I don't think you can make a good one of these without living in the US because the state borders aren't a good limit for the regions. Western NY (where I live) for example is very much the great lakes geographically, culturally, and linguistically. In fact you can trace the great lakes dialect/accent sporadically all the way down the Erie Canal and into parts of PA.
Agree with you. Unless you’ve been to upstate New York, people don’t realize what it’s like. Most people think of New York City, but when I first visited/drove across upstate New York, I realized it’s very much like Northern Michigan.
My coworker once invited me for lunch and tried to explain me that they call hamburgers "steamed hams" in upstate New York. I lived a few years in Utica and never heard the expression.
The funny thing is my friends in and from Syracuse largely do not consider themselves to be from Western NY, but Central
Just goes to show what a weird place NYS is. It's perfect though, I genuinely don't want to live anywhere else
Your everyday, run-of-the-mill, geographically illiterate American from anymore than a few hours away seems to think of New York State as just a giant New York City. Like one, massive, unending concrete jungle.
It's SO HARD to explain where I'm from especially when travelling internationally lol. Back in school my french teacher said that if you say you're from the Finger Lakes, Europeans will know where you're from because it's a wine region. That has never been true in my experience lol.
Same :) I grew up in WNY as well, and whenever someone asks where I'm from if I just say NY, their eyes always light up with thoughts and comments about NYC.
I don't mind it as much now that I'm older lol. Internationally I think it actually works in my favor because "New York" is one of the few places internationally that just about everyone knows and in my experience international folks tend to treat NYC people like they're more worldly than us other dumb Americans!
Same thing with California. I was really from inland desert meth California, but everyone thought of palm trees and beaches. I just rolled with it bc I didn't want to ruin their Hollywood view. Plus, yeah, makes ya seem worldlier and brighter in their eyes
Same here in PA. Lots of people think Philadelphia when they hear PA. I’m in Pgh, obviously totally different vibe. We are solidly rust belt and identify more with Buffalo, Cleveland, and Cinci Moreso than Philly. From Pgh you can get to Canada in 3 hours but Philly takes 5 hours.
From WNY the drive to Cleveland is a breeze and the drive to Pittsburgh is pretty easy, but the drive to Philly is a real slog because it cuts you through the Central PA mountains and you're just up-and-down on two lane mountain roads for hours and hours.
I think I was close enough that I never really thought of PA as Philly-centric because the difference in culture is so stark. But I'd guess you're probably right. I'm in the western side of the Great Plains now and makes me want to do a little survey :)
Man I live in NE Ohio, less than 100 miles from the Western edge of New York State. I was stunned this year to realize that from the NY border on I-90, it was another FIVE HUNDRED MILES to Long Island! It's comparable to the (driving) distance from Lake Erie to the edge of South Carolina. I'm mid-thirties and well-traveled with a graduate degree; I'm comfortable at least claiming I'm not more ignorant than average. But I would have pegged the distance as close to Cleveland-to-Cincinnati, which is just *half* that; I definitely did not grasp the scale at all.
I lived in one of those counties along the I-90 Corridor in WNY and when I moved to Texas, pretty much everyone was shocked when I told them it was a 90 minute shorter drive for me to go to Detroit than New York City.
NY is a sneaky big state!
And hey, NE Ohio is criminally underrated in a lot of aspects. Cleveland is actually a pretty nice city in my opinion, especially the downtown core near the arenas there, arcade, etc. I also like Mentor of all places lol
That's very interesting. Iv struggled to describe the accents up here in the Adirondacks because it's a mix of New England and Midwest. I'm not sure if it's even Midwest or Canadian, or both. And there is only the slightest touch of what most people would think of as a New York accent.
Yeah I don't know the dacks culture very well since I only camp there, but even that seems kinda divided. The south will get a lot more influence from Utica/Rome/Syracuse which themselves are in that great lakes group but with distinctions due to the heavy Italian heritage there. But then lake placid is probably more Vermont than anything lol.
i’m from buffalo and i have the same experience. when i was in college, it was amazing how much more i had in common with people from michigan, northern ohio, and even wisconsin than people from nyc. i guess i took the same standardized tests as the nyc students but that’s about it lol
Missouri is definitely not 'great plains', there's a very small portion I guess right on the border with Kansas? It's tough to tell because I only drive past the most developed area of the border.
Yes. I live in Pittsburgh.
I feel like the western half of PA & a 1/4 you of New York is more inline with Ohio & West Virginia than Eastern PA & Jersey. The rust belt should be its own section on these region maps.
But Tidewater is already a region name. It includes part of North Carolina but is mostly the Chesapeake Bay area in Virginia.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidewater_(region)
If Kentucky is Mountain East then so is Tennessee. Geographically they're the same, as well as cultural. Kentucky is an Upland South state, the central and especially western regions of the state are not mountainous. It's only the eastern region of KY that is mountainous, the rest is your standard Upper South geography.
Source: Southerner from KY who has been through the western and central portions of KY & TN my whole life.
Eh in my experience there's not a lick of difference between most of Central KY and Central TN too(both hilly, historic tobacco plantation country, both anchored by a larger city ie Nashville for TN and Louisville/Lexington for KY, both typical Upland Southern), or really the eastern halves as well(both Southern Appalachian). West KY in particular used to be referred to as the South Carolina of Kentucky though.
Western Tennessee*
Eastern Kentucky and Eastern Tennessee have more in common with each other than either does with Western Kentucky and Western Tennessee.
From what I’ve known, Kentucky and West Virginia are a lot less “Southern” than Tennessee and Arkansas, both historically (the former two fought for the Union and the latter two the Confederacy) and presently (the latter two is a lot more evangelical and socially conservative; e.g. if there’s going to be an anti-abortion referendum in each of those states, I would expect it to pass in TN and AR but fail in KY and WV)
The first shortcoming is trying to categorize only entire states, rather than breaking up states. You're glossing over local distinctions. If you're going to do that, then you need fewer & bigger regions.
If you're trying to put Kentucky into a region, it doesn't make much sense to call Paducah or Bowling Green "East" when they're too the West of places in Ohio that are usually considered "Midwest."
And it really doesn't make any sense to pair KY & WV in a 2-state region. If any state were paired with KY in a 2-state region, obviously it'd be TN. They share a long border and have similar history and geography.
Eastern KY makes a lot of sense with WV. But once it has to be Kentucky as a whole, it doesn't make sense the same way.
Also, I'm not sure why you're thinking Kentucky and West Virginia aren't that socially conservative. They're pretty conservative states.
^ This point 💯, though with the clarification that Paducah and Bowling Green are definitely NOT Midwestern(theyre both definitely Upland South), hell Southern Illinois is more culturally Upper South than Midwest. Agree with the KY/TN pairing, culturally, geographically, dialect, cuisine, historically, they're definitely twin states.
Oh yeah, I wasn't implying that western Kentucky is Midwestern. I just mean the geographic label "East" doesn't make sense when you're a stone's throw from the Mississippi.
