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Rhode Island

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Capital City: Providence
Rhode Island is the smallest state in the United States of America, tucked between Massachusetts and Connecticut in New England. Nonetheless, it has over 400 miles of coastline, courtesy of Narragansett Bay and islands such as Aquidneck Island, home to Newport, the "City by the Sea".

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The state's full name, as established by the Royal Charter granted by King Charles II in 1663, is "The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations." Despite east coast urban sprawl, there is still both gently-developed oceanside territory and farmland here. The origin of the name (pronounced "road island") is debatable. It is either derived from the name Roode Eylandt given to it by Dutch explorer Adriaen Block, because of its red clay, or because Block Island reminded the Italian navigator Giovanni Verrazano of the Greek Island of Rhodes, and subsequent explorers became confused and renamed Aquidneck Island 'Rhode Island.' The state's population is just over a million, so even though it is the smallest state in the U.S., it is ranked 43rd in population.
Country profile data is based on work by users of Wikitravel. List of all contributors is available here. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

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