Is dc the only city that is not in a state?

12 comments

1. San Juan is in Puerto Rico.

2. London is not in a state

3. Tokyo is not a state.

4. Electricity doesn’t conform to state borders.

5. The territories have cities

6. Any city in a territory.

7. If you’re talking about American cities, then no because we have territories like Guam and Puerto Rico that are technically under American jurisdiction but not states and those territories have cities in them.

   Within the land area of the main 50 states though, yes, DC is the only city that is not a part of a state, it’s a federal district. It’s a big controversial issue because DC residents lack Congressional representation since they don’t belong to any state. Those who reside in US territories also lack Congressional representation. DC at least gets a few electoral votes in the presidential election, whereas our territories do not.

   Ironic, that a major reason of the original American revolution was due to taxation without representation but we have American citizens today that lack federal representation. It’s such an issue for the people of DC that the license plates for DC all say “End Taxation Without Representation.”

8. Washington is the City. DC is the non-state it’s in.

9. DC is not technically a City, the City is Washington, and it’s in the District of Columbia. There are other American territories that have cities inside them that are outside of states, other comments in this thread point them out

10. DC stands for “District of Columbia”, and includes the city of Washington. It’s not a city itself.

11. There are a few people commenting that Washington is a city and that it’s within the territory called the District of Columbia.

    That’s technically no longer true. The District of Columbia and (the city of) Washington are the same consolidated legal entity. There was previously an actual chartered city called Washington *within* the federal district (along with the chartered cities of Georgetown and Alexandria) but the charter for Washington was revoked in the 1800s and the territory east of the Potomac River was eventually consolidated into a single legal entity under the control of Congress. Legally, the entire entity is called “District of Columbia.” There’s no longer any legal distinction between the territory and the city, though some home-rule was granted in the 1970s.

    To your original point, that’s unique within the US, as other territories like Guam, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa have different legal statuses from DC.

12. The US Territories have cities in them and the Territories are not States.