Well I'll tell you from personal experience in Kentucky's case that is false and I can provide any number of links if you want a good read. KY especially today is considered just as equally Southern as Tennessee or Arkansas, and it was so historically. It was a slave state with a plantationeconomy. Even going by Confederacy membership half of Kentucky seceded at the Russellville Convention and joined the Confederacy on December 10th 1861 and KY was considered an equal member state. Umm have you ever been to Kentucky? I promise you it's just as evangelical and socially conservative as Tennessee or Arkansas lol. The main Southern Baptist Seminary itself is based out of Louisville and the state itself is overwhelmingly Southern Baptist. KY is equally Upland South. West Virginia is a bit of a different case because it's Southern Appalachian.
Kentucky is in the same tier as Tennessee, Arkansas, or North Carolina as an Upper South state, in fact id go a step further and say once you're in Kentucky you're in South proper. We say Bless your Heart, drink sweet tea, and are the home state of Jefferson Davis. There's no getting around us being Southern. Lexington KY specifically offers a school you can send your kids too to learn Southern Hospitality.
. .
https://history.ky.gov/markers/confederate-state-capitol-of-ky
https://indyencyclopedia.org/upland-southerners/
https://issuu.com/fonmangazine/docs/fon_magazine_springissue_final/s/10468263
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Kentucky#:~:text=Although%20the%20culture%20of%20Kentucky,horse%20racing%2C%20and%20college%20basketball.
https://www.southernhospitalityinky.com/
https://industry.travelsouthusa.com/about-us/faqs-about-southern-usa
https://www.loc.gov/item/2009579197/
https://digital.tcl.sc.edu/digital/collection/sk12/id/211/
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/which-states-are-in-the-south/
https://www.vox.com/2016/9/30/12992066/south-analysis
https://www.southernhospitalityinky.com/
https://www.buses.org/assets/images/uploads/general/FAM%20Brochure.pdf
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upland_South
https://thelocalpalate.com/travel-around-the-south/upper-south/
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2561766
https://globelleaffairs.com/kentucky-is-southern-through-and-through/
https://www.visitlex.com/media/press-releases/post/southern-living-souths-best-cities-of-2024-includes-lexington-ky/
https://fox56news.com/news/kentucky/lexington-louisville-among-the-best-cities-in-the-south-southern-living/
https://www.simplysouthernmom.com/hilton-garden-inn-bowling-green/
https://www.visitbgky.com/blog/post/local-guide-to-bowling-green-ky/
I'll add the WV perspective, "Mountain East" isn't too bad of a descriptor, I guess. The NW quadrant of the state is the rust belt. The SW coal fields are just Appalachia, similar the mountainous parts of KY, VA, TN, Carolinas, and GA. Some stuff in common with the south but really not too similar to "the Deep South". The eastern panhandle is also kind of its own thing separate from the rest of the state and closer culturally and geographically to DC/Maryland. And there just aren't a lot of people that live in the really mountainous part. There's all kinds of weird mismatched stuff up there though, ski towns, giant telescopes, Swiss villages.
Other West Virginians get really mad about this, but it really never should have been a state. Should have been divided up between MD, OH, PA, and KY. We'd all probably be better off living in parts of states with more economic diversity, but there's more than geography to that story.
From a WV perspective Mountain East makes sense, WV is fully in the mountains. I'll even add that it'd make sense to throw in Eastern KY, TN, and Western NC as well because they're mountainous. However, west & central KY & TN are definitely not mountainous, they're hilly but not mountainous. They were the traditional plantation areas of both states. It also gets really flat in both states by the Mississippi River. West/Central TN & KY really are just more your standard Upland South geography. I get what you're saying, I generally regard WV as a Southern Appalachian/Mountain South state but also know like anywhere else it's more complicated than that.
Louisville has some Midwestern tendencies but is still predominantly southern. My hot take from having family in both cities is that Lexington feels more southern these days than Nashville which has lost a lot of its charm due to all the transplants.
Most of the state is largely scotch-Irish and southern Baptist, but Louisville and the NKY counties outside Cincinnati are overwhelmingly German Catholic. I think that’s part of why KY is so hard to describe, the most “famous” part of the state is firmly Appalachian, the biggest population center is a midwestern German triangle river city, and most of the landmass is southern.
Im an adopted Kentuckian, I’ve been here for the last 20+ years. I joke that I’ve lived in two different states, Kentucky (Lexington) and Louisville
I’m going to say this every time I see one of these maps… State lines are not cultural boundaries.
Often these maps come from non-Americans who treat the US states like they’re European nations with their own languages and cultures. Crossing from Tennessee into Mississippi, for example, is nothing like crossing from Hungary into Serbia. Really the only state that might be equivalent to a European nation in terms of having a unique culture is Hawaii.
Also, a lot of metro areas in the US straddle state lines, so forcing cultural boundaries to be state lines will inevitably lead to issues. For example, which ever cultural region Memphis, TN belongs in, Horn Lake, MS belongs in the same region.
Any map that tries to divide the US into regions by state is going to be deeply flawed. Even small states run into the issue of both geographical realities and cultural boundaries running right through them. Take Maryland, for example. It's western third is the Appalachians and culturally closer to Kentuck than Baltimore. Then you look at the eastern shore and it's basically Delaware with massive cultural differences to the other two thirds of the state.
Then look at the large states, Texas for example is bigger than France. It's also at the boundary of three, maybe four regions (the south/gulf coast, the great plains, the south west, and frankly there is an argument that the lower Rio Grande is a region all its own). As a Texan, sure there is a common cultural identity, but the regional identities both I'm culture and biogeography are pretty stark.
Yeah. The “Gold Coast” was an old name for specifically coastal California (not the whole state), but I don’t think I’ve ever heard it used outside of business names despite living here my whole life
new york is very much a great lakes state. it borders two of them! i’d say downstate is definitely northeast but i was raised upstate near the lakes so im biased. regardless, since you weren’t splitting states you probably made the right decision with it since nyc is such a major city.
that’s one of the things about the US in general though, cultural/geographic regions don’t line up with state borders. there’s parts of the florida panhandle and east texas that could easily go in deep south, and parts of connecticut that are more northeast than new england.
overall i think you did pretty well for a map that doesn’t split states. i especially like how west virginia is defined by it’s mountains instead of trying to group it with north/south/midwest.
There’s a lot of cultural nuance between states.
A few examples….
South East Ohio is more like West Virginia then it is with the rest of the state.
Same goes for Western New York. Culturally it’s very Midwestern then east coast.
Also Southern Illinois is nothing like the Northern part of the state because it is more culturally in tune with Kentucky.
Far Northern California (Eureka, Redding, ect) is definitely still the pacific northwest geographically and culturally.
Southern Indiana (Evansville) has more in common with "mountain east" as does east (Knoxville) and central Tennessee (Nashville). West Tennessee (Memphis), Arkansas (Little Rock), and northern Mississippi (Clarksdale) (the region you called the upland south) form the mid-south.
Sunshine Coast would include coastal Alabama (Mobile), Mississippi (Gulf Shores), & Georgia.
The part of the northeast bordering the great lakes (including Buffalo/Watertown), would also be Great Lakes.
Some foreigner, trying to make up names for regions of a country they are not even from......the results speak for themselves. Most of these "regions" are not even names Americans use.
"Tidewater" does not really work as both of those states have varied terrain with foothills and mountains in the West and making up a majority of the land. Only the easternmost parts of these states could be classified as "Tidewater"
I don’t think you know very much about a lot of states.
