Americans: what region are these states from and where do you live?

Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., New York, Virginia, and West Virginia. North Carolina are Mid-Atlantic states.

Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee are East South Central States.

West South Central States are Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas

Missouri is Midwest, except it is Old South.

Illinois is Midwest.

North Carolina is South.

Kentucky and Florida and Texas are South too, although Texas is just Texas.

I live in California, generally called the Far West, although we proudly call ourselves the Left Coast.

@MadMadMax You didn’t answer about the states I asked about. Those are the ones I am interested in.

I’m not looking at a map. This is just how I classify them in my mind.

1. Missouri: Midwest (southerly, though)
2. Illinois: Midwest
3. North Carolina: Southeast
4. Kentucky: South
5. Florida: Southeast
6. Texas: Texas.
As a New England youngster watching cowboy shows on TV, I always thought Texas was “The West,” and it’s hard still to shake that impression, Really, though, I class it by itself, in a southwesterly sort of way.
7. The state where you live and what region you consider it to be: California; West Coast.

I live in a Neo-Confederate state,

New England. The Northeastern US.

Missouri: Southeastern Conference, East Division (yeah, don’t ask me)
Illinois: Big Ten, Leaders Division
North Carolina: Atlantic Coast Conference, Atlantic Division and Coastal Division
Kentucky: Southeastern Conference, East Division
Florida: Southeastern Conference, East Division
Texas: Conference USA, West Division and Sun Belt

Connecticut, where the Husky Women take on all comers, from any region except, apparently, Tennessee. (Also, the “American Athletic Conference”, whatever that is.)

There should be an easier way of finding states, because that’s not the best reference that I can imagine.

1. Missouri – Midwest, but with a southern influence.

2. Illinois – Midwest

3. North Carolina – Southeast/Atlantic Seabord

4. Kentucky – South

5. Florida – South

6. Texas – South and southwest

7. California – West

8. The state where you live and what region you consider it to be. I live in Ohio, I consider it both midwest and middle atlantic. Until you get to Cincinnati which is closing in on the south.

@CWOTUS, I beg your pardon: what are you talking about?

1. Missouri—>Midwest

2. Illinois—>Also midwest

3. North Carolina—>East Coast

4. Kentucky—>Plains

5. Florida—>Florida…I mean really. It’s not quite deep south but kinda bible-belty…it’s its own region.

6. Texas—>[Separate country; Not applicable.]

7. California—>Pacific West

8. Massachusetts—>New England

The only states that I have been to from the list are Florida, California, and Mass.

NC = south.

@syz That’s what I’d call it too. But officially its Mid-Atlantic

Texas – God’s Country. South Central and South West. While still technically a state, we like to consider ourselves as a separate Republic that just happens to be part of the US.

1. Missouri (South/ Midwest/ Bible Belt/ Tornado Alley)

2. Illinois (North/ Midwest/Corn belt)

3. North Carolina (South/ Southeast/Deep South/ Black Belt – due to soil not population)

4. Kentucky (South)

5. Florida (South/ Gator-ville)

6. Texas (South/ Home of Dallas Cowboys woo hoo)

7. California (West/ Freakville/ home of the happy cows and liberals)

8. Missouri is where I live.

I’m a Texan, and I don’t know any native who considers Texas part of “The South.” Many have referenced its self-assigned sovereignty, and I like the reference to “South Central.” That sounds right to me.

@picante West South Central

Kansas is not on the list. What the hell is that supposed to mean??

The rest of the country views # 6 as:

Texas——> Insufferable.

1. Missouri – South/Midwest

2. Illinois – Midwest

3. North Carolina – South/East – even though it’s further south than Kentucky, I see Kentucky as more “southern” than NC, entirely for cultural reasons, even though geographically it is certainly in the southern half of the US.

