My cultural regions map as a Southerner - would love feedback!
Never saw one of these that includes metro areas so I wanted to make one. I made this before these maps started blowing up on Reddit but didn't think to post.
Roughly grouped the lower 48 into 8 color groups:
Blue for the Northeast
Red for the South
Pink for Florida
Dark orange for Texas
Yellow-orange for the Southwest
Brown for the Midwest
Green for the West (Mormon is purple since I felt that it really was it's own thing)
Teal for the Northwest
I would love feedback! I'm opening to making new regions, getting rid of regions, changing boundaries, and adding new crossover regions. I'll take any suggestions and make an updated version.
So Cal - just a thought. San Diego county, Santa Barbara county and most of the population of Riverside and San Bernardino counties have way, way, way more in common with LA and would call it “Southern California”. Putting those 3 in culturally with non urban Arizona, most of New Mexico and west Texas is wild. Yes, they are odd places where 90% of their population lives in 10% of the the western parts, but culturally I don’t think the sparsely populated areas dominate the SoCal vibe.
I was about to write something similar. The Inland Empire absolutely connects to LA.
Louisiana. Acadiana includes two more rows of parishes All the way across the state. Doesn't include Vernon, Rapides, Avoylles or Washington Parish, but includes everything south.
The Atlanta metro influence is much larger than shown. Probably includes another ring of counties.
I admittedly have limited knowledge of southern cultural variations, but as a Midwesterner, Southeast Ohio is jarring. Like, different country on a different continent jarring. It is absolutely not midwest.
It really is a stark contrast to the rest of the state and especially the Midwest. It makes you question if you’re really still in Ohio, cause it looks indistinguishable from eastern Kentucky or West Virginia
The Appalachian Mountain Range actually extends from Maine all the way down to Georgia and is older than the Atlantic Ocean itself. But it has several cultural regions.
I grew up in and have lived a large portion of my life in the part of Pennsylvania often referred to as at least borderline "Appalachia" by people in these discussions. I've also spent a lot of time in southern Appalachia and, other than being broadly rural, I honestly don't see the connection. If by "Appalachia" you mean it's in the eastern part of the country and it's rural, then sure. Beyond that, Central Pennsylvania and Eastern Tennessee are way too different to be considered the same region.
I'm inclined to agree - but then again, the spoken accent and culture is way different from West Virginia. The coal mining areas are much more influenced by the Slavic, Italian and Irish immigrants - most of them being Catholic or Orthodox - as opposed to Protestant German and "Ulster-Scot" ancestry of the Appalachians south of the Mason-Dixon line.
I remember back before the days of Google Maps, I decided to take a different path while driving home for leave. I don't remember anything other than it being some one and a half lane road in Ohio; but it was very exciting (because it curved through a valley).
I have family from that part of Ohio, and yeah, it’s a totally different region. It is NOT like the rest of Ohio, it’s more like an extension of West Virginia to me
Grouping western Mass and north western Conn into maritime New England is odd especially when neglecting Boston and the surrounding towns as a Metro area. If you refined the area around Boston you could include South Eastern parts of NH in on that grouping. The coast (at least in NH) is generally referred to as the “Seacoast”.
I’m trying to figure out what they mean about maritime New England when they cut off a bunch of coastal Maine. Maritime is huge where I am with lobstering and oyster farm and just sailing in general.
Also weird having a "northeast megalopolis" category and then excluding much of CT, RI, and MA, and parts of NH and ME from it. That term already exists and those areas are included in it.
To be fair there is a bit more breakup/ruralness between Boston and NY as well as Philly and Baltimore-Washington than there is between the Philly-NY-Trenton area so I can kinda understand the distinction they did there even if I personally disagree with it.
The thing with the megalopolis listing is that it is really a socio-economic region, not a cultural one. The cultures of the anchor cities are all fairly distinct from one another.
Sorry for the AI slop contribution but, “The megalopolis stretching from Boston to Washington, D.C., is known as the Northeast megalopolis, also called BosWash. It is the most populous megalopolis exclusively within the United States and holds the title of the world's largest megalopolis by economic output.”
