Where is the Midwest? (statistics, ranking, metro area)

[stlouisan]

Originally Posted by Fastphilly

For me, the Midwest begins (from west to East) on the Eastern sections of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado.

From North to South:

The Canadian border down through the Dakota's, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and the Texas Panhandle.

The Eastern Boundry:

Eastern edge of Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri.

Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle are southern, not Midwestern. Nothing Midwestern about these places.

[danielj72]

Originally Posted by Fastphilly

For me, the Midwest begins (from west to East) on the Eastern sections of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado.

From North to South:

The Canadian border down through the Dakota's, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and the Texas Panhandle.

The Eastern Boundry:

Eastern edge of Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri.

So then I guess Indiana is the Yankee northeast right. Maybe they even have those irritating accents like a New Yorker does lol. Ohio must be so northeastern that even Snooki would feel at home in Dayton or Columbus eh?? Montana is midwestern????? sorry no part of Montana is anything but the true west. I think people in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado would balk at being considered midwestern. People in Ohio and Indiana would balk at being considered anything but midwest. Better look at the US census defintion of midwest, and west. People argue over what is midwest and what is not, but the region has a strong historical base. Anything that was part of the northwest territory is the midwest core. Oh, In, Wi, Mi, Ill and part of MN. states to the west of the NWT in the great plains area have been added as well. Like I said the US census has this one nailed.

[tablemtn]

Parts of Montana feel very much "Midwestern" - remember, the state stretches quite a ways from west to east, and by the time you are getting near the border with North/South Dakota, the environment is one of prairies and smaller farming towns. The same is true of eastern Colorado, which borders Kansas and Nebraska.

[Fastphilly]

Originally Posted by tablemtn

Parts of Montana feel very much "Midwestern" - remember, the state stretches quite a ways from west to east, and by the time you are getting near the border with North/South Dakota, the environment is one of prairies and smaller farming towns. The same is true of eastern Colorado, which borders Kansas and Nebraska.

That is exactly my point. From Colorado north to the Canadian Border along the Eastern side of the Rockies is very much Mid-West. The terrain in Eastern Montana, Colorado, and Wyoming is very much the same as Nebraska, Kansas, and Dakotas. An argument can be made of the extreme northern edge of Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle. Amarillo doesn't give me a "South" feeling like somebody on this thread spoke of.

[stlouisan]

Originally Posted by Fastphilly

That is exactly my point. From Colorado north to the Canadian Border along the Eastern side of the Rockies is very much Mid-West. The terrain in Eastern Montana, Colorado, and Wyoming is very much the same as Nebraska, Kansas, and Dakotas. An argument can be made of the extreme northern edge of Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle. Amarillo doesn't give me a "South" feeling like somebody on this thread spoke of.

Listen to the people and observe the culture, look up the demographics. Amarillo felt pretty southern to me. Oklahoma and Texas are the Western South. They have nothing in common culturally, linguistically, or historically with their neighbors to the north.

[Fastphilly]

Originally Posted by stlouisan

Listen to the people and observe the culture, look up the demographics. Amarillo felt pretty southern to me. Oklahoma and Texas are the Western South. They have nothing in common culturally, linguistically, or historically with their neighbors to the north.

..and Amarillo has nothing culturally , linguistically or historically with their neighbors to the South. I have been through there many times and have driven the length of US 287 from Beaumont, TX to Eastern Colorado. passing through Childress,Texas in the Panhandle area. My close friend that I have visited many times lives in Wellington, TX (Collingsworth County). It is Mid-West culture through and through. Once you drive pass Wichita Falls going north on US 287 it changes.

[stlouisan]

Originally Posted by Fastphilly

..and Amarillo has nothing culturally , linguistically or historically with their neighbors to the South. I have been through there many times and have driven the length of US 287 from Beaumont, TX to Eastern Colorado. passing through Childress,Texas in the Panhandle area. My close friend that I have visited many times lives in Wellington, TX (Collingsworth County). It is Mid-West culture through and through. Once you drive pass Wichita Falls going north on US 287 it changes.

Look..I'm from the Midwest, and I'm telling you that the Texas Panhandle is not the Midwest, nor is Oklahoma. Ron White is from the panhandle, or practically on its southern edge...he is NOT a Midwesterner.

[stlouisan]

Originally Posted by Fastphilly

..and Amarillo has nothing culturally , linguistically or historically with their neighbors to the South. I have been through there many times and have driven the length of US 287 from Beaumont, TX to Eastern Colorado. passing through Childress,Texas in the Panhandle area. My close friend that I have visited many times lives in Wellington, TX (Collingsworth County). It is Mid-West culture through and through. Once you drive pass Wichita Falls going north on US 287 it changes.

Not true at all. Give me one solid piece of data you can use to prove this.

[skyduster]

The Midwest is geographic region that includes the following states (from roughly east to west): Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Kansas.

Officially, that's the Midwest.

Colloquially, different people have different ideas of what "Midwest" means, and these are usually people who are not well-informed, never read books, never look up facts (don't have a curiosity to do so), and/or suck in geography. But it doesn't matter what anyone thinks, or feels, or what someone has told you. The Midwest is those 12 states. Fact. End of story.

