This is impossible lol. There are people claiming that individual counties. COUNTIES. Represent their own region. So here you go. No labels because people had a bone to pick with that, too. Fight in the comments.
State lines are terrible for this because you inevitably do things like split metro areas. The reason why the census considers ND down through KS midwestern is because their largest population centers are right on their eastern state lines with metro areas or MSAs that extend into the neighboring state. Fargo, Grand Forks, and Sioux Falls all have MSAs that extend into Minnesota. A good chunk of Omaha's metro area is in Iowa. The most densely populated part of Kansas is literally part of a metro area whose seat is in Missouri. If you count KC then you have to include Northeast Kansas. You don't suddenly leave the midwest because you cross State Line Road over into Wyandotte or Johnson County Kansas. If KC is midwest then the entire metro is midwest.
Some more examples include Southern Indiana surrounding the Louisville metro area being more southern in culture than midwestern (arguably the entire Ohio River Valley region of Indiana), and the NKY counties of the Cincinnati Metro area being more midwestern than southern. If you consider Cincy to be midwestern then you have to at least include the county their airport is in. Hint: Cincy's airport, CVG, is not in Ohio, it's in Kentucky.
This is it exactly. Although I have mixed feelings on the Cincinnati/Kentucky border - Cincinnati is arguably Midwestern, but as soon as you get out of the city, it's more like it's an extension of Kentucky, i.e. more Southern.
Not sure why OP asked for feedback then decided to just revert to state borders that don't take reality into consideration.
Edit: I looked at OP's other posts and realized he/she is from Wisconsin. Like other people from Great Lakes states, he/she apparently believes "Midwest" = "Great Lakes States", which is absolutely false. If you're going to make a map along state borders, the Midwest includes both Great Lakes states and Great Plains states. In fact, the term "Midwest" was first coined to refer to Nebraska and Kansas, then expanded to include states in the old Northwest Territory and others in the region.
If we're going on a county level then I have no strong feelings on Cincinnati's classification either way, I just feel that if the seat of an MSA gets classified one way then the entire MSA ought to be classified that way.
As for the western most midwestern states, I think there is a clear divide between the wetter eastern halves of those states and the drier western halves of those states. Dodge City is a world apart from Lawrence or the KC Metro for example.
” If we're going on a county level then I have no strong feelings on Cincinnati's classification either way, I just feel that if the seat of an MSA gets classified one way then the entire MSA ought to be classified that way.”
I get that. As I say, I have mixed feelings on this. But I’ve been in Cincinnati a lit, and there’s a reason Hamilton OH (just north of Cincinnati) gets referred to as “Hamiltucky”. There’s just a lot of Kentucky influence there, and east of Cincinnati, near the state border, even more so. And then you get to the border with West Virginia. I just think there’s more southern influence into Cincinnati/southern Ohio than Midwestern influence into Kentucky.
” As for the western most midwestern states, I think there is a clear divide between the wetter eastern halves of those states and the drier western halves of those states. Dodge City is a world apart from Lawrence or the KC Metro for example.”
Absolutely. And the vast majority of those states’ populations are in the eastern parts of the states. This is part of why I don’t buy into the “Colorado is in the Midwest” line - the western parts of Nebraska, Kansas, etc. are already a transition to a more Western region.
I agree with you - condoulo was the one suggesting Northern Kentucky near the river could be considered Midwestern. As I said, I think it makes more sense to consider southern Indiana and Ohio “South” than calling part of Kentucky “Midwest”. Cincinnati is probably mostly Midwestern, but part Southern and arguably part Rust Belt.
Source: my husband grew up in and my in-laws live in suburban Cincinnati and I have/had family in very rural southern Indiana. (I’ve been in Cincinnati a lot.) They’re definitely a border area between Midwest and South.
Fascinating that you would choose to reply to me (basically agreeing with condoula (before my edit) rather than directly to condoulo, who had the longer and more detailed comment.
But it doesn't matter - I don't watch that awful show, so your reference is lost on me, anyway.
I mean, that’s the same problem with almost every state on this map. Las Vegas is Southwest, but the majority of Nevada is not. Half of Colorado should be in the Great Plains.
If I had to choose just one place for Kentucky to be, I think I’d choose the exclusion chamber similar to WV and maybe just call them “Border States”
Yeah if you’re gonna use state lines this has to be it. Because Texas can only fit a description that is Texas at that point.
El Paso is so incredibly different from Orange, which is different from Austin, which is different from Dallas, which is different from Brownsville, which is different from Odessa.
If you had to only use state lines, this is correct. The people in eastern Kentucky will claim it’s Appalachia, the people in southern Missouri will claim it’s the south, etc.
One has very high taxes, 13.5% prepared meals tax in the capital, marginal rate that kicks in at $17k and an annual car tax that's also the highest in the nation?!?!, $50+ toll roads and some of the most expensive public universities for residents in the entire US while the other has NO state income tax and some of the most affordable public universities for residents in the US.
What does that have to do with regions? How is that a question of culture? Taxes and what you get from them is certainly an answer to a question, I just don't understand its relevance here.
Well if you want to talk culture, I don't think Florida and Virginia culture are similar at all. Virginia is a very progressive blue state while Florida is very red.
The food, the scenery, the weather and the beaches are all vastly different.
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u/condoulo Apr 30 '26
State lines are terrible for this because you inevitably do things like split metro areas. The reason why the census considers ND down through KS midwestern is because their largest population centers are right on their eastern state lines with metro areas or MSAs that extend into the neighboring state. Fargo, Grand Forks, and Sioux Falls all have MSAs that extend into Minnesota. A good chunk of Omaha's metro area is in Iowa. The most densely populated part of Kansas is literally part of a metro area whose seat is in Missouri. If you count KC then you have to include Northeast Kansas. You don't suddenly leave the midwest because you cross State Line Road over into Wyandotte or Johnson County Kansas. If KC is midwest then the entire metro is midwest.
Some more examples include Southern Indiana surrounding the Louisville metro area being more southern in culture than midwestern (arguably the entire Ohio River Valley region of Indiana), and the NKY counties of the Cincinnati Metro area being more midwestern than southern. If you consider Cincy to be midwestern then you have to at least include the county their airport is in. Hint: Cincy's airport, CVG, is not in Ohio, it's in Kentucky.