Kentucky
![](/Images/godic/202501/07/Kentucky_in_United_States.svg0650.png")
![My Old Kentucky Home, a widely known historic mansion for which Kentucky's state song,](/Images/godic/202501/07/My_Old_Kentucky_Home_Mansion0650.png")
![Narrow country roads bounded by stone and wood plank fences are a fixture in the Kentucky Bluegrass region.](/Images/godic/202501/07/Country_road_in_Kentucky0651.jpg")
![A map of Kentucky](/Images/godic/202501/07/Map_of_Kentucky_NA0651.png")
Kentucky (/kənˈtʌki/, kən-TU-kee), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state located in the east south-central region of the United States. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth (the others being Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts). Originally a part of Virginia, in 1792 Kentucky became the 15th state to join the Union. Kentucky is the 37th most extensive and the 26th most populous of the 50 United States.