Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > General U.S.
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
View Poll Results: Hardest state to regionally classify?
Missouri 33 15.00%
West Virginia 67 30.45%
Virginia 15 6.82%
Maryland 23 10.45%
Pennsylvania 9 4.09%
Oklahoma 52 23.64%
New York 5 2.27%
Kentucky 14 6.36%
Deleware 11 5.00%
Texas 70 31.82%
Ohio 10 4.55%
Other (specify) 3 1.36%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 220. You may not vote on this poll

Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 07-25-2018, 06:47 PM
 
Location: Jersey City
7,055 posts, read 19,297,475 times
Reputation: 6917

Advertisements

I voted for West Virginia and Texas.

I think NY, PA, VA, and OH are pretty clearly in their respective regions.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 07-25-2018, 06:55 PM
 
Location: Erie, PA
3,696 posts, read 2,892,628 times
Reputation: 8748
Quote:
Originally Posted by potanta View Post
I voted: New York, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Texas

New York State is huge, but I'd only downstate NY (NYC/Tri-State Region) is part of the Mid-Atlantic. Otherwise, I'd say far Upstate NY is pretty much the Northeast.


In my opinion, Maryland should be considered the Mid-Atlantic although it is below the famous man-made Mason Dixon Line. Who cares about the Mason Dixon Line if it doesn't play the role in geography? That was there for historical reasons (separating the North and the South). Maryland is too much in the midpoint of the East Coast to be considered the South.


West Virginia is hard to classify as the Midwest or the East. I consider Pennsylvania as the East, but West Virginia stretches under the eastern half of Ohio.


Kentucky is hard to classify as the Midwest or the East. Virginia is such a large state that Virginia stretches pretty far (almost stretching halfway through Ohio).


Oklahoma is hard to classify. It's in the very middle (left to right) of the country, but in my opinion, it should be considered "South"


To me, it's stupid that people classify Texas as the Southwest. I think it's too much in the center. The line dividing the arid western half and the humid eastern half of the US is pretty much the center of the country (from left to right). Texas has the line running through approximately through its center (pretend global warming didn't happen to shift that line yet). Texas in the middle of the East and the West. So I consider it the South.
NY state is a mix of several distinct regions coming from someone who grew up there and traveled all over the state

Maryland kind of threw me off until I stayed for a while. Even though it is below the Mason-Dixon Line, it doesn't seem particularly Southern in feel based on other Southern states I've been in. I agree that it seems mostly Mid-Atlantic.

West Virginia to me is simply part of Appalachia It has a lot of Southern characteristics as well based on my time there but it's mostly Appalachian.

Kentucky is definitely Southern to me, especially once you get south of Louisville. Florence and Louisville have a bit of an almost Midwest feel to them but the rest of the state is definitely a Southern one. You can trust me on this as I lived there for 8 years

Oklahoma still bedevils me, lol. Is it Midwest/South? To me it seems like it's too far South to be part of the Midwest and seemed more South than Midwest though it has kind of it's own unique "feel", just like Texas does.

Agree with Texas. It has so many different regions and spans such a large area that it's hard to categorize. It is definitely in the southern part of the US so there's no mistaking it for any other part of the country but only parts of it feel classically Southern. It geographically extends quite a distance so I guess it's region is just "Texas"
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-25-2018, 07:51 PM
 
Location: Bay Area
1,841 posts, read 1,489,149 times
Reputation: 1025
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marie Joseph View Post
NY state is a mix of several distinct regions coming from someone who grew up there and traveled all over the state

Maryland kind of threw me off until I stayed for a while. Even though it is below the Mason-Dixon Line, it doesn't seem particularly Southern in feel based on other Southern states I've been in. I agree that it seems mostly Mid-Atlantic.

West Virginia to me is simply part of Appalachia It has a lot of Southern characteristics as well based on my time there but it's mostly Appalachian.

Kentucky is definitely Southern to me, especially once you get south of Louisville. Florence and Louisville have a bit of an almost Midwest feel to them but the rest of the state is definitely a Southern one. You can trust me on this as I lived there for 8 years

Oklahoma still bedevils me, lol. Is it Midwest/South? To me it seems like it's too far South to be part of the Midwest and seemed more South than Midwest though it has kind of it's own unique "feel", just like Texas does.

Agree with Texas. It has so many different regions and spans such a large area that it's hard to categorize. It is definitely in the southern part of the US so there's no mistaking it for any other part of the country but only parts of it feel classically Southern. It geographically extends quite a distance so I guess it's region is just "Texas"

Out of the states I listed, the only three I visited were Maryland, New York, and Texas. Maryland is very Mid-Atlantic feeling (and is geographically the midpoint of the East Coast). Maryland is just like New Jersey (I grew up in NJ). Maryland is crowded, has a lot of traffic, very populated most places you go around the state, has ghetto cities like most of NJ's cities, etc. The only difference is the people seem nicer there, the parks are more scenic (especially due to the Chesapeake Bay), and the food scenery is better.