4. Kentucky – South

5. Florida – South – although ironically enough, South Florida is less culturally “southern” than the rest of the state.

6. Texas – South

7 & 8. California – West/Pacific

East coast, flyover states, west coast :)

I live in Maryland which is south of the Mason Dixon line. we are in the mid Atlantic region but we are the northern most southern state on the eastern seaboard,

1. Missouri—-middle of nowhere

2. Illinois—likewise

3. North Carolina – The land where dinosaur walked with man

4. Kentucky -beginning of middle of nowhere land

5. Florida -retirement and rollercoasters

6. Texas- the south

7. California-The west coast

8.NJ- northeast

California = the Left Coast

Off the top of my head…

1. Missouri
Mid-West

2. Illinois
Mid-West

3. North Carolina
South-East

4. Kentucky
South

5. Florida
South-East

6. Texas
South

7. California
West-Coast

8. The state where you live and what region you consider it to be.
Massachusetts, North-East

“North Carolina – The land where dinosaur walked with man”

Oh that is so true.

1. Missouri—midwest

2. Illinois—midwest

3. North Carolina—south

4. Kentucky—thats a tough one, would probably refer to it as south or appalachia lol

5. Florida—southeast

6. Texas—south

7. California—west coast

8. Colorado….I just call it the west. It is not the southwest yet, and its certainly not middle east. I suppose if I lived in SW Colorado I may refer to it as the southwest.

I am from western PA and it is very hard for me to give it a proper name….if it were Philly it’d be east coast, but it’s really not, but not quite midwest either. Toughie.

I’m not American but I’ll bite:

1. Missouri – I actually have no idea where this state is.

2. Illinois – Mid-west, I think

3. North Carolina – South

4. Kentucky – South

5. Florida – South

6. Texas – South.

7. California – West Coast

8. The state where you live and what region you consider it to be – n/a

I have never understood the term “mid-Atlantic”. It makes me think of being in the middle of the ocean.

1. Missouri-midwest

2. Illinois-midwest

3. North Carolina-east coast

4. Kentucky-midwest

5. Florida-just “florida”

6. Texas-just “Texas”

7. California-west coast

8. The state where you live and what region you consider it to be.
Illinois-midwest

These are all just how I think of all of these. I didn’t look at a map either.

@downtide, there are coastal states on the Atlantic Ocean (the East Coast) and the Pacific Ocean (the West Coast). Most of the eastern states are much smaller than the three West Coast states, so there are more of them. Some of them are in the central or middle portion of the coast, hence mid-Atlantic.

California takes up all of the comparable region on the West Coast, so there’s no western equivalent of the mid-Atlantic states.

@Downtide Right in the middle basically, lots of nuclear silo’s & heavy miltary, caves & water. & fault line.

They are all from the wasteland.

Those of you who wrote southeast for Florida, do you think of Florida as a “southern” state? As in southern mentality?

@picante @TheRealOldHippie I like south central for TX, I never heard that before. I always think of TX as TX; it’s own entity, but if forced I would have lumed it in with the south, but now I will use south central. I recently moved from the Memphis area and in Memphis they call themselves Mid Southerners. I never knew the term Mid South until I moved to Memphis.

@Dutchess_III You can tell us where Kansas is.

@1TubeGuru I grew up in MD and when I tell people in the south I sort of grew up in south in MD, they look at me like I am crazy. LOL. I use the Mason Dixon line also. Bit, I don’t really feel like I grew up in the south having grown up in metro DC, although I did learn to say y’all there. Are you from souther MD? That is the south still in my opinion. Feels southern.

@deni I call PA Northeast, but I agree western PA is different from Philly. I know so many people from Pittsburgh and they still are more northeastern than anything else I think, or some sort of cross between east and midwest.

@KNOWITALL I liked your tornado alley and cornbelt answers.

@CWOTUS Your naswer about the conferences made me LOL.

@dxs You don’t think New England before Northeast being from Mass?

1. Missouri – midwest

2. Illinois – midwest

3. North Carolina – south

4. Kentucky – south

5. Florida – south

6. Texas – southwest

7. California – west

I live in Massachusetts (New England).