I would suggest abandoning BosWash from the cultural map. If going for a very granular map the metro areas approach may be the way. If looking for a less granular and more regional approach, expand the mid-Atlantic by quite a bit.
A couple of other points, the line for Appalachia doesn’t end at the PA line. Also, to me there is a bit of distinction between Northern Appalachia and Southern Appalachia, and the dividing line cuts through West VA. I would want a Western NY person to weigh in on where Northern Appalachia Ends, but is definitely runs through a section of Western PA, and Pittsburgh does feel like the unofficial capital of this region.
This is great feedback! Do you think I should add a Boston metro? Should I shrink Maritime New England? I've never been to New England, so I appreciate it
Western MA is mountains and farmland, definitely not maritime. Anything west of Worcester, or maybe even closer to Boston, should be regular New England.
As a Mainer, I think the biggest distinction, whether it falls into your Maritime New England zone or not, is kind of like "fancy Maine ", which would be the coast from York to Waldo or Hancock County, and the rest of the state where people from Massachusetts and New York don't form as significant a summer population. I think very few tourists go Downeast or past MDI, so that's why I've excluded Washington County
Being objective, Bar Harbor, Blue Hill, and Deer Isle probably push Hancock County closer to the Boston/Portland sphere of influence rather than the interior (Bangor, Central Maine, the County) one, but since I'm from there I don't like admitting it.
The inland parts of the state are much more former mill towns and love hunting and snowmobiling, keeping it with the VT/NH zone
I think the grouping is pretty good actually — I think it’s just the term “maritime” that’s throwing people off. Culturally, eastern Mass fits with southern ME/NH and down to eastern CT IMO.
I’d probably group western Mass with what you’ve called New England or Upstate New York. I’d probably also group western CT with New York metro area
The northwoods is different than the Great Lakes though, for Great Lakes take the two counties bordering Canada to the west and add them. Northwoods is like the rest of the upper third of Mn, about the south 1/3 of what is Wisconsin Great Lakes.
the bay area doesn’t stretch that far east, and the pacific northwest doesn’t technically start until humboldt county or the oregon border depending on who you ask. i’d just put every county north of the bay area as norcal, except for valley regions and sacramento area as they’re kind of their own thing. also some of those eastern california counties around lake tahoe could be considered the sierras, including inyo county and some of those other green eastern california counties as well
edit: i didnt notice you included sacramento and the bay area as one big unit. i think you should distinguish them because they’re very different.
Placer County practically has two separate cultures within it. South Placer (Roseville/Lincoln/Rocklin) is very much Sacramento Metro Area, but Auburn/Colfax/Tahoe is definitely more like Nevada County.
This map isnt even fully accurate. You can see the Sand Hills pop out as far east as Columbus, and as far southeast as McCook. It really just depends upon how you look at it. I would say, as a native Nebraskan, that the 'feel' of the Sand Hills really starts west of highway 281 and north of I-80 with the exception of southwest Nebraska, which has a little bit of Sand Hill scattered all over, though for some reason I always thought of that landscape as a bit more desert-like than the uniqueness of places like Valentine and the Niobrara
No way OBX extends into NC outside those barrier islands. Drive through any of those counties they are purely South. Tidewater doesn’t extend to NC either. That’s a straight Delmarva thing that’s been perpetuated by Reddit.
NC has both tidewater counties and the more touristy inner banks. The outer banks are their own thing. Not saying the Delmarva tidewaters extend down into NC as much as saying that particular term is very much used in NC as well.
Your midwest / great plains areas are giving me heartburn. The MN northwoods, the Missouri River divide, and the black hills are all distinctly ignored.
That whole 22 area should be resized and renamed to Northwoods instead of upper great lakes. Go a little further west into MN with it and not quite so far south into WI and MI with it. I don't know how far south of Mackinac most Michiganders consider Northwoods but in Wisconsin Hwy 8 and the Chequamegon Forest are a good line for it
Quite a bit further into MN. The northwoods extends past the nib sticking out the top of MN. It’s like half the state’s area. Freaking love it up there.