Having said that, the Midwest is not by any means a cultural region. Although they have considerable internal differences, the South and the Northeast are truer cultural regions. In the South and Northeast, yes there's internal cultural differences (and some very culturally different peripheries like South Florida), but the bulk of these regions is not that internally divided. The Midwest, on the other hand, is significantly divided. The Midwest is two large socio-cultural regions: the conservative, rural western plains region, and the heavily-populated, urbanized, and more liberal Great Lakes region. So, while all these 12 states (OH, IL, MI, WI, IN, MN, MO, IA, ND, SD, KS, NE) are geographically the Midwest, they fall into two very different socio-cultural regions.

There is also, of course, a 3rd wheel: the reality that the cultural-South...a.k.a. the Bible Belt, reaches into the southernmost areas of the Midwest: roughly the southern quarter of Missouri, the southernmost part of Illinois perhaps, and the southernmost slither of Ohio is also kissed by the South. But this area makes up such a very small part of the Midwest, we'll just excuse it as a peripheral anomaly, just like South Florida or Southern Louisiana within the South.

So, within cultural or political discourse, I always divide the region into the Plains region and Great Lakes region. I rarely ever talk about the "Midwest"...I only do so when talking about this federally-mandated geographic region. But when talking about political issues, I talk about the "Great Lakes" region, vs the "Great Plains" region. Ditto for cultural matters.

Now, where do I draw the line between the "Great Plains" and "Great Lakes" region...this one's more ambiguous. Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas are squarely in the Plains region. Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana are squarely in the Great Lakes region. Missouri, IMO, sort of straddles both, culturally, (as well as its southern area straddling the cultural South). St Louis...although far from the Great Lakes, has more in common with Chicago and Milwaukee than Kansas City. Kansas City, OTOH, is definitely a Plains town. Iowa also straddles both. Minnesota is unique; I'd say it straddles both, but leans more Great Lakes, due in large part to the fact that its dominant population center -the Minneapolis-St Paul metro area- is definitely a Great Lakes town. I'd say the Plains parts of the state are more to the northwest and west of Minneapolis, as you head toward the Dakotas.

Here is a map of the official Midwest:




Political differences:

2000 presidential elections (electoral map):



2004 presidential elections (electoral map):


2008 presidential elections (electoral map):


Over those 3 elections, the Great Lakes region have trended bluer and bluer. Ohio and Indiana switched from red to blue. The Plains states and Missouri are red (although in all 3 elections, Missouri was pretty evenly split). Iowa has switched back and forth.

Opinion polls conducted to date, show that the Midwest will probably vote the same way in 2012 as it did in 2008, with the exception of Indiana switching to red.

Although not a clear divider between Plains states and Great Lakes states, the Great Lakes states trend on having no capital punishment, while the Plains states trend on having it. Below, states and territories in light blue have abolished the death penalty (or never had it to begin with):



Here's an interesting map that puts the Midwest's demographics into perspective. Below is a manipulated map of the United States...each state's land area has been manipulated to reflect the size of the state's population, rather than geographic accuracy:

As you can see, Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan are large states. Wisconsin, Missouri, Indiana, and Minnesota are reasonably large. Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas are small. North Dakota and South Dakota are tiny. Generally speaking, the Great Lakes states are heavily populated; the Plains states are sparsely populated.

Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan all rank within the country's 10 largest states by population.

Here's how the Midwestern states stand in national rank by population:

#5 Illinois
#7 Ohio
#8 Michigan
#15 Indiana
#18 Missouri
#20 Wisconsin
#21 Minnesota
#30 Iowa
#33 Kansas
#38 Nebraska
#46 South Dakota
#48 North Dakota

Note the core Great Lakes states' rankings in relation to the Plains states and transition states. I also want to point out that comparing overall population size of Midwestern states is a pretty fair measure of density, since the differences in geographic sizes don't vary in the Midwest as much as they do in the Northeast (where you have states as small as Rhode Island and Connecticut alongside geographically-large states like Pennsylvania and New York.)

But, for good measure, the below map shows population density of the United States by county:

As is shown here: Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio are densely-populated. Nebraska, Kansas, North Dakota, and South Dakota are sparsely populated. Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota are in-between.

The below map shows the locations of the 30 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States:

Per my definition above (of where I draw the line between Great Lakes and Plains), 6 of the country's largest metro areas are located in the Great Lakes region (including St Louis and Minneapolis-St Paul), while only one is in the Plains region (Kansas City).

Population density of the Midwest as reflected by this night-time space view of North America:

Although, it's difficult to make out state boundaries, you can see that the eastern portion of the Midwest is more lit-up, and you can make out several of its population centers: Minneapolis-StPaul, St Louis, Indianapolis, Detroit-AnnArbor, Grand Rapids, Cleveland-Akron, Cincinnati, Columbus, and -of course- the large Gary-Chicago-Milwaukee agglomeration. You can also make out the several smaller ones, such as South Bend and Green Bay. The Plains region, by contrast, generally has fewer and smaller population centers.

[iNviNciBL3]

Originally Posted by skyduster

The Midwest is geographic region that includes the following states (from roughly east to west): Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Kansas.

Officially, that's the Midwest.

Nice! very informative post, i agree 100% that the midwest are these 12 states.