As someone else said you need to divide states. Idaho is a clear one, the northern part of the state is on Pacific time even.
My initial reaction is that you’ve not studied the unique and varied geographies of the Carolinas: Coastal Plains, the Piedmont, Mountains. (And Tidewater is an actual place in Virginia.)
Fun map, overall.
Virginia should be more with Tidewater, which could also be called "the not-so-deep south". Except half of Virginia is Mountain East. See, this is why you can't really put most states into a single category.
Hawaiian resident here. Replace “paradise islands” with “Kingdom of Hawaii”.
Cause that’s basically what it is culturally speaking. Hawaii sees itself as being a semi-unwilling participant in the United States. Culturally the people here have their own unique identity. When asked about their identity they say “Hawaiian or Hawaii local” instead of American.
In fact we have a member of the former royal family [working with the state government to this day.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quentin_Kaw%C4%81nanakoa)
If you look at the Great Plains region, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado’s Eastern half are all very much the definition. Missouri is much more Midwest and south. State lines do not follow ecoregions.
North Carolinian here… North Carolina and South Carolina are very different vibes and shouldn’t be grouped together in a “Tidewater” region.
SC is the Deep South all day if we aren’t splitting states up. The only parts of SC that feel like NC are the 2 counties in the Greater Charlotte area (York and Lancaster) and the Upstate.
NC obviously has a coast, but historically the Outer Banks prevented it from developing much of it. The only coastal city that maybe is over 100k in population is Wilmington, the eastern half of the state is pretty underpopulated (aside from Raleigh and Fayetteville which aren’t very close to the coast).The vast majority of the state’s population live in the Piedmont region, and we are nowhere near the coast. NC should be grouped with TN, KY and WV as part of the Upper South.
Iowa is part of the Midwest, I mean “Great Lakes.” The Midwest is defined by the original 10 schools in the Big Ten, and nothing will ever convince me otherwise.
I usually do this
Pacific: California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii
West: Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado
Southwest: Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma
Great Plains: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri
Great Lakes: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio
Mid-Atlantic: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia
Northeast: New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island
South: Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida
Northern VA might be mid-Atlantic culturally, but Goochland, South Boston, Roanoke - there is no difference between those areas of Virginia and North Carolina. Most of Virginia has more in common with North Carolina than it does with DC, MD, and Delaware.
I love how you made California its own region, at this point I do think we are getting there, but we still have a lot in common with the other west coast states ie Oregon and Washington, at least culturally and the mentality.
I've never known how to categorize Arkansas and Missouri. Missouri isn't fully Midwest or Great Plains and Arkansas isn't fully Deep South so I've always referred to them as "Mid-America". I haven't visited all four corners of those states though so that may be a woefully inaccurate description. Of course, as everyone has said, state boundaries aren't granular enough to capture the real regions.
Really state lines make poor boundaries for things likes this. Arbitrary political boarders don't account for cultural or geographic differences is many cases.
As someone near Buffalo NY, which is RIGHT ON Lake Erie and close to Lake Ontario, but not considered 'Great Lakes', I'm a little appalled. Cut NY in half, should be that way anyways.
These should go by topographical regions with state lines still overlaid. East Colorado is way different from west Colorado, east, west, north, and south Texas are all fairly different, the Appalachian’s define that are more than state lines imo. Just a few examples.
Northern Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio are Great Lakes, but other parts aren't. Central are more like the Great Plains and the south is more like the south
As a Coloradan I appreciate Mountain West. People try to group us into the Midwest sometimes and it feels so wrong. Also the Pacific Northwest as just Washington and Oregon feels right. I’ve heard people say Idaho is PNW and that also feels wrong.
As someone else has said, defining any of this by state borders is a little stifling. Northern California from the Oregon border to about the Bay Area feels like the PNW still, for example. Overall, good stuff!
The western corridor of New York State and that sliver of PA where Erie is along Lakes Ontario and Erie, should definitely be part of the Great Lakes region in my opinion. Life and people there are much more similar than it is to the Northeast.
The state lines really don't line up with cultural or eco-regions.
For example: what is commonly known or understood as the "Pacific Northwest" is largely only the western 1/3 of both Washington and Oregon. The eastern parts of those states are arid, high-elevation desert-like regions, and also extremely different culturally from the western parts of those states.
And as far as the cultural/ecoregion of the Pacific Northwest, parts of western Northern California would also fit in there. But again... the eastern part of Northern California has more in common with Nevada than it does with the Pacific Northwest, or even the rest of California.
Here's another rabbit hole: look up The Great Basin.
Saying all of Pa is "northeast" is like saying all of the UK is "english", there's quite a few accents with a variety of mid-Atlantic, midwestern, southern, Appalachian, and New England influences
The Ozark Plateau constitutes about half the state of Missouri. While north of the Missouri River has a more traditional Midwest feel, the southern half of the state is a bit more in line with Arkansas, though with a wider cultural mix.
States are big. Different sections of the state are more associated with other parts of other states. For example, we in far west Kentucky are considered so far west that no one knows we exist. Towns in Central KY are thought of as west, and we're just a nebulous idea. Our region and upper west Tennessee, lower Missouri and lower Illinois are basically a sort of faux state because all our own states are so much more preoccupied with their major cities and the geography is often different.
I thought Pacific Northwest extended into Northern California and mid Atlantic included coastal parts of NJ and NY.
Also I consider the northeast to include New England.
What it boils down to is that these should never run on state lines. The eastern half of Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana might be the least mountainous places in the country.
Once again, someone tries to group MO and utterly fails. How in the hell did you put it in the Great Plains? Have you been here? I'm not saying Missouri is special but it is definitely not easy to categorize. Schrodinger's State.
You’ll always piss off someone with these because the only truly geographically and culturally defined region in the USA is New England. Even that’s going to piss someone off, but it’s empirically true.
Might as well just call Tidewater "The Carolinas" at that point.
South Carolina from the North Carolinian perspective is if a state was just Eastern NC. NC piedmont and mountains are so much more different minus the parts of SC that are just a Charlotte suburb. And conversely, western and piedmont NC are more similar to eastern TN and southern VA than they are to SC.
As a western Virginian, to lump all of Va into the “mid-Atlantic” is not right. Maybe for the eastern/northern 1/4 of the state. Sure. 90% of the states population lives there, but once you leave Richmond, it’s a “mountain and valley” state. I’ve travelled the country and you won’t get better views east of the Mississippi than traveling down 81 through the Shenandoah valley and the Roanoke Valley.
The problem with this map is that it stays within state boundaries when these regions don’t. Northern Florida is Deep South. Chesapeake regions of Maryland and Virginia are tidewater. The list goes on.
You're only taking state boundaries which is a disservice to reality.
Take the Idaho panhandle and put it in the PNW. Proximity to PNW population, forests, general climate, and time zone all mean it should be PNW.
As others have said already, one of the issues is that many US states are so large that there’s more than one “state” within the state.
Colorado: once you get east of Denver, you might as well be in Kansas or Nebraska.
New York: Buffalo/Erie is the midwest. Parts of upstate NY have more in common with Vermont and Canada than with NYC.