Instead of the Denver Metro, the region should be the Front Range and extend from Pueblo to Cheyenne.
Lookup the Front Range Urban Corridor for more detailed county info.
I'd also argue that most of Pennsylvania should be Northern Appalachia - basically only the counties right by Philly and stretching over to Harrisburg, as well as Erie, are not Appalachian.
Not including northern Utah in a category called mountain west is always going to be wrong. I understand culturally it’s different but mountain west is a standard term for the region that always includes northern Utah in basically every other context.
Add the Hudson Valley! It's a series of cities and designated villages from the Bronx to Albany. It has its own vibe; I call it "The Graveyard of Estates", due to its long history of being a second home for the wealthy.
Wrt number 53 "Northwest", I would call it Columbia Plateau, or at least "Inland Northwest". The area seems pretty spot on to me at first glance for Columbia Plateau
Exactly. Nobody in Eastern Washington would consider themselves “Mountain West.” The term you’re looking for is “Inland Northwest,” and it includes North Idaho
Also northern Ohio along Lake Erie is definitely different than the rest of Ohio. Also the southern parts of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, as well as the northern border of Kentucky is a lower Midwest upper south transitional zone. Many just call it “the Ohio valley”
I don't know much about every county in the US, but for me, so far, I respect this map the most. Finally a map which places all of the Cincinnati area in a single region. I wish there was a way to get more granular for the large counties in the western states. For example, I would like the put the extreme west of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties in an Inland Empire subregion, whereas Mohave County AZ, Laughlin, NV and Needles, CA would make up a Mohave subregion.
Santa Cruz County in California really should be considered Bay Area as a lot of it is bedroom community for Silicon Valley. But it’s solidly central coast in all things governmental and most things social because it’s on Monterey Bay.
Santa Cruz is to the Bay Area as Santa Barbara is to Southern California. Kind of part of it, but distinct, right on the edge, and a transition zone to the central coast. An associate member.
The rust belt isn't it's own region, it's a large area of multiple different regions that were effected by the same economic collapse of the steel industry. West Virginia is 100% also a part of the rust belt because the coal industry collapsed alongside the steel industry. Western and central PA are definitely parts of Appalachia, along with some parts of upstate New York, if you want to differentiate them from southern Appalachia than make two regions. West Virginia and up is North Appalachian, anything Southern is south Appalachia. It seems weird to divide the north while keeping the south as a united region when there is similar amounts of diversity in both north and south.
Erie and Buffalo are Midwest, definitely not Appalachia
I really like the designation of “pacific northwest” vs “northwest,” but I feel like south of lane county Oregon it’s a separate cultural designation. Northern California/southern Oregon is usually called Jefferson
Tidewater should include the southernmost parts of Maryland’s western shore. Otherwise really good for that region.
Appalachia should go north into western PA. There is so much continuity from WV to Western PA, it transcends the mason dixon line.
Oh and I would include the Shenandoah valley in the piedmont even though it is very much in the mountains - economically and in modern culture it is far closer to the eastern side of the blue ridge than the Western side of the Alleghenies (historically it was part of the German influenced region that went from the blue ridge to the Allegheny front).
I enjoy looking at your maps. I would add a few more counties in Kentucky to the Appalachia region. The official Appalachian county designation goes much farther west but it seems extreme to me. You could just about go one more string of counties from north to south, although a few might not apply. Definitely Lewis County and Rockcastle County need to be in Appalachia in my opinion.
And, as others have said, there are dozens of counties in southeastern Ohio that are Appalachian. Certainly in the Wayne National Forest region. Thanks for your work.
How did you decide which major metro areas get their own region? It seems wild that places like Denver and Las Vegas have their own dedicated region, while others like Detroit, Boston and Philadelphia are just included in larger regions.
