---
title: "Which came first, Pakistan or the United States?"
description: "Pakistan vs the United States: the United States came first, by 171 years — 1776 against 1947. What happened in each case."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/pakistan-vs-united-states/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, Pakistan or the United States?

**Which came first, Pakistan or the United States?: the United States**

1776 — 171 years before Pakistan

the United States came first, by 171 years. The Declaration of Independence was adopted.

## Side by side

|  | Pakistan | the United States |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1947 | 1776 |
| Date | 1947-08-14 | 1776-07-04 |
| Category | country | country |
| What happened | Pakistan became independent at midnight, one day before India. | The Declaration of Independence was adopted. |

## Pakistan

Pakistan and India were created by the same act of parliament, but Mountbatten had to attend both ceremonies, so he took the Pakistani one in Karachi on 14 August and the Indian one in Delhi on the 15th. Pakistan is therefore one day older than India in the sense the question means. Independence in both cases took effect at the same instant: midnight between the two dates.

## the United States

The date used here is the Declaration, 4 July 1776, which is the one people mean. Two others have equal claim: Britain recognised independence in 1783, and the Constitution took effect in 1789, so the current government is younger than the country by thirteen years. The United States is older as a state than Germany (1871), Italy (1861), Canada (1867) and modern Japan (1868).

## Common questions

### Which came first, Pakistan or the United States?

the United States, by 171 years — 1776 against 1947.

### When did Pakistan start?

1947. Pakistan became independent at midnight, one day before India.

### When did the United States start?

1776. The Declaration of Independence was adopted.

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## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]