial states of the 19th century.⁠[1][2]

After voters approved a second convention in 1850, Ohio’s second constitution was completed in 1851; two more conventions followed, the fourth and last in 1912.⁠[5]

During the Civil War, Ohio was one of the leading contributors of soldiers to the Union army.⁠[1]

After 1900, municipal reforms were carried out in Cleveland, Toledo and other cities.⁠[1]

In March 1913 heavy rains worsened flood conditions; the first storms arrived on March 21, and levees broke soon after. Dayton was hit hardest, with water rising up to 20 feet in some areas. At least 428 people died, about 65,000 were displaced, more than 20,000 buildings and homes were destroyed, and damage exceeded $100 million in 1913 dollars. The Miami Conservancy District was later created under the Vonderheide Act, passed in 1914.⁠[7]

In the 1960s, disturbances in the Hough and Glenville districts of Cleveland took a number of lives.⁠[1]

In May 1970, four students were killed by National Guardsmen at Kent State University.⁠[1]

In the late 1970s, Ohio faced severe economic problems, including Cleveland’s default on its debts.⁠[1]

In the 2010s, a fracking boom greatly increased Ohio’s natural gas production.⁠[1]

In the 2020 census apportionment results released on April 26, 2021, Ohio was one of seven states to lose one seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, going from 16 seats to 15; accordingly, it has 17 electoral votes in the 2024 and 2028 presidential elections.⁠[8][9][10]

As of November 2026 the governor is Mike DeWine, Ohio’s 70th governor; he previously served as Greene County Prosecutor, an Ohio state senator, a U.S. congressman, lieutenant governor, a U.S. senator and Ohio’s 50th attorney general.⁠[11]

The legislature, the General Assembly, is bicameral: the Senate has 33 members serving four-year terms, and the House of Representatives has 99 members serving two-year terms. Representatives are limited to four successive terms and senators to two successive terms (eight consecutive years in each case). The Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate are elected by their respective chambers. The state is divided into 99 House districts and 33 Senate districts.⁠[12][13]

Each General Assembly lasts two years and convenes on the first Monday in January of odd-numbered years; there is no limit on the number of days it may meet, so that it can respond to emergencies. House members must be U.S. citizens, must have lived in their districts for at least one year before election and may not hold another state, federal or local public office while serving.⁠[12][13]

Ohio is in the Midwestern United States, bounded by Lake Erie to the north, PennsylvaniaPennsylvaniaPennsylvania (officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) is a Middle Atlantic state of the United States; its capital is Harrisburg, and Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are its two great metropolitan areas. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on December 12, 1787, the second state to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 13,002,700.Open the full entry to the east, West VirginiaWest VirginiaWest Virginia is a U.S. state formed from the western counties of Virginia during the Civil War; its capital and largest city is Charleston. It became the 35th state on June 20, 1863. Its population was 1,793,716 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry and KentuckyKentuckyKentucky is a U.S. state bordered by Illinois, Indiana and Ohio to the north, West Virginia and Virginia to the east, Tennessee to the south and Missouri to the west; its capital is Frankfort and its largest city is Louisville. It entered the Union on June 1, 1792, as the 15th state and the first state west of the Appalachian Mountains, and had a population of 4,505,836 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry across the Ohio River to the southeast and south, Indiana to the west and Michigan to the northwest.⁠[14][2]

U.S. Census Bureau area data (boundaries as of January 1, 2010) give the state a total area of 44,826 square miles (116,098 km²), of which 40,861 square miles (105,829 km²) is land and 3,965 square miles (10,269 km²) is water, including 474 square miles of inland water and 3,491 square miles of Great Lakes water. Ohio ranks 34th among the states in total area and is one of the smallest states west of the Appalachian Mountains.⁠[15][14]

Ohio’s estimated population on July 1, 2025 (U.S. Census Bureau, V2025), was 11,900,510, seventh among the states, up from 11,860,621 on July 1, 2024, and 0.9% above the April 1, 2020, estimates base of 11,799,445. Net domestic migration was a gain of 11,926 in 2025, compared with a loss of 32,482 in 2021.⁠[16][17]

In the V2025 estimates, 21.7% of residents were under 18 and 19.1% were 65 or older; 80.1% were White alone, 13.6% Black alone, 3.1% Asian alone and 5.2% Hispanic or Latino. In 2020–2024, 5.2% of residents were foreign-born, and 31.5% of those aged 25 and over held a bachelor’s degree or higher. Population density in 2020 was 288.8 people per square mile.⁠[16]

The state’s major cities include Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo, Akron and Dayton.⁠[2]

Ohio’s nominal GDP in 2025 (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis) was $976,871.7 million (current dollars, not seasonally adjusted). Median household income in 2020–2024 was $71,389 (in 2024 dollars).⁠[18][16]

Manufacturing is the state’s most important economic activity, and the value of manufacturing grew to more than twice that of agriculture; by the early 21st century, manufacturing’s contribution to gross state product had dropped by about 20 percent, and the service sector provided more than half of it. Nearly two-thirds of the state is still farmland, and its natural resources include coal, petroleum and natural gas.⁠[2][1]

Eight U.S. presidents were born in or lived in Ohio: William H. Harrison, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William H. Taft and Warren G. Harding.⁠[2]

Ohio’s nickname is the “Buckeye State.” The state motto is “With God, All Things Are Possible” (Ohio Revised Code 5.06). The state seal was adopted in 1803, abolished in 1805, readopted in 1868 and modified to its present form in 1967; its background shows Mount Logan and the Scioto River.⁠[14][19]

Ohio had no official state flag for its first 99 years of statehood. In 1901, the Cleveland architect John Eisenmann designed a flag for the Ohio Building at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, and on May 9, 1902, it was adopted as the official state flag. The flag is a swallowtail burgee, the only state flag that is not rectangular, with three red and two white stripes and a blue union with seventeen white stars: thirteen for the original states grouped around a circle representing the Northwest Territory and four more showing that Ohio was the seventeenth state; the white circle with a red center stands for the first letter of “Ohio” and suggests a buckeye.⁠[20][19]

State symbols under Chapter 5 of the Ohio Revised Code include the scarlet carnation (state flower), the large white trillium (state wildflower), the cardinal (state bird), the buckeye (state tree), the white-tailed deer (state animal), Ohio Flint (state gem stone), tomato juice (state beverage), the song “Beautiful Ohio,” the Newark earthworks (state prehistoric monument) and, effective July 2, 2025, the 1905 Wright Flyer III (state airplane).⁠[19]

Ohio House of Representatives: Official website: https://ohiohouse.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[5]

Ohio Legislative Service Commission: Official website: https://www.lsc.ohio.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[21]