page_title: Kentucky
hierarchical_section_title: Kentucky
caption_attribution_description: English: My Old Kentucky Home, also Federal Hill Mansion
context_page_description: Kentucky, officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a U.S. state located in the Southern region of the country. It was admitted into the Union as the 15th state on June 1, 1792, splitting from Virginia in the process. Kentucky is the 37th most extensive and the 26th most populous of the 50 United States.
  The bluegrass region in the central part of the state contains the state's capital, Frankfort, as well as its two largest cities, Louisville and Lexington, the two of which together are home to over 20% of the state's population. Kentucky shares borders with Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia and Virginia to the east, Tennessee to the south, and Missouri to the west.
  Kentucky is known as the "Bluegrass State", a nickname based on Kentucky bluegrass, a species of grass found in many of its pastures. It is home to the world's longest cave system: Mammoth Cave National Park, as well as one of the greatest lengths of navigable waterways and streams in the contiguous United States and the two largest man-made lakes east of the Mississippi River.
context_section_description: Kentucky (UK: /kɛnˈtʌki/ ken-TUK-ee, US: /kən-/ (listen) kən-), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a U.S. state located in the Southern region of the country. It was admitted into the Union as the 15th state on June 1, 1792, splitting from Virginia in the process.  Kentucky is the 37th most extensive and the 26th most populous of the 50 United States.
  The bluegrass region in the central part of the state contains the state's capital, Frankfort, as well as its two largest cities, Louisville and Lexington, the two of which together are home to over 20% of the state's population. Kentucky shares borders with Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia and Virginia to the east, Tennessee to the south, and Missouri to the west.
  Kentucky is known as the "Bluegrass State", a nickname based on Kentucky bluegrass, a species of grass found in many of its pastures. It is home to the world's longest cave system: Mammoth Cave National Park, as well as one of the greatest lengths of navigable waterways and streams in the contiguous United States and the two largest man-made lakes east of the Mississippi River. The state is also known for horse racing, bourbon, moonshine, coal, "My Old Kentucky Home" historic state park, automobile manufacturing, tobacco, bluegrass music, college basketball, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and the Kentucky colonel.
caption: My Old Kentucky Home, a well-known historic mansion for which Kentucky's state song, "My Old Kentucky Home", was written in 1852 by Stephen Foster
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