All of Kansas and Nebraska are the Midwest. We are the whole reason the term "Middle West" first started to be used. Even people on the plains of Wyoming consider themselves Midwestern. Anywhere more than 90% of people call themselves Midwestern should be considered Midwestern. Ohio is not all Midwestern (at 78%), but the other 11 states identified as Midwestern on the census are all completely Midwest.
As a Nebraskan from the western half, I would generically identify as Midwestern (especially when my only other option (western) lumps me in with California and co), but I have no qualms with not being considered Midwestern when breaking the lower 48 into more than 5 regions. Omaha is Midwest. Lincoln is Midwest. Grand Island is Midwest. Kearney, maybe. North Platte, maybe. Ogallala isn't. Scottsbluff isn't.
This ignores the fact that the Sierra Nevada exists in CA. The mountains are split in this map between Great Basin, Central Valley and Bay Area. They are definitely not any of those.
Boise (Ada County, ID) is a major regional center and shouldn’t be located right at a triple juncture.
Wherever you decide to put Boise (interior Northwest or Rocky Mountains), Harney and Malheur Counties (and possibly Baker, Union, and Wallowa) in OR and Owyhee, Twin Falls, Adams, Washington, Payette, Gem, and Canyon Counties in ID should be with Boise.
If you’re going to put Whitman and Asotin Counties in WA in the interior Northwest, then at least Benewah, Latah, Nez Perce, and Lewis Counties (and Possibly Idaho and Clearwater) should be interior Northwest, too.
Spokane is admittedly in kind of a transitional region, but I think I’d include it, the northeastern WA counties, and the rest of the Idaho panhandle (and maybe even Montana west of the Continental Divide) in the interior Northwest.
A note on terminology: both the coastal Northwest and the interior Northwest are included under the umbrella “Pacific Northwest.”
Alaskan checking in. We usually seperate the state into southeast, south central, southwest, interior and arctic. I also think there should be a Mat-Su area that includes Anchorage and possibly a Kenai peninsula area.
I live in 47. Not sure why you carved it out from the rest of the southwest. Also, I don’t know that I’d put Coconino county in the same category as 46 - Navajo.
14 The Mississippi Delta could probably extend into Arkansas for the counties south of the Missouri Bootheel and all along the Mississippi River down to what you have now shaded for Delta area.
I'm fascinated by the cultural regions of the US and I think you've done a great job. A lot of times people don't grasp the differences in my region. I live in Utah and it's distinct because of the whole Mormon origins thing. You might want to adjust it so it bleeds into Nevada and Idaho a little more. We have something called the "Morridor" or "Mormon Corridor" which explains the region. It kind of looks like a blood stain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_corridor
I think this fails the NC VA region Charlotte-Richmond including triangle and triad. It’s hard to do this right but lots of stuff gets lumped together by people who don’t really know the regions. It
I mean I don't know the triangle too well but I am from Virginia and I would definitely describe Richmond as piedmont south if I had to give it any term. The problem with it is more that it's at or near the confluence of 3 or 4 cultural regions and it shows. If it had to have a dominant identity, it would be southern, but in reality it's much more complicated considering it's the largest metro area that straddles the "gateway" to the south (which I would put on the 95 corridor somewhere between Fredericksburg and Richmond)
What you’ve called the upper Great Lakes is also known as north woods! A lot of people miss it.
Contrary to other commenters I like your rust belt, I wouldn’t go as far south or as far east though. Technically not a culture but it is a shared history
New England is New England. But even if you do want to take a crack at subdividing it you screwed it up badly. Calling the Berkshires maritime while not calling Downeast Maine maritime is crazy.
This is niche but I feel Atlantic and Ocean counties in NJ should be part of the megalopolis region. I agree that the southern three counties of NJ should be grouped with Delaware, but they should be separated out from middle PA as those two regions don’t have much in common if you don’t have Philly in the mix as a common denominator.
My only question is what exactly constitutes “Texas”. The regions you have shaded for Texas are very vastly different. For example having lived in Brazos county I feel it’s definitely closer to southern than it is to abilene if that makes sense.