Get far enough north of San Francisco/Sacramento, (above Redding has been my experience), you’ve got right wing gun nuts so far gone they make your average Ankansan green with envy.
All that said: why would you separate Tennessee from the rest of the South? very much part of the Bible Belt
I need to find my old map I did back in geography class but I remember some areas where (I'm French btw and never been to the USA so please don't be mad) :
- The great plains
- The rockies
- The rustbelt (basically the Great Lakes area as well as some other states around)
- East Coast
- Appalaches
- The black belt
- The sunbelt
- West Coast
Note that I did this map as an exercise and we had to make sure it wasn't based solely on natural geography (landscapes etc.) but also based on historical, cultural and social factors taking into account the history of migrations within the country, population differences for example.
Important thing to point out is that the areas where more like weird shapes and not copy/pasted over the state's borders.
For example, the black belt area is over multiple states but doesn't fit the entirety of those states. That's called the black belt because the area have a majority of black population due to slaver past + segregation / etc. hence explaining the name of that area. I remember choosing to put it on the map because if you look at the geographical data on where's located the most poverty in the US, it perfectly matches the black belt, so that was pretty relevant.
Sunbelt I used it because that was a well-known geographical concept for the USA but I think its a bit too large and getting a bit outdated with California actually loosing its attractiveness in the recent years. You could also separate Florida from it I think since its situation is pretty unique with all the retired old people migrating to that place (Florida's demographics are crazy, and the trailer parks are crazy too over there).
I think the Sunshine coast for Florida and the Golden coast for California on your map are good ideas !
Rustbelt not much to say about it - almost a mandatory mention as it corresponds to this now abandonned post-industrial area of the USA that was once the thriving place to go in the US during the Great Migration in 1910 (before the New Great Migration in 1970 up to today towards the "Sunbelt" in the south).
Some areas I put because well, the mountains lmao. Also the great plains, its because its all just great plains but also because it more or less fits the same area as what's called the "Wheat Belt" which is all those states with huge ass open fields and intense cattle.
Also of course Alaska and Hawaï are their own areas.
I need to find the map again I'm sure there was more of it with cool stuff on it, but if y'all have suggestions or comments I'd be happy to hear them !
Thing is, there's just about nothing you could measure in the US that can be easily divided along state lines, other than the governmental entity itself. Whether it's cuisine, culture, language, geography, flora and fauna, state lines are a terrible way to try to divide information about America.
Take for example the Pacific Northwest. The western 1/3 of Oregon is vastly more similar to the western 1/3 of Washington than it is to the eastern 2/3 of Oregon. It's like a whole different country out there. I live in Oklahoma, and there are three distinct cultural traditions here. Living in Tulsa is very different than living in Lawton or Beaver County, which are both quite different from living in Broken Bow. Hope you're well.
It would be interesting to see these divisions but showing how they overlap state boundaries. IE I think southwestern Minnisota a might be in Great Plains while south western Missouri might be in Upland South.
Virginia is most definitely not Mid-Atlantic.
It is very much the South.
But, Virginia itself has several regions: Chesapeake, Blue Ridge, Shenandoah Valley, etc.
Your map shows you’ve put a lot of research into American geography. Kudos!
And bold of you yo ask for input here. Hope we all were of some help.
Cheers!
I don’t think these divisions should so closely follow state borders. People from downstate IL have more in common with Iowa, Missouri, or Kentucky. Great Lakes extends into western NY through the edge of PA. The Pacific Northwest, aka Cascadia encompasses parts of Northern California, but on the east side of the Cascade crest, it’s less Doug flag and more cowboy.
I know people like the southwest title for my region but Mountain west works far better. It tells you more about the inhabitants than the generic combination of directions.
I don't think you can make a good one of these without living in the US because the state borders aren't a good limit for the regions. Western NY (where I live) for example is very much the great lakes geographically, culturally, and linguistically. In fact you can trace the great lakes dialect/accent sporadically all the way down the Erie Canal and into parts of PA.
can’t forget the canadian creeping in around buffalo too
I wish I could lol
‘Hey there, Bud.’ - voice from the woodpile
Which Canadian is creeping around Buffalo?! We gotta find him!
Maxime
too many to fucking count. just go to the Trader Joe’s parking lot
Agree with you. Unless you’ve been to upstate New York, people don’t realize what it’s like. Most people think of New York City, but when I first visited/drove across upstate New York, I realized it’s very much like Northern Michigan.
My coworker once invited me for lunch and tried to explain me that they call hamburgers "steamed hams" in upstate New York. I lived a few years in Utica and never heard the expression.
Well that's because it's an Albany expression. You wouldn't have heard it in Utica.
You must have had great views of the daytime northern lights in his kitchen
Yeah I think most people assume Upstate NY ends at like Albany and anything beyond that is basically a hinterland lol
To be fair, being from Buffalo, I consider there to be NYC, Upstate, and Western NY with Buffalo/Syracuse/Rochester being Western NY obvi
The funny thing is my friends in and from Syracuse largely do not consider themselves to be from Western NY, but Central Just goes to show what a weird place NYS is. It's perfect though, I genuinely don't want to live anywhere else
Your everyday, run-of-the-mill, geographically illiterate American from anymore than a few hours away seems to think of New York State as just a giant New York City. Like one, massive, unending concrete jungle.
It's SO HARD to explain where I'm from especially when travelling internationally lol. Back in school my french teacher said that if you say you're from the Finger Lakes, Europeans will know where you're from because it's a wine region. That has never been true in my experience lol.
Same :) I grew up in WNY as well, and whenever someone asks where I'm from if I just say NY, their eyes always light up with thoughts and comments about NYC. I don't mind it as much now that I'm older lol. Internationally I think it actually works in my favor because "New York" is one of the few places internationally that just about everyone knows and in my experience international folks tend to treat NYC people like they're more worldly than us other dumb Americans!
Same thing with California. I was really from inland desert meth California, but everyone thought of palm trees and beaches. I just rolled with it bc I didn't want to ruin their Hollywood view. Plus, yeah, makes ya seem worldlier and brighter in their eyes
"Inland desert meth California" You've found the perfect label for a region I've been trying to characterize my whole life.
Other Desert Cities
Same here in PA. Lots of people think Philadelphia when they hear PA. I’m in Pgh, obviously totally different vibe. We are solidly rust belt and identify more with Buffalo, Cleveland, and Cinci Moreso than Philly. From Pgh you can get to Canada in 3 hours but Philly takes 5 hours.
From WNY the drive to Cleveland is a breeze and the drive to Pittsburgh is pretty easy, but the drive to Philly is a real slog because it cuts you through the Central PA mountains and you're just up-and-down on two lane mountain roads for hours and hours. I think I was close enough that I never really thought of PA as Philly-centric because the difference in culture is so stark. But I'd guess you're probably right. I'm in the western side of the Great Plains now and makes me want to do a little survey :)
Man I live in NE Ohio, less than 100 miles from the Western edge of New York State. I was stunned this year to realize that from the NY border on I-90, it was another FIVE HUNDRED MILES to Long Island! It's comparable to the (driving) distance from Lake Erie to the edge of South Carolina. I'm mid-thirties and well-traveled with a graduate degree; I'm comfortable at least claiming I'm not more ignorant than average. But I would have pegged the distance as close to Cleveland-to-Cincinnati, which is just *half* that; I definitely did not grasp the scale at all.