Without reading other answers:

1. Missouri – Midwest

2. Illinois – Midwest.

3. North Carolina – Southern

4. Kentucky – Southern.

5. Florida – Southern

6. Texas – Southern

7. California – Western.

8. The state where you live and what region you consider it to be. – Florida, still Southern.

That’s according to my 3rd grade teacher, at least, who taught us the census regions. If it matters, I lived in New York when we learned that.

I live in California. We call it the West Coast, as opposed to a Western State, which conjures up images of Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho, Utah and Texas (which I’d also classify as a Southern State, more due to the culture, rather than the geography).

Another way to look at it:

1. Missouri – Slave

2. Illinois – Free

3. North Carolina – Slave

4. Kentucky – Slave

5. Florida – Slave

6. Texas – Slave

7. California – Free

Missouri and Kentucky didn’t secede, although they had seats at the CSA Congress.

Here’s one also everyone (except partly @deni) missed: North Carolina and Kentucky are at least partly in Appalachia.

I don’t know why some slopebrows think it’s remotely left-wing, or don’t know the difference between liberal and left-wing, but Kalifornia is indeed thought of as the West Coast, but is probably also possible to think of as its own region. The only thing I’d add to what others said about it is might be distinguished from the Pacific Northwest, which is made up of Washington and Oregon.

Northern California, though I have no idea where the line is dividing the North from the South. It seems Central California is interpreted as inland away from the ocean.

@zenvelo
Illinois was only technically a free state. After the emancipation proclamation, people in Illinois did not “own” slaves. However they were allowed to and did “lease” them.

@JLeslie I’m not sure what you’re asking, but I’ll just say that the first thing I think of when thinking of Mass’s location is New England and certainly not Northeast.

@dxs You answered what I was wondering. I realize my original question just stated north, south, etc, so you answered in that way, but I have always thought most New Englanders divide up the “northeast” even further and think New England as their way to identify their location before using northeast.

@stanleybmanly I went to school in Santa Barbara, which is on the South Coast of California. About 40 % of the students came from Northern California (the greater Bay Area), about the same from Southern California (Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and San Bernardino counties).

We used to joke that Santa Barbara was the southernmost part of Northern California and that San Jose was the northernmost part of Southern California.

There is also a longitudinal division in California along the eastern base of the Coastal Mountain range; the eastern side (the Central valley and Sierras) is ’“Red” while the Coastal side is “Blue”.

@stanleybmanly An easy way to divide it is along that straight border between the counties:

http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/jmorlan/ca-out8.gif

Although this map includes Inyo with SoCal, which I suppose is acceptable…

@answerjill Texas is not south west. It’s at the bottom, the south, but smack in the center of the country. There are a gazzillion states further west than Texas

@zenvelo When I first wrote this question I had a preexisting stereotype that northeasterners divided up the country into more parts than southerners. I was willing to be proven wrong though, it was just an observation from interactions I have had, and not some strong opinion I held. I also think people divide up their own region into more parts than people from outside that region, which is what you are basically saying about California. The size of your state kind of dictates that it has a varied terrain, climate, and population, so it makes sense. But, even in the state I mostly grew up in, little Maryland, I divided south MD from regular ol’ MD.

I thought of the Q, because in a different Q a southerner frim Missouri and I were debating, I was saying I think of MO as a midwestern state with southern parts, and he full on insisted it was the south. I still don’t know if that jelly agreed with me that it is usually classified as midwest, it seemed to really bother him to be put with midwest states. Then he talked about Illinois and called a northern state, but in my head it is the midwest.

When I lived in the south they refered to all geographically northern states as the north, It seemed to me especially if they were states that were union states in the civil war, but I might be wrong about the reason. I don’t think in terms of the civil war much, I think in terms of how the state feels to me, the people, the accent, customs, etc., plus whatever region it is commonly referred to as.

I divide things up into, New England, Northeast, Southeast, South, Midwest, Southwest, West, West Coast, and sometimes use Pacific Northwest. Once in a blue moon I use