Towns and Cities in Rhode Island, USA

Rhode Island

Rhode Island is a state in the New England region of the USA. It’s bordered by Massachusetts in the north and east, the Atlantic Ocean in the south, and Connecticut in the west. It is the smallest state in the union, only about 48 miles (77 km) long and 37 miles (60 km) wide, but it is, however, one of the most densely populated states with 1,059,361 inhabitants in 2019. Its capital and largest city is Providence. Its governor is Gina Raimondo.

Rhode Island has a humid continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. The southern coastal portions of the state are the broad transition zone into subtropical climates. It’s home to the eastern coyote and the wild turkey, but also to small animals such as rabbits, woodchucks, raccoons, skunks, opossums.

Native American tribes such as the Narragansett, Wampanoag, and Niantic lived in the area. Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano explored the area in 1524. Then, in 1636, Roger Williams, banished from the nearby Massachusetts Bay Colony because of his religious beliefs, founded the Rhode Island colony. The region would become known as a spot where people of many different religions could practice freely. In 1776, Rhode Island became the first colony to declare independence from Great Britain. But it was the last of the original thirteen colonies to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

Until the late 20th century, the state produced much of the costume jewelry made in the United States, but global competition caused Rhode Island’s share of even that activity to drop sharply in the 1990s. By the late 1990s, health services had become the state’s largest private employer.