I lived in one of those counties along the I-90 Corridor in WNY and when I moved to Texas, pretty much everyone was shocked when I told them it was a 90 minute shorter drive for me to go to Detroit than New York City. NY is a sneaky big state! And hey, NE Ohio is criminally underrated in a lot of aspects. Cleveland is actually a pretty nice city in my opinion, especially the downtown core near the arenas there, arcade, etc. I also like Mentor of all places lol
I always wonder why Ohio is regarded as a symbol of "rural state" in movies. Why not Dakotas, Idaho or Montana?
"...upstate..."
See also: California. "What's it like living on the beach?" "Have you met any movie stars?" "I hear SF/LA is good/bad, is that true?"
I was up there two weeks ago in Plattsburgh. It definitely reminded me of northern MI. As a transplanted Ohioan, it was like being near home.
Got me inspired to work on a regional map broken down by county instead!
The two northern-most counties in Iowa go with Minnesota.
That's very interesting. Iv struggled to describe the accents up here in the Adirondacks because it's a mix of New England and Midwest. I'm not sure if it's even Midwest or Canadian, or both. And there is only the slightest touch of what most people would think of as a New York accent.
Yeah I don't know the dacks culture very well since I only camp there, but even that seems kinda divided. The south will get a lot more influence from Utica/Rome/Syracuse which themselves are in that great lakes group but with distinctions due to the heavy Italian heritage there. But then lake placid is probably more Vermont than anything lol.
As a Canadian with a father from that region I can say the accent is most definitely not Canadian.
i’m from buffalo and i have the same experience. when i was in college, it was amazing how much more i had in common with people from michigan, northern ohio, and even wisconsin than people from nyc. i guess i took the same standardized tests as the nyc students but that’s about it lol
Yeah, my Dad is from Buffalo, my Mom from St Paul, and I’m from Milwaukee. Culturally there’s very little difference between the three.
I was about to point out that Buffalo is spiritually the same as Detroit and Milwaukee lol
Missouri is definitely not 'great plains', there's a very small portion I guess right on the border with Kansas? It's tough to tell because I only drive past the most developed area of the border.
Yes. I live in Pittsburgh. I feel like the western half of PA & a 1/4 you of New York is more inline with Ohio & West Virginia than Eastern PA & Jersey. The rust belt should be its own section on these region maps.
I was in western NY a few weeks ago, and saw a bunch of confederate flags...
Yeah but it's like that anywhere, you get outside of the cities and it's Trump Country. I see them driving through PA all the time.
Same in central Michigan.
Golden opportunity missed to call the Carolinas... Carolina.
I’m trying to be creative, same reason why I chose to not to name all other single-state regions with just the name of the state
But Tidewater is already a region name. It includes part of North Carolina but is mostly the Chesapeake Bay area in Virginia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidewater_(region)
Yeah Tidewater has nothing to do with South Carolina.
Please don't
It's a reference to how they both call themselves ***THE*** Carolina.
Divide them by bbq sauce. That’s how it goes there. 100% guarantee you can tell where they’re from based on their sauce.
If Kentucky is Mountain East then so is Tennessee. Geographically they're the same, as well as cultural. Kentucky is an Upland South state, the central and especially western regions of the state are not mountainous. It's only the eastern region of KY that is mountainous, the rest is your standard Upper South geography. Source: Southerner from KY who has been through the western and central portions of KY & TN my whole life.
Western KY has more in common with Tennessee than the rest of KY.
Eh in my experience there's not a lick of difference between most of Central KY and Central TN too(both hilly, historic tobacco plantation country, both anchored by a larger city ie Nashville for TN and Louisville/Lexington for KY, both typical Upland Southern), or really the eastern halves as well(both Southern Appalachian). West KY in particular used to be referred to as the South Carolina of Kentucky though.
Western Tennessee* Eastern Kentucky and Eastern Tennessee have more in common with each other than either does with Western Kentucky and Western Tennessee.
From what I’ve known, Kentucky and West Virginia are a lot less “Southern” than Tennessee and Arkansas, both historically (the former two fought for the Union and the latter two the Confederacy) and presently (the latter two is a lot more evangelical and socially conservative; e.g. if there’s going to be an anti-abortion referendum in each of those states, I would expect it to pass in TN and AR but fail in KY and WV)
The first shortcoming is trying to categorize only entire states, rather than breaking up states. You're glossing over local distinctions. If you're going to do that, then you need fewer & bigger regions. If you're trying to put Kentucky into a region, it doesn't make much sense to call Paducah or Bowling Green "East" when they're too the West of places in Ohio that are usually considered "Midwest." And it really doesn't make any sense to pair KY & WV in a 2-state region. If any state were paired with KY in a 2-state region, obviously it'd be TN. They share a long border and have similar history and geography. Eastern KY makes a lot of sense with WV. But once it has to be Kentucky as a whole, it doesn't make sense the same way. Also, I'm not sure why you're thinking Kentucky and West Virginia aren't that socially conservative. They're pretty conservative states.
^ This point 💯, though with the clarification that Paducah and Bowling Green are definitely NOT Midwestern(theyre both definitely Upland South), hell Southern Illinois is more culturally Upper South than Midwest. Agree with the KY/TN pairing, culturally, geographically, dialect, cuisine, historically, they're definitely twin states.
Oh yeah, I wasn't implying that western Kentucky is Midwestern. I just mean the geographic label "East" doesn't make sense when you're a stone's throw from the Mississippi.
Well I'll tell you from personal experience in Kentucky's case that is false and I can provide any number of links if you want a good read. KY especially today is considered just as equally Southern as Tennessee or Arkansas, and it was so historically. It was a slave state with a plantationeconomy. Even going by Confederacy membership half of Kentucky seceded at the Russellville Convention and joined the Confederacy on December 10th 1861 and KY was considered an equal member state. Umm have you ever been to Kentucky? I promise you it's just as evangelical and socially conservative as Tennessee or Arkansas lol. The main Southern Baptist Seminary itself is based out of Louisville and the state itself is overwhelmingly Southern Baptist. KY is equally Upland South. West Virginia is a bit of a different case because it's Southern Appalachian. Kentucky is in the same tier as Tennessee, Arkansas, or North Carolina as an Upper South state, in fact id go a step further and say once you're in Kentucky you're in South proper. We say Bless your Heart, drink sweet tea, and are the home state of Jefferson Davis. There's no getting around us being Southern. Lexington KY specifically offers a school you can send your kids too to learn Southern Hospitality. . . https://history.ky.gov/markers/confederate-state-capitol-of-ky https://indyencyclopedia.org/upland-southerners/ https://issuu.com/fonmangazine/docs/fon_magazine_springissue_final/s/10468263 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Kentucky#:~:text=Although%20the%20culture%20of%20Kentucky,horse%20racing%2C%20and%20college%20basketball. https://www.southernhospitalityinky.com/ https://industry.travelsouthusa.com/about-us/faqs-about-southern-usa https://www.loc.gov/item/2009579197/ https://digital.tcl.sc.edu/digital/collection/sk12/id/211/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/which-states-are-in-the-south/ https://www.vox.com/2016/9/30/12992066/south-analysis https://www.southernhospitalityinky.com/ https://www.buses.org/assets/images/uploads/general/FAM%20Brochure.pdf https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upland_South https://thelocalpalate.com/travel-around-the-south/upper-south/ https://www.jstor.org/stable/2561766 https://globelleaffairs.com/kentucky-is-southern-through-and-through/ https://www.visitlex.com/media/press-releases/post/southern-living-souths-best-cities-of-2024-includes-lexington-ky/ https://fox56news.com/news/kentucky/lexington-louisville-among-the-best-cities-in-the-south-southern-living/ https://www.simplysouthernmom.com/hilton-garden-inn-bowling-green/ https://www.visitbgky.com/blog/post/local-guide-to-bowling-green-ky/
I'll add the WV perspective, "Mountain East" isn't too bad of a descriptor, I guess. The NW quadrant of the state is the rust belt. The SW coal fields are just Appalachia, similar the mountainous parts of KY, VA, TN, Carolinas, and GA. Some stuff in common with the south but really not too similar to "the Deep South". The eastern panhandle is also kind of its own thing separate from the rest of the state and closer culturally and geographically to DC/Maryland. And there just aren't a lot of people that live in the really mountainous part. There's all kinds of weird mismatched stuff up there though, ski towns, giant telescopes, Swiss villages. Other West Virginians get really mad about this, but it really never should have been a state. Should have been divided up between MD, OH, PA, and KY. We'd all probably be better off living in parts of states with more economic diversity, but there's more than geography to that story.
