About

Selecting a random US state appears trivial until you need verifiable uniformity across 50 states, 1 district, and 5 territories. Naive Math.random implementations in most browsers use xorshift128+ generators that can exhibit short-period correlations when sampled rapidly. This tool uses the Web Crypto API (crypto.getRandomValues) to source entropy from the operating system's CSPRNG, producing selections with 2¹²⁸ period minimum. Each draw is independent with probability 1n per entity when uniformity mode is active. The tool assumes equal weighting. It does not account for population-proportional sampling. If you need weighted selection by population or area, adjust interpretation accordingly.

Formulas

The generator uses cryptographically secure random index selection. For a pool of n entities, each entity has uniform selection probability:

P(state_i) = 1n

where n = 50 (states only), 51 (with DC), or 56 (with all territories). The random index j is computed via rejection sampling on a 32-bit unsigned integer from crypto.getRandomValues:

j = r mod n where r < n ⋅ floor(2³²n)

Rejection sampling eliminates modulo bias. For unique multi-selection, the Fisher-Yates (Knuth) shuffle is applied to produce k distinct items from the pool without replacement:

for i = n − 1 down to n − k: swap arr[i] with arr[rand(0, i)]

where k is the requested count. The number of possible permutations is n!(n − k)!, ensuring each combination is equally likely.

Reference Data

State	Abbr.	Capital	Region	Statehood	Pop. (est.)	Area mi²	Nickname
Alabama	AL	Montgomery	South	1819	5,108,468	52,420	Yellowhammer State
Alaska	AK	Juneau	West	1959	733,536	665,384	The Last Frontier
Arizona	AZ	Phoenix	West	1912	7,303,398	113,990	Grand Canyon State
Arkansas	AR	Little Rock	South	1836	3,067,732	53,179	Natural State
California	CA	Sacramento	West	1850	38,965,193	163,696	Golden State
Colorado	CO	Denver	West	1876	5,877,610	104,094	Centennial State
Connecticut	CT	Hartford	Northeast	1788	3,617,176	5,543	Constitution State
Delaware	DE	Dover	South	1787	1,031,890	2,489	First State
Florida	FL	Tallahassee	South	1845	22,610,726	65,758	Sunshine State
Georgia	GA	Atlanta	South	1788	11,029,227	59,425	Peach State
Hawaii	HI	Honolulu	West	1959	1,435,138	10,932	Aloha State
Idaho	ID	Boise	West	1890	1,964,726	83,569	Gem State
Illinois	IL	Springfield	Midwest	1818	12,549,689	57,914	Prairie State
Indiana	IN	Indianapolis	Midwest	1816	6,862,199	36,420	Hoosier State
Iowa	IA	Des Moines	Midwest	1846	3,207,004	56,273	Hawkeye State
Kansas	KS	Topeka	Midwest	1861	2,940,546	82,278	Sunflower State
Kentucky	KY	Frankfort	South	1792	4,526,154	40,408	Bluegrass State
Louisiana	LA	Baton Rouge	South	1812	4,573,749	52,378	Pelican State
Maine	ME	Augusta	Northeast	1820	1,395,722	35,380	Pine Tree State
Maryland	MD	Annapolis	South	1788	6,180,253	12,406	Old Line State
Massachusetts	MA	Boston	Northeast	1788	7,001,399	10,554	Bay State
Michigan	MI	Lansing	Midwest	1837	10,037,261	96,714	Great Lakes State
Minnesota	MN	Saint Paul	Midwest	1858	5,737,915	86,936	North Star State
Mississippi	MS	Jackson	South	1817	2,939,690	48,432	Magnolia State
Missouri	MO	Jefferson City	Midwest	1821	6,196,156	69,707	Show-Me State
Montana	MT	Helena	West	1889	1,132,812	147,040	Treasure State
Nebraska	NE	Lincoln	Midwest	1867	1,978,379	77,348	Cornhusker State
Nevada	NV	Carson City	West	1864	3,194,176	110,572	Silver State
New Hampshire	NH	Concord	Northeast	1788	1,402,054	9,349	Granite State
New Jersey	NJ	Trenton	Northeast	1787	9,290,841	8,723	Garden State
New Mexico	NM	Santa Fe	West	1912	2,114,371	121,590	Land of Enchantment
New York	NY	Albany	Northeast	1788	19,571,216	54,555	Empire State
North Carolina	NC	Raleigh	South	1789	10,835,491	53,819	Tar Heel State
North Dakota	ND	Bismarck	Midwest	1889	783,926	70,698	Peace Garden State
Ohio	OH	Columbus	Midwest	1803	11,780,017	44,826	Buckeye State
Oklahoma	OK	Oklahoma City	South	1907	4,019,800	69,899	Sooner State
Oregon	OR	Salem	West	1859	4,233,358	98,379	Beaver State
Pennsylvania	PA	Harrisburg	Northeast	1787	12,961,683	46,054	Keystone State
Rhode Island	RI	Providence	Northeast	1790	1,095,962	1,545	Ocean State
South Carolina	SC	Columbia	South	1788	5,373,555	32,020	Palmetto State
South Dakota	SD	Pierre	Midwest	1889	919,318	77,116	Mount Rushmore State
Tennessee	TN	Nashville	South	1796	7,126,489	42,144	Volunteer State
Texas	TX	Austin	South	1845	30,503,301	268,596	Lone Star State
Utah	UT	Salt Lake City	West	1896	3,417,734	84,897	Beehive State
Vermont	VT	Montpelier	Northeast	1791	647,464	9,616	Green Mountain State
Virginia	VA	Richmond	South	1788	8,642,274	42,775	Old Dominion
Washington	WA	Olympia	West	1889	7,812,880	71,298	Evergreen State
West Virginia	WV	Charleston	South	1863	1,770,071	24,230	Mountain State
Wisconsin	WI	Madison	Midwest	1848	5,910,955	65,496	Badger State
Wyoming	WY	Cheyenne	West	1890	584,057	97,813	Equality State