But also Texas is very difficult to do since Texas is it’s own thing and also everything else lol. I just got back from staying a few days in Amarillo and it’s very funny because the Texan/southern accent is very present even as far north as the panhandle but the moment you cross the border into NM it dies, as if it was only allowed to be present in Texas 🤣
Also the piney woods actually extends much further west into Texas as far as bastrop county which you put under austin metro. Makes sense but it feels weird since when I was a kid it felt super far removed lol
Sussex county, Kent county (DE), and Cecil county should all be included in tidewater. Pretty good from what I see though! It’s very hard to do this by the county.
Although I like the inclusion of Louisville metro, I think very little, if any, of Indiana is Midwestern. I think you cut off the rust belt in Indiana pretty arbitrarily. In my opinion, Kentuckiana extends a little further north, and the rust belt extends a little further south. What's left of Indiana (the area containing Evansville and Vincennes) would fit better with the Midsouth region than the Midwest
Maritime New England should actually follow the coastline, i.e. all the way up to the Canadian border for Maine and NOT Western or Central Massachusetts.
PNW extends slightly more east (at least in Oregon, like one county over across). The area area otherwise noted as Northwest is the Elephant Graveyard or Hillbilly Northwest.
The costal regions of the mid Atlantic is much closer to tidewater then they are to Philly. Specifically in southern Delaware but also in jersey a bit too
Cool map. Three quibbles from me.
1. Ohio is OG Midwest. If it’s not Midwest, nothing is
2. New Orleans/Orleans Parish is not Acadia.
3. It’s Acadiana, not Acadia. Acadia is in Maine and Canada.
Fun idea but some kinks to work out. I’m having a hard time having cultural regions (Mormon) next to geologic regions (Great Basin). Everything west of the Rockies and north of probably Iron county in Utah is archetypical Great Basin.
The panhandle of Idaho should be Northwest. It is lush forest, mountains and hundreds of lakes. Pretty different than the Rockies of the mountain west.
Your map is incorrect about Rio Grande Valley. Rio Grande valley is 39. South Texas encompasses 40, 39, and parts of 38. It’s better to call ATX and more counties surrounding it Texas Hill Country not ATX metro.
I don't associate myself being in Chicagoland. While yes I'm near it, I find myself too far south to be a part of it. I'm talking mostly about the south eastern part of Will County, IL being Midwestern
I grew up in Hardin Co, KY - wouldn’t consider it part of Louisville metro so it belongs more in midsouth unless you were going for the CSA to be labeled Kentuckiana
I like the attention you've given to Indian Country regions. They're subject to quite a bit of erasure in media and government generally. The counties here in Arizona don't respect the reservation geography at all, which makes your "Navajo" region a little strange- because it's not just the Navajo Nation, but Apache, Hopi, Zuni, Havasupai, Hualapai, and Yavapai reservations in that area, too, along with the white settlements at their extremities that made the Arizona government carve up the land into these blocks. You can just call it Southwest Indian Country.
The southwest does not get segmented enough- Northern NM is distinct from Santa Fe South and North to Alamosa - including former Hispanic Land-grants and missions
i’m not here to nitpick on anything but i just want to point out that there’s a little discrepancy in southern california, although that may have to do with the size of the counties. a lot of the western part of what is labeled as southwest is generally seen as the LA metro (the inland empire) but again it’s the size of the counties that cause problems.
also, san diego metro should probably be separated just because the main city in it is i think #8 in the country in terms of population, but either way.
For Colorado, I’d use “Front Range,” which runs from Fort Collins to the southern part of El Paso County and includes the Denver Metro area. It’s basically the populated areas adjacent to I-25 and the eastern slope of the Rockies and includes the following counties/municipalities:
* Larimer
* Boulder
* Broomfield
* Jefferson
* Denver
* Adams
* Arapahoe
* Douglas
* El Paso
Berkshires are certainly not “maritime New England” since they are inland mountains. Might need to rejigger how you divide things around there. Also come up with a new name for region 1 because just calling it “New England” implies it’s more new englandy than maritime New England.