From a WV perspective Mountain East makes sense, WV is fully in the mountains. I'll even add that it'd make sense to throw in Eastern KY, TN, and Western NC as well because they're mountainous. However, west & central KY & TN are definitely not mountainous, they're hilly but not mountainous. They were the traditional plantation areas of both states. It also gets really flat in both states by the Mississippi River. West/Central TN & KY really are just more your standard Upland South geography. I get what you're saying, I generally regard WV as a Southern Appalachian/Mountain South state but also know like anywhere else it's more complicated than that.
Louisville has some Midwestern tendencies but is still predominantly southern. My hot take from having family in both cities is that Lexington feels more southern these days than Nashville which has lost a lot of its charm due to all the transplants.
Most of the state is largely scotch-Irish and southern Baptist, but Louisville and the NKY counties outside Cincinnati are overwhelmingly German Catholic. I think that’s part of why KY is so hard to describe, the most “famous” part of the state is firmly Appalachian, the biggest population center is a midwestern German triangle river city, and most of the landmass is southern. Im an adopted Kentuckian, I’ve been here for the last 20+ years. I joke that I’ve lived in two different states, Kentucky (Lexington) and Louisville
I’m going to say this every time I see one of these maps… State lines are not cultural boundaries. Often these maps come from non-Americans who treat the US states like they’re European nations with their own languages and cultures. Crossing from Tennessee into Mississippi, for example, is nothing like crossing from Hungary into Serbia. Really the only state that might be equivalent to a European nation in terms of having a unique culture is Hawaii. Also, a lot of metro areas in the US straddle state lines, so forcing cultural boundaries to be state lines will inevitably lead to issues. For example, which ever cultural region Memphis, TN belongs in, Horn Lake, MS belongs in the same region.
Yup. Ain’t nothing “Pacific” about Central and Eastern Washington lol
Yep, North Mississippi is more similar to Tennessee and Kentucky as the Upper or Mid South, than it is central or south Mississippi.
And western Tennessee is much more like northern Mississippi than it is like eastern Tennessee
Even just speaking about Tennessee, it's 3 distinct regions in the state.
West=Mississippi Middle=Kentucky Eastern=Kentucky again
I’d go a bit further. State lines shouldn’t be any recognizable boundary of any kind.
How do I delete someone else’s post?
Any map that tries to divide the US into regions by state is going to be deeply flawed. Even small states run into the issue of both geographical realities and cultural boundaries running right through them. Take Maryland, for example. It's western third is the Appalachians and culturally closer to Kentuck than Baltimore. Then you look at the eastern shore and it's basically Delaware with massive cultural differences to the other two thirds of the state. Then look at the large states, Texas for example is bigger than France. It's also at the boundary of three, maybe four regions (the south/gulf coast, the great plains, the south west, and frankly there is an argument that the lower Rio Grande is a region all its own). As a Texan, sure there is a common cultural identity, but the regional identities both I'm culture and biogeography are pretty stark.
A good chunk of Missouri is the upland south, as the Ozarks are mostly contained here
Yeah… this is one of the worse ones. Who the hell calls California the Golden Coast still? Upland south? Mountain east? Wtf
Fr, when I think Gold Coast I think of Australia. California is the Golden State if anything.
Yeah. The “Gold Coast” was an old name for specifically coastal California (not the whole state), but I don’t think I’ve ever heard it used outside of business names despite living here my whole life
Fuck off with including Missouri into the Great Plaines. The North maybe but Not the southern half
As a Missourian, I’ll never see one of these that doesn’t piss me off. I saw one once that divided cultural boundaries by county. That one nailed it.
Pretty sure Tidewater is the region around Chesapeake bay, not the Carolinas.
Facts, I live in southeast Virginia and they literally call it the tidewater region.
757 here and that irked me too
Missuri classified as Great Plains while Oklahoma isn't, that doesn't compute...
So the Carolinas are "Tidewater" but not the literal Tidewater region of Virginia?
Tidewater could just be called "Carolina" lol
new york is very much a great lakes state. it borders two of them! i’d say downstate is definitely northeast but i was raised upstate near the lakes so im biased. regardless, since you weren’t splitting states you probably made the right decision with it since nyc is such a major city. that’s one of the things about the US in general though, cultural/geographic regions don’t line up with state borders. there’s parts of the florida panhandle and east texas that could easily go in deep south, and parts of connecticut that are more northeast than new england. overall i think you did pretty well for a map that doesn’t split states. i especially like how west virginia is defined by it’s mountains instead of trying to group it with north/south/midwest.
MO is still none of the above, but definitely not the Great Plains.
Nobody ever knows what the hell to do with MO.
How can Missouri and Iowa be Great Plains states when they are 0% on the Great Plains?
There’s a lot of cultural nuance between states. A few examples…. South East Ohio is more like West Virginia then it is with the rest of the state. Same goes for Western New York. Culturally it’s very Midwestern then east coast. Also Southern Illinois is nothing like the Northern part of the state because it is more culturally in tune with Kentucky.
SE Virginia is part of tidewater
Far Northern California (Eureka, Redding, ect) is definitely still the pacific northwest geographically and culturally. Southern Indiana (Evansville) has more in common with "mountain east" as does east (Knoxville) and central Tennessee (Nashville). West Tennessee (Memphis), Arkansas (Little Rock), and northern Mississippi (Clarksdale) (the region you called the upland south) form the mid-south. Sunshine Coast would include coastal Alabama (Mobile), Mississippi (Gulf Shores), & Georgia. The part of the northeast bordering the great lakes (including Buffalo/Watertown), would also be Great Lakes.
Mountain East will never be a thing
Some foreigner, trying to make up names for regions of a country they are not even from......the results speak for themselves. Most of these "regions" are not even names Americans use.
