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New York and Illinois are the most obvious - i.e. downstate NYC and environs vs. Upstate New York and Chicagoland vs. downstate Illinois. In both states, the major city and environs represent at least 2/3 of the population and are quite demographically and politically different from the rest of their states.
Pennsylvania (Philly area vs. the rest of the state) and Florida (Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Palm Beach vs. the rest of the state) seem to have more gradual versions of this (i.e. Orlando and Tampa Bay in the middle).
There's also Northern and Southern California centered around San Francisco and Los Angeles respectively - but it's not exactly a core/periphery difference.
Are you asking about one big city dominating a demographically different rest of the state? Or more generally, a state split between two vastly different demographics?
Pennsylvania has both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, so it's not really upstate vs. downstate
Washington has a divide between the liberal coastal / I-5 areas including Seattle and the conservative rest of the state, and I'd imagine that Oregon probably does too.
I've often heard of areas outside of greater Seattle as "Upstate" (not so much referring to arid areas to the east) .. I've heard, less frequently, areas outside of Omaha/Lincoln Nebraska as "outstate."
You could really use the term in any state, but I think it's more commonly heard in areas with an unbalanced population, where there tends to be a perceived environment of exclusion/imbalance of power.
Are you asking about one big city dominating a demographically different rest of the state? Or more generally, a state split between two vastly different demographics?
Pennsylvania has both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, so it's not really upstate vs. downstate
Washington has a divide between the liberal coastal / I-5 areas including Seattle and the conservative rest of the state, and I'd imagine that Oregon probably does too.
Either would be interesting, but something more complex than "the big city is different from the rural areas."
Maybe a split between the more "rust belt" Wisconsin and "Minnesota-like" Wisconsin?
German ancestry 1,423,203 20.1%
Irish ancestry 1,371,283 19.4%
English/American ancestry 1,200,372 17%
Italian ancestry 1,105,655 15.7%
The Black population is 547,521 or 7.8% of the population.
Interesting how it looks about "halfway" between Pennsylvania and New England in terms of Irish, Germans and English ancestry (with PA being the most German and New England being more English/American/"Yankee" and Irish and low level of German ancestry), though more Italian than either.
If Upstate NY were a state it would rank third for Irish American percentage (behind Massachusetts and New Hampshire) and fourth for Italian Americans (behind Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Jersey).
ETA: I removed NYC, Long Island and Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties.
I heard that Seattle area is pretty different from the rest of Washington.
Yes, in that Seattle is the only truly urban part of Washington, with a booming economy and high concentration of transplants, but it's not as extreme as the examples the OP gave. It's not much different than other states with only one big, dominant, booming metro (Georgia comes to mind). I recently moved from (the city of) Seattle to the Eastern part of the state, and while it is quite different here... it's not exactly culture shock.
Quote:
Originally Posted by burrrrr
I've often heard of areas outside of greater Seattle as "Upstate" (not so much referring to arid areas to the east).
Nobody says "upstate" here.
Aside from the examples the OP already gave, I would say there's quite a cultural difference between Southern Louisiana and the rest of the state North of I-10. The Creole/Cajun influence in the Southern part of the state is a whole different vibe from the mostly Protestant North... and I'm not just talking about New Orleans. Even the small towns and small cities like Lafayette, New Iberia, and Lake Charles seem like a whole different region than Shreveport.
Other examples that come to mind are Colorado (East to West), Virginia (North to South), Ohio (North to South), Michigan (Detroit area to the U.P.), and Oregon (Portland and Eugene vs. the rest of the state), but nothing on the level of New York and Illinois.
Texas is weird because it has so many different sub-regions. East Texas is a whole different deal from South Texas, which is totally different from the panhandle, which is quite different from the hill country, which is different from the Trans-Pecos, etc. etc.
South Dakota is split by the Missouri River. East River is Sioux Falls and farming, West River is Rapid City and ranching. There is a noticeable difference as soon as you cross the river. Most of the population lives East River, so that side tends to have more power.
As an outsider who moved here, I can say without a doubt...west is best!
Idaho has a long history of differences and desires to split between north and south as does california which just recently has seen some serious activity to split in various directions
We don't call it upstate and downstate, rather northern and southern, but NJ has a definite divide.
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