50 Facts About Rhode Island

Rhode Island was unique among the Thirteen British Colonies for being founded by a refugee, Roger Williams, who fled religious persecution from the Massachusetts Bay Colony to establish a haven for religious liberty.

Rhode Island founded Providence in 1636 on land purchased from local tribes, creating the first settlement in North America with an explicitly secular government.

The settlements of Rhode Island were on what is commonly called Aquidneck Island today but was called Rhode Island in Colonial times.

Rhode Island used the name "Providence Plantations" in his petition, plantation being the English term for a colony.

Rhode Island named the site Providence, "having a sense of God's merciful providence unto me in my distress", and it became a place of religious freedom where all were welcome.

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In 1638, Anne Hutchinson, William Coddington, John Clarke, Philip Sherman, and other religious dissenters settled on Aquidneck Island ( known as Rhode Island), which was purchased from the local tribes who called it Pocasset.

Rhode Island was heavily involved in the Industrial Revolution, which began in America in 1787 when Thomas Somers reproduced textile machine plans which he imported from England.

Rhode Island helped to produce the Beverly Cotton Manufactory, in which Moses Brown of Providence took an interest.

In 1866, Rhode Island abolished racial segregation in the public schools throughout the state.

Rhode Island has comprehensive health insurance for low-income children and a large social safety net.

Rhode Island covers an area of 1, 214 square miles within the New England region of the Northeastern United States and is bordered on the north and east by Massachusetts, on the west by Connecticut, and on the south by Rhode Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean.

Rhode Island is nicknamed the Ocean State and has a number of oceanfront beaches.

Eastern Rhode Island contains the lowlands of the Narragansett Bay, while Western Rhode Island forms part of the New England upland.

Rhode Island's forests are part of the Northeastern coastal forests ecoregion.

Rhode Island is vulnerable to tropical storms and hurricanes due to its location in New England, catching the brunt of many storms that blow up the eastern seaboard.

Rhode Island is divided into five counties but it has no county governments.

On May 29, 2014, Governor Lincoln D Chafee announced that Rhode Island was one of eight states to release a collaborative Action Plan to put 3.

In 2014, Rhode Island received grants of $2, 711, 685 from the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up Brownfield sites in eight locations.

Rhode Island has the highest percentage of Dominican Americans in the country at 5.

Rhode Island has some of the highest percentages of Irish Americans and Italian Americans.

Rhode Island has a notable Lusophone community, having a higher percentage of Americans of Portuguese ancestry than any other state, including Portuguese Americans and Cape Verdean Americans.

Rhode Island is one of the few states where blacks of foreign origins outnumber blacks of multigenerational American origin.

Rhode Island has had the highest proportion of Catholic residents of any state according to a study in 2000, mainly due to large Irish, Italian, and French-Canadian immigration in the past; recently, significant Portuguese and various Hispanic or Latino communities have been established in the state.

Today, much of Rhode Island's economy is based on services, particularly healthcare and education, and still manufacturing to some extent.

Per the 2013 American Communities Survey, Rhode Island has the highest paid elementary school teachers in the country, with an average salary of $75, 028.

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Rhode Island has the lowest level of energy consumption per capita of any state.

Additionally, Rhode Island is rated as the 5th most energy efficient state in the country.

Several Rhode Island highways extend the state's limited-access highway network.

In 2011, Rhode Island completed work on a marked on-road bicycle path through Pawtucket and Providence, connecting the East Bay Bike Path with the Blackstone River Bikeway, completing a 33.

MacFarlane's television series Family Guy is based in a fictional Rhode Island city named Quahog, and notable local events and celebrities are regularly lampooned.

Cartoonist Don Bousquet, a state icon, has made a career out of Rhode Island culture, drawing Rhode Island-themed gags in The Providence Journal and Yankee magazine.

Rhode Island is nicknamed "The Ocean State", and the nautical nature of Rhode Island's geography pervades its culture.

Rhode Island is the only state to still celebrate Victory over Japan Day which is officially named "Victory Day" but is sometimes referred to as "VJ Day.

Rhode Island is home to a top semi-professional soccer club, the Rhode Island Reds, which compete in the National premier soccer league, in the fourth division of U S Soccer.

Rhode Island is home to one top level non-minor league team, the Rhode Island Rebellion rugby league team, a semi-professional rugby league team that competes in the USA Rugby League, the Top Competition in the United States for the Sport of Rugby League.

Brown plays FCS football in the Ivy League, Bryant plays FCS football in the Big South Conference before that league merges its football operations with those of the Ohio Valley Conference in 2023, and Rhode Island plays FCS football in CAA Football, the technically separate football league of the Colonial Athletic Association.

Rhode Island is home to the headquarters of the governing body for youth rugby league in the United States, the American Youth Rugby League Association or AYRLA.

Rhode Island's two United States representatives are David Cicilline and Jim Langevin (D-2).

Rhode Island is one of a few states that do not have an official governor's residence.

Federally, Rhode Island is a reliably Democratic state during presidential elections, usually supporting the Democratic presidential nominee.

The last 16 presidential elections in Rhode Island have resulted in the Democratic Party winning the Ocean State's Electoral College votes 12 times.

Rhode Island was the Democrats' leading state in 1960, 1964, 1968, 1988 and 2000, and second-best in 1968, 1972, 1996, and 2004.

In 2004, Rhode Island gave John Kerry more than a 20-percentage-point margin of victory, with 59.

Rhode Island is one of 21 states that have abolished capital punishment; it was second do so, just after Michigan, and carried out its last execution in the 1840s.

Rhode Island was the second to last state to make prostitution illegal.

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Until November 2009 Rhode Island law made prostitution legal provided it took place indoors.

In 2011, Rhode Island became the third state in the United States to pass legislation to allow the use of medical marijuana.

On May 25, 2022, Rhode Island fully legalized recreational use of marijuana, becoming the nineteenth state to do so.

Rhode Island became the eighth state to fully recognize either same-sex marriage or civil unions.

Rhode Island has some of the highest taxes in the country, particularly its property taxes, ranking seventh in local and state taxes, and sixth in real estate taxes.