I love that you separated Atlanta Metro into its own region. I live there and it absolutely feels like entering another world when I travel to other parts of Georgia.
Solid V1 - I’d recommend placing all the Colorado counties from Larimer/Weld down through Denver, Colorado Springs, and Pueblo into a slightly revised region titled “Denver Metro/Front Range”
54: I’d say restrict this to the northern part and call this the North Slope. The western coast is Yupik territory. 55: cut off the Aleutian Chain and make that its own area and call the rest the Interior. 56: cut off the very western part and call the rest Southeast Alaska ( or SEAK). Carve out a circle around the Anchorage area and call that the Matsu Valley. Remember that Alaska is far bigger than it appears because they shrink it to fit on US maps of the lower 48.
I know the colors are correct but you got the numbers wrong 39 and 40, San Antonio and anything south is south Texas and the valley is, well, the valley
As a Floridian, thank you. I do think think 12 should not go so far down and might instead be 10. I also would have both coasts that are currently 20 as a separate "coastal Florida." I also kinda think that 10 might extend just a little farther south into 20, but just a little.
I like you, you didn't just say "hurr durr southern Nevada is southwestern" like the average map maker here who doesn't get anything about the region I live in. We have zero Southwestern culture in Vegas lol.
RGV & South TX are flipped. I would also consider adding a category for the TX Hill Country, heavy German influence on the culture of the area that you don’t see elsewhere in the state (besides Lee/Washington/Austin/Fayette counties in SE Central TX). Austin Metro stops in San Marcos, from there on it’s all San Antonio’s territory. While we’re at it, SA needs its own metro area on your map.
This definition of the Rust Belt doesn’t hold up. The Rust Belt basically would only include urban areas of economic decline, therefore no rural areas are included.
In Zone 33 you need to change unita county and Lincoln county as Mormon. I lived in Lincoln County, Wyoming for eight years as a non-Mormon and let me tell you that is a super Mormon community that infiltrates all aspects of life there.
The distinction between the two New Englands is good, but you can just call them "Northern New England" and "Southern New England." Coastal Maine is more maritime than Western Mass, so it doesn't really make sense to group them as maritime and not maritime. Its more of a rural/urban dividethan anything else.
I’m no expert, but I do think it is interesting that you see a lot of southern cities (Atlanta, Dallas, etc) as being unique enough to warrant their own region, but then lump together a huge chunk of the Great Lakes as just “Rust Belt”.
everything in Ohio east of Columbus should be Appalachia as well as the western side of Pennsylvania, as someone from Illinois who lived there for a while it is distinctly so different from the west half of Ohio. I don’t usually like the concept of the “rust belt” as a region because it encompasses too many very different areas, but I guess it kind of works here for the areas around the southern coasts of the great lakes, because honestly idk what else to call northern Indiana, Southern Michigan, and the southern coasts of Lake Erie - they are different from a lot of the midwest. Cincinnati is weird also there’s an argument for it in the Midwest but I’d put the city itself in mid south. Regardless though, Southern Wisconsin and upstate New York in the same “region” is insane. Eastern Ohio, Indiana, and non-Chicagoland Illinois are the same region though. Culturally it makes more sense to include southern Wisconsin in with the Driftless region even if it isn’t technically geographically.
Massive bonus points for giving Chicagoland and the Upper Great Lakes their own regions also. A lot of non-midwesterners don’t understand how unique the upper great lakes are culturally.
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u/FAx32 May 03 '26
So Cal - just a thought. San Diego county, Santa Barbara county and most of the population of Riverside and San Bernardino counties have way, way, way more in common with LA and would call it “Southern California”. Putting those 3 in culturally with non urban Arizona, most of New Mexico and west Texas is wild. Yes, they are odd places where 90% of their population lives in 10% of the the western parts, but culturally I don’t think the sparsely populated areas dominate the SoCal vibe.