Where does the Midwest start and end? (moving, estate)
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I think anyone in here knows what the census lists.
To me personally it starts in western Indiana, and follows a line consisting of I-70 and I-44 to OKC, and then curves north along the eastern edge of the high plains to Canada. I think places like northern Oklahoma and eastern Colorado that are outside the census Midwest are culturally, economically, and geographically more linked to the Midwest than the Mountain West or the south. I view places like Ohio, Michigan, and southern Indiana is inherently more eastern than central. I think southern Illinois, the Missouri Ozarks, and especially the Bootheel have a lot of Southern qualities.
At the end of the day, I think the Midwest is a huge region with a lot of diversity, and there's a general line at the Mississippi that divides it into kind of a Great Lakes or Great Plains split. The Lakes states have more dense urbanity and less of a reliance on agriculture, with a focus on industrial manufacturing. The Rust Belt, if you will. More populated, more forested. The Plains states are more rural, have generally smaller cities, less of an industrial focus. Huge on ag be it large scale row crop farming, or ranching. More conservative. My home is more on the plains side of the equation, and that kind of frames my view of what's really Midwestern. I don't cross the Mississippi much other than going to Wisconsin, so I'm just less familiar and ultimately less connected to the eastern Midwest.
Do you not think east-central Indiana and western Ohio are Midwestern too? Many of the towns dotted around in this area, particularly places such as Muncie, Anderson and Lima, I think are very much the same as any town in Iowa or Kansas as you described; less urban and more agriculturally focused.
I overnighted there a year ago driving to Colorado. I’d say the Midwest intrudes a bit east into Pennsylvania and ends at the E-470 ring road east of Denver. If you want to end it at Ohio and Kansas, close enough.
I've never even understood the slight notion that any part of PA would be Midwestern. A quintessential Eastern state that was one of the nation's original colonies, and whose eastern border is less than 50 miles from the Atlantic coast, should not even be in this conversation. Certainly not anything I'd ever encountered until reading city-data.
Folks should really think geographically. Where would the Midwest be in a nation that's around 2,700 miles wide? Not remotely close to Pittsburgh, that's for sure.
If anything, Eastern Ohio is a transition zone, for its heavier Northeastern/New England influences and topography.
Do you not think east-central Indiana and western Ohio are Midwestern too? Many of the towns dotted around in this area, particularly places such as Muncie, Anderson and Lima, I think are very much the same as any town in Iowa or Kansas as you described; less urban and more agriculturally focused.
I think they're very similar to the Midwest and understand that they are Midwestern to most. I just have a hard time calling something that far east Midwest, in my own definition.
I know the historical roots of the term, but in my mind there has to be some proximity to the center of the country to be Midwestern.
The midwest shouldn't even be called the midwest when most of the region is eastern. Just because the word "mid" is in the name doesn't mean the states have to literally be in the center of the country to be midwestern. If we're going to be that literal, the midwest should be Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Colorado, Nebraska, and Kansas.
To me MN/WI/MI/IA/IL/IN/OH/MO seems obvious Midwestern. [disclosure - I'm Minnesotan, in the sub-region of the Upper Midwest] Of course, to a degree it's a matter of opinion.
To me MN/WI/MI/IA/IL/IN/OH/MO seems obvious Midwestern. [disclosure - I'm Minnesotan, in the sub-region of the Upper Midwest] Of course, to a degree it's a matter of opinion.
Interesting. The more eastern states consider themselves to be in the Midwest more than the plains states. Not surprising tbh. These states were Midwestern before the more centrally located plains states.
To me MN/WI/MI/IA/IL/IN/OH/MO seems obvious Midwestern. [disclosure - I'm Minnesotan, in the sub-region of the Upper Midwest] Of course, to a degree it's a matter of opinion.
The Midwest isn't a matter of opinion. It is what the government has deemed it to be....people don't get to take a poll to decide. Another random 538 people might choose differently, lol.
Interesting. The more eastern states consider themselves to be in the Midwest more than the plains states. Not surprising tbh. These states were Midwestern before the more centrally located plains states.
It's not about self identifying. It's what the respondents thought was the Midwest. I think that means that people in the eastern Midwest don't view the plains states as Midwestern more than it means those folks don't self identify.
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