Rhode Island was unique among the Thirteen British Colonies in having been founded by a refugee, Roger Williams, who fled religious persecution in the Massachusetts Bay Colony to establish a haven for religious liberty. Native Americans lived around Narragansett Bay for thousands of years before English settlers began arriving in the early 17th century. Providence is its capital and most populous city. Rhode Island borders Connecticut to its west Massachusetts to its north and east and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Island Sound and shares a small maritime border with New York, east of Long Island. The state takes its name from the eponymous island, though nearly all its land area is on the mainland. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020 but Rhode Island has grown at every decennial count since 1790 and is the second-most densely populated state, after New Jersey. Rhode Island ( / ˌ r oʊ d-/ ⓘ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States.