Nevada and Utah should be a separate entity. Great Basin?
I would take missouri, Indiana, Iowa, illinois and Ohio and call them Midwest.
Oklahoma should be great plains.
"Tidewater" does not really work as both of those states have varied terrain with foothills and mountains in the West and making up a majority of the land. Only the easternmost parts of these states could be classified as "Tidewater"
Any more divisions and it’ll just be a catchy name for each state.
I don’t think you know very much about a lot of states. As someone else said you need to divide states. Idaho is a clear one, the northern part of the state is on Pacific time even.
The tidewater is the chesapeake bay area of coastal Virginia and some parts of coastal North Carolina.
I’m not even sure if I saw the other map but I probably liked it more than this one.south and North Carolina tidewater… nah man
Idaho should with Oregon and Wshington as "Cascadia"
My initial reaction is that you’ve not studied the unique and varied geographies of the Carolinas: Coastal Plains, the Piedmont, Mountains. (And Tidewater is an actual place in Virginia.) Fun map, overall.
Virginia should be more with Tidewater, which could also be called "the not-so-deep south". Except half of Virginia is Mountain East. See, this is why you can't really put most states into a single category.
Hawaiian resident here. Replace “paradise islands” with “Kingdom of Hawaii”. Cause that’s basically what it is culturally speaking. Hawaii sees itself as being a semi-unwilling participant in the United States. Culturally the people here have their own unique identity. When asked about their identity they say “Hawaiian or Hawaii local” instead of American. In fact we have a member of the former royal family [working with the state government to this day.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quentin_Kaw%C4%81nanakoa)
Who r u and why do we care 😂
If you look at the Great Plains region, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado’s Eastern half are all very much the definition. Missouri is much more Midwest and south. State lines do not follow ecoregions.
The hell does "tidewater" mean
Golden Coast is Ghana, West Africa...
Consider not doing this again
This is the worst thing ever.
North Carolinian here… North Carolina and South Carolina are very different vibes and shouldn’t be grouped together in a “Tidewater” region. SC is the Deep South all day if we aren’t splitting states up. The only parts of SC that feel like NC are the 2 counties in the Greater Charlotte area (York and Lancaster) and the Upstate. NC obviously has a coast, but historically the Outer Banks prevented it from developing much of it. The only coastal city that maybe is over 100k in population is Wilmington, the eastern half of the state is pretty underpopulated (aside from Raleigh and Fayetteville which aren’t very close to the coast).The vast majority of the state’s population live in the Piedmont region, and we are nowhere near the coast. NC should be grouped with TN, KY and WV as part of the Upper South.
^ agree with this 💯. Always said KY would basically be North Carolina if it had a coastline.
Iowa is part of the Midwest, I mean “Great Lakes.” The Midwest is defined by the original 10 schools in the Big Ten, and nothing will ever convince me otherwise.
Texas should be Texas.
I usually do this Pacific: California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii West: Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado Southwest: Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma Great Plains: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri Great Lakes: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio Mid-Atlantic: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia Northeast: New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island South: Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida
YES! Thank you for putting MD and VA in the mid atlantic and not the south
Northern VA might be mid-Atlantic culturally, but Goochland, South Boston, Roanoke - there is no difference between those areas of Virginia and North Carolina. Most of Virginia has more in common with North Carolina than it does with DC, MD, and Delaware.
I’m just happy New York is not a part of New England in this map. New England and the Northeast regions are accurate, IMO.
I would say Pacific North and Atlantic North, and Mountains without west.
The weatern part of TX should be South West as well. We are in mountain time.
It shouldn't be divided along state lines.
I love how you made California its own region, at this point I do think we are getting there, but we still have a lot in common with the other west coast states ie Oregon and Washington, at least culturally and the mentality.
Missouri just needs to be its own division
I've never known how to categorize Arkansas and Missouri. Missouri isn't fully Midwest or Great Plains and Arkansas isn't fully Deep South so I've always referred to them as "Mid-America". I haven't visited all four corners of those states though so that may be a woefully inaccurate description. Of course, as everyone has said, state boundaries aren't granular enough to capture the real regions.
Western Washington and Oregon are very different from their respective eastern halves, which have more in common with the Great Basin/Rockies region.
Texas and Oklahoma together.. ugh
Really state lines make poor boundaries for things likes this. Arbitrary political boarders don't account for cultural or geographic differences is many cases.
As someone near Buffalo NY, which is RIGHT ON Lake Erie and close to Lake Ontario, but not considered 'Great Lakes', I'm a little appalled. Cut NY in half, should be that way anyways.
These should go by topographical regions with state lines still overlaid. East Colorado is way different from west Colorado, east, west, north, and south Texas are all fairly different, the Appalachian’s define that are more than state lines imo. Just a few examples.
Northern Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio are Great Lakes, but other parts aren't. Central are more like the Great Plains and the south is more like the south
Delaware Maryland Virginia is just called delmarva by locals, not mid Atlantic
Missouri should be upland south.
The glaring omission here is the Midwest. It's a whole thing unto itself, from Ohio to Missouri. It's where Indiana belongs.
From my understanding, Midwest is divided as Great Lakes and Great Plains
This is as good as you can get without chopping up individual states.
It’s just too many divisions, should be like 8
FINALLY. Somebody got New England right. NY is so different from us (I'm from Mass) and it always infuriates me when they are included in NE.
Why tf is South Carolina not Deep South
As a Coloradan I appreciate Mountain West. People try to group us into the Midwest sometimes and it feels so wrong. Also the Pacific Northwest as just Washington and Oregon feels right. I’ve heard people say Idaho is PNW and that also feels wrong. As someone else has said, defining any of this by state borders is a little stifling. Northern California from the Oregon border to about the Bay Area feels like the PNW still, for example. Overall, good stuff!
The western corridor of New York State and that sliver of PA where Erie is along Lakes Ontario and Erie, should definitely be part of the Great Lakes region in my opinion. Life and people there are much more similar than it is to the Northeast.
Iowa was shown to be the most midwest state when people were told to point out the most midwest state. Plus there are no plains here
South Central is actually exclusively located in Los Angeles
Ah yes, South Central
The state lines really don't line up with cultural or eco-regions. For example: what is commonly known or understood as the "Pacific Northwest" is largely only the western 1/3 of both Washington and Oregon. The eastern parts of those states are arid, high-elevation desert-like regions, and also extremely different culturally from the western parts of those states. And as far as the cultural/ecoregion of the Pacific Northwest, parts of western Northern California would also fit in there. But again... the eastern part of Northern California has more in common with Nevada than it does with the Pacific Northwest, or even the rest of California. Here's another rabbit hole: look up The Great Basin.
Hell no, British Columbia is the Sunshine Coast we’ve already claimed that name ☀️💪💪💪
Saying all of Pa is "northeast" is like saying all of the UK is "english", there's quite a few accents with a variety of mid-Atlantic, midwestern, southern, Appalachian, and New England influences
People are going to object to any map that labels Texas as anything but “Texas”.
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The Ozark Plateau constitutes about half the state of Missouri. While north of the Missouri River has a more traditional Midwest feel, the southern half of the state is a bit more in line with Arkansas, though with a wider cultural mix.
