What was the fifth state in the US?

Answer 1

some claim Virginia is the 10th State.

Technically all 13 original colonies became States of the United States at the exact same instant when the 2nd Continental Congress declared independence from Great Britain in 1776. So the were 13 original states(all of them the first state in the Union) followed by 14th,15th and so on.

After the first decade of the United State's existence under a loose confederate government and 9 Presidents, the founders decided a stronger central government was needed and they came up with The Constitution of the United States (1787) that defined the new US Government. The terms of the Constitutional document required that 9 of the 13 states ratify the Constitution before it would go into effect. New Hampshire was the 9th state to ratify the Constitution on June 21, 1788 therefore founding the current federal government.

Virginia joined the other 9 states (DE, PA, NJ, GA, CT, MA, MD, SC, NH) 4 days later, becoming the 10th of the original 13 states to ratify the Constitution. For this reason some claim Virginia is the 10th State. But this is not an accurate representation of history. Virginia is the 10th state to agree to the new Federal form of government still in use today in the United States. But Virginia was already a State of the United States of America when it did so.

Answer 2

The 5th state founded in the U.S was Connecticut. (Founded in 1788, just after Georgia).