Frequently Asked Questions

The tool uses the Web Crypto API (crypto.getRandomValues) which sources entropy from the operating system's cryptographic random number generator (CSPRNG). On modern systems this draws from hardware entropy pools (CPU RDRAND/RDSEED, interrupt timing, disk I/O jitter). This is the same entropy source used for TLS key generation. It is not deterministic pseudorandomness from a seeded PRNG.

When you compute r mod n from a uniform 32-bit integer, if 2³² is not evenly divisible by n, the lower indices get slightly higher probability. For n = 50, the bias is approximately 0.0000012% per draw. Rejection sampling discards values in the biased tail range (r ≥ n ⋅ floor(2³² ÷ n)) and re-samples, guaranteeing perfect uniformity.

By default, the "No Duplicates" option is enabled. This uses a partial Fisher-Yates shuffle: instead of picking independently (which allows collisions with probability governed by the birthday paradox), the algorithm shuffles the pool in-place and returns the first k elements. Each permutation is equally likely. You can disable this to allow duplicates, which then uses independent draws.

With n = 50 states, the probability of seeing any specific state in a single draw is 2%. Over 10 independent sessions generating 1 state each, the probability of seeing at least one repeat is 1 − 50!40! ⋅ 50¹⁰ ≈ 63%. This is the birthday paradox applied to states. Clustering is statistically expected and does not indicate broken randomness.

Yes. When a region filter is applied, the pool is reduced to only states in that region. Selection uniformity is maintained within the filtered pool. For example, the Northeast has 9 states, so each has probability 19 ≈ 11.1% per draw. The Fisher-Yates shuffle operates identically on any pool size.

The dataset includes 50 states, the District of Columbia (DC), and 5 inhabited territories: Puerto Rico (PR), Guam (GU), U.S. Virgin Islands (VI), American Samoa (AS), and Northern Mariana Islands (MP). Territories are excluded by default. They lack statehood dates and have non-voting congressional representation. Including them changes the pool size and therefore alters individual selection probabilities.