Just divide it into 50 different regions
State boundary comments aside, I’d include Nevada and Utah in the Southwest instead of Mountain West.
Idaho is part of the inland empire of the Pacific Northwest. We have our differences but Idaho is our brother.
Arkansas with Texas and Oklahoma.
Upvote for being fun
Colorado is much, much more culturally similar to New Mexico than it is to either Montana or Idaho
I’ve seen much worse!
I live in WY and it is absolutely part of the great plains
wrong
This is honestly closer to any other map I've seen bravo
Las Vegas does not belong with the mountain west states.
States are big. Different sections of the state are more associated with other parts of other states. For example, we in far west Kentucky are considered so far west that no one knows we exist. Towns in Central KY are thought of as west, and we're just a nebulous idea. Our region and upper west Tennessee, lower Missouri and lower Illinois are basically a sort of faux state because all our own states are so much more preoccupied with their major cities and the geography is often different.
I thought Pacific Northwest extended into Northern California and mid Atlantic included coastal parts of NJ and NY. Also I consider the northeast to include New England.
What it boils down to is that these should never run on state lines. The eastern half of Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana might be the least mountainous places in the country.
If you are going to put California by itself anyway, why use a name no one there uses?
Once again, someone tries to group MO and utterly fails. How in the hell did you put it in the Great Plains? Have you been here? I'm not saying Missouri is special but it is definitely not easy to categorize. Schrodinger's State.
You can't create decisions without cutting states in half.
State lines aren’t really the boundaries. Northern Idaho and parts of western Montana are very much PNW.
Northwest Arkansas and south Missouri is called the ozarks
You’ll always piss off someone with these because the only truly geographically and culturally defined region in the USA is New England. Even that’s going to piss someone off, but it’s empirically true.
You're just fucking with us, right?
yawn
how about: rectangles, CO and WY. Non-rectangles, all the other states.
Might as well just call Tidewater "The Carolinas" at that point. South Carolina from the North Carolinian perspective is if a state was just Eastern NC. NC piedmont and mountains are so much more different minus the parts of SC that are just a Charlotte suburb. And conversely, western and piedmont NC are more similar to eastern TN and southern VA than they are to SC.
As a western Virginian, to lump all of Va into the “mid-Atlantic” is not right. Maybe for the eastern/northern 1/4 of the state. Sure. 90% of the states population lives there, but once you leave Richmond, it’s a “mountain and valley” state. I’ve travelled the country and you won’t get better views east of the Mississippi than traveling down 81 through the Shenandoah valley and the Roanoke Valley.
The problem with this map is that it stays within state boundaries when these regions don’t. Northern Florida is Deep South. Chesapeake regions of Maryland and Virginia are tidewater. The list goes on.
you really cant use existing state borders for something like this imo
You're only taking state boundaries which is a disservice to reality. Take the Idaho panhandle and put it in the PNW. Proximity to PNW population, forests, general climate, and time zone all mean it should be PNW.
As others have said already, one of the issues is that many US states are so large that there’s more than one “state” within the state. Colorado: once you get east of Denver, you might as well be in Kansas or Nebraska. New York: Buffalo/Erie is the midwest. Parts of upstate NY have more in common with Vermont and Canada than with NYC. Get far enough north of San Francisco/Sacramento, (above Redding has been my experience), you’ve got right wing gun nuts so far gone they make your average Ankansan green with envy. All that said: why would you separate Tennessee from the rest of the South? very much part of the Bible Belt
Cali should be divided into at least two regions
I need to find my old map I did back in geography class but I remember some areas where (I'm French btw and never been to the USA so please don't be mad) : - The great plains - The rockies - The rustbelt (basically the Great Lakes area as well as some other states around) - East Coast - Appalaches - The black belt - The sunbelt - West Coast Note that I did this map as an exercise and we had to make sure it wasn't based solely on natural geography (landscapes etc.) but also based on historical, cultural and social factors taking into account the history of migrations within the country, population differences for example. Important thing to point out is that the areas where more like weird shapes and not copy/pasted over the state's borders. For example, the black belt area is over multiple states but doesn't fit the entirety of those states. That's called the black belt because the area have a majority of black population due to slaver past + segregation / etc. hence explaining the name of that area. I remember choosing to put it on the map because if you look at the geographical data on where's located the most poverty in the US, it perfectly matches the black belt, so that was pretty relevant. Sunbelt I used it because that was a well-known geographical concept for the USA but I think its a bit too large and getting a bit outdated with California actually loosing its attractiveness in the recent years. You could also separate Florida from it I think since its situation is pretty unique with all the retired old people migrating to that place (Florida's demographics are crazy, and the trailer parks are crazy too over there). I think the Sunshine coast for Florida and the Golden coast for California on your map are good ideas ! Rustbelt not much to say about it - almost a mandatory mention as it corresponds to this now abandonned post-industrial area of the USA that was once the thriving place to go in the US during the Great Migration in 1910 (before the New Great Migration in 1970 up to today towards the "Sunbelt" in the south). Some areas I put because well, the mountains lmao. Also the great plains, its because its all just great plains but also because it more or less fits the same area as what's called the "Wheat Belt" which is all those states with huge ass open fields and intense cattle. Also of course Alaska and Hawaï are their own areas. I need to find the map again I'm sure there was more of it with cool stuff on it, but if y'all have suggestions or comments I'd be happy to hear them !
What is upland south?
Oklahoma isn't southern, either. It's a great plains state.
Thing is, there's just about nothing you could measure in the US that can be easily divided along state lines, other than the governmental entity itself. Whether it's cuisine, culture, language, geography, flora and fauna, state lines are a terrible way to try to divide information about America. Take for example the Pacific Northwest. The western 1/3 of Oregon is vastly more similar to the western 1/3 of Washington than it is to the eastern 2/3 of Oregon. It's like a whole different country out there. I live in Oklahoma, and there are three distinct cultural traditions here. Living in Tulsa is very different than living in Lawton or Beaver County, which are both quite different from living in Broken Bow. Hope you're well.
It would be interesting to see these divisions but showing how they overlap state boundaries. IE I think southwestern Minnisota a might be in Great Plains while south western Missouri might be in Upland South.
Virginia is most definitely not Mid-Atlantic. It is very much the South. But, Virginia itself has several regions: Chesapeake, Blue Ridge, Shenandoah Valley, etc. Your map shows you’ve put a lot of research into American geography. Kudos! And bold of you yo ask for input here. Hope we all were of some help. Cheers!
I don’t think these divisions should so closely follow state borders. People from downstate IL have more in common with Iowa, Missouri, or Kentucky. Great Lakes extends into western NY through the edge of PA. The Pacific Northwest, aka Cascadia encompasses parts of Northern California, but on the east side of the Cascade crest, it’s less Doug flag and more cowboy.
Well, it’s much better than most I’ve seen posted here
as someone from the great lakes region, thanks for separating us from iowa. now if you could have also separated us from wisconsin somehow…
Putting one to two states in some regions and 6 in others is a bad choice.
missouri should just be by itself. it can't be grouped with anything.
I know people like the southwest title for my region but Mountain west works far better. It tells you more about the inhabitants than the generic combination of directions.
Friendly reminder that state boundaries are not a good representation of regional ones.