I want to know who the 6 percent of people are who think Michigan isn’t in the Midwest.
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It’s 16 percent, and yeah.
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I can name like three of those states
I feel like Northeast, Midwest, South, and West Coast are the name-brand regions and after that it gets pretty ambiguous. Like I had to Google what region Idaho is in and it says Pacific Northwest, which frankly sounds sillier than Midwest.
If they had polled like Alaska and Hawaii, what percentage answers yes to Midwest?
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As a PNW-er, I’d have said “mountain west” for Idaho.
As far as Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado, I’m not surprised to see decent numbers there. I bet if they had more granular data, say at the county level, we’d see a shading from light to dark as you move from west to east across the states. Like if I’m in MT close to the border with a Dakota, it seems reasonable for me to think I’m in the Midwest.
All that said though, maybe “Midwest” really means what I would call “fly over country” to at least some of the denizens of said country?
Is Pittsburgh midwest? Is Cleveland? Is Louisville? Buffalo?
Interested to see what people say as someone who has lived near all 4.
The Midwest is actually an area with a legal definition. That is the states in orange in the picture below. I would also accept anyone who colloquially refers to the Midwest as the area in orange minus North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas (and refers to these states as the Plains). Anything else is stupid.
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Yes. Definitely. Borderline, leaning no. Borderline, leaning yes.
(Full disclosure, I haven’t really spent any time in any of these cities, so just going off of feel)
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Posted this before, but this is my favorite of the US region maps. When I think “Midwest”, it’s basically what’s labeled as “Great Lakes” on this map.
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What is Mountain doing to Sedona? My god.
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You could make an argument for the eastern ~half of Colorado being the Midwest, but I wouldn’t have thought to make that argument until I drove through it.
This map is an abomination
It is a funny satire. Notice the entire area around nevada is circled red with no label. lol
eta: I just noticed it has an unclear arrow for some reason that says “great basin.” that whole blob is just “vegas”
That map is 100% correct. I see zero lies.
Pittsburgh is absolutely not Midwest. Mid-Atlantic, Rust belt, Northeast or Urban Appalachian.
Buffalo no—Rust Belt.
I would have thought Louisville is Midwestern given its proximity to Cincinnati, but maybe Southern.
I think of all of Ohio as Midwest, so therefore Cleveland. But it doesn’t feel as Midwesterny as Cincinnati and Columbus.
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Have you seen any of Idaho? It is pretty much the same as Washington until you get to Montana. In the North it is evergreen forests and in the south farm land.
My kid started at WSU this year and it seems like in that area they consider themselves Inland Northwest, which makes a lot more sense. It’s very distinct from the other side and of Washington.
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Go Cougs! (1990 graduate)
I wonder how much of that is political or cultural vs geography? I never considered the Pacific NW just the Western side of the mountains, but we didn’t care it about that much as was the fashion of that time. As I remember it, Spokane and the north side is different than where WSU is, but probably still different than the other side of the mountains.
Speaking as someone who lived in Louisville for a long time it’s an interesting city for discussions like this. I would argue it’s the either the most northern southern city or the most southern northern city and it’s indisputably the border of the midwest.
You drive 45 minutes south of Louisville and you are in Elizabethtown which is indisputably the South and if you drive over any of the bridges north and you’re in Southern Indiana which is absolutely the rural midwest.
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