I don't remember anything about Texas though.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-25-2018, 08:31 PM
 
Location: The High Desert
16,068 posts, read 10,726,642 times
Reputation: 31422
Quote:
Originally Posted by GraniteStater View Post
How is Oklahoma NOT southern? It is at a very low latitude with a torrid sun angle combined with high heat and humidity.
If we are speaking only in geographic terms, sure, Oklahoma is more southern than Kansas — end of discussion. But it can be pretty hot and humid in Iowa and some other Midwest states. One can’t deny that there are some counties that border Arkansas and ne Texas that would have some southern culture and panhandle country is western. Tulsa and OKC are the population centers and they seem more Midwest or Great Plains than anything else. Wind farms, oil wells, and cowboy culture are pretty entrenched. The Great Plains extend almost to the Mexican border from Canada so I’d have to consider Oklahoma as a plains state.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-25-2018, 08:32 PM
 
Location: WA Desert, Seattle native
9,398 posts, read 8,861,256 times
Reputation: 8812
Oklahoma. It could and has been described as Midwest, southern, and even western. I think the first two apply but western only west of okc.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-25-2018, 09:01 PM
 
Location: Boilermaker Territory
26,404 posts, read 46,544,081 times
Reputation: 19539
Quote:
Originally Posted by Turnerbro View Post
By those standards shouldn't Arizona be considered the south?
It’s the Sunbelt Southwest without the humidity with the exception of monsoon season, occurring every year about now.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-25-2018, 10:15 PM
 
16,679 posts, read 29,499,000 times
Reputation: 7650
Quote:
Originally Posted by personone View Post
All these definitions, yet you didn’t list the official US definition of the South via the US Census:

Delaware
Maryland
DC
Virginia
West Virginia
North Carolina
South Carolina
Alabama
Kentucky
Tennessee
Mississippi
Arkansas
Louisiana
Oklahoma
Texas

...
US Census def of the South? Hell-to-the-naw.

Six of those states/districts ain't even the South.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-25-2018, 10:24 PM
 
Location: Philadelphia
1,342 posts, read 3,244,077 times
Reputation: 1533
The article is not publicly available, but here is the introduction.




https://www.questia.com/library/jour...s-of-the-south




Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-26-2018, 06:53 AM
 
1,351 posts, read 892,792 times
Reputation: 2478
Quote:
Originally Posted by SunGrins View Post
If we are speaking only in geographic terms, sure, Oklahoma is more southern than Kansas — end of discussion. But it can be pretty hot and humid in Iowa and some other Midwest states. One can’t deny that there are some counties that border Arkansas and ne Texas that would have some southern culture and panhandle country is western. Tulsa and OKC are the population centers and they seem more Midwest or Great Plains than anything else. Wind farms, oil wells, and cowboy culture are pretty entrenched. The Great Plains extend almost to the Mexican border from Canada so I’d have to consider Oklahoma as a plains state.
The Midwest has come to stand for everything between the Rockies and Appalachians that wasn't part of the Confederacy, but in reality there are 2, if not 3, solid sub regions. I see the Great Lakes/Rust Belt, North Woods, and Plains. The US EPA Ecoregions do a pretty good job with those boundaries.



The Great Lakes are your traditional/original/whatever Midwest. Being from Iowa, I've always found Ohio's status as a quintessential Midwestern state weird, when it's closer to the Atlantic Ocean than the Mississippi River. But to much of the country it's absolutely that. The Lakes Midwest has an economy that's more industrial/manufacturing, with the major cities along the Great Lakes serving as the hub. It's more urban, but there's still plenty of agriculture. More forested as well. I'd say Ohio, lower Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, and parts of Illinois comprise this. It blows my mind when people refer to West Virginia or Pennsylvania as having Midwest connections, but there's a lot of overlap between those places and eastern Ohio or Michigan.

The Plains would be mostly situated west of the Mississippi, although Central Illinois seems to fit from a cultural, topographical, and economical stand point. This is open country dominated by agriculture. Corn and soybeans in the east giving way to wheat as you go west, with lots of large scale livestock, particularly hogs and cattle. More rural, with the big cities being smaller than east of the river. Agriculture and energy production (increasingly wind, and also oil in some parts) are the big economic drivers. I'd say that all of Nebraska, Iowa, the Dakotas, Kansas, and large parts of Minnesota and Missouri comprise this. A good chunk of Oklahoma and even northern Texas/Texas Panhandle look/feel this way. I'd also agree that Tulsa/OKC have more in common with KC/Des Moines/Omaha than they do Southern cities like Memphis, Nashville, or Atlanta. That's where the OK alignment with the Midwest comes into play.

The North Woods is the smallest region. It's sparsely populated, and the economy revolves around logging, mining, and tourism. There aren't any large cities, there isn't any agriculture, and the vegetation, topography, and climate are quite a bit different than the rest of the Midwest. This is comprised of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the northern half of Wisconsin, and the parts of Minnesota north and east of I-94.

Of course this is all just my opinion, but that's how I've always seen this part of the world, and I think a lot of folks would agree.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-26-2018, 07:08 AM
 
Location: Chicago, IL
8,851 posts, read 5,859,450 times
Reputation: 11467
Quote:
Originally Posted by aries4118 View Post
US Census def of the South? Hell-to-the-naw.

Six of those states/districts ain't even the South.
No you are factually wrong. The official Census definition of those states as the South. So complain and give your “hell-to-the-naw” to the Federal Government! And to Wikipedia!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List..._United_States

https://www.census.gov/geo/reference...us_divreg.html

https://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/map.../us_regdiv.pdf

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_United_States
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > General U.S.
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 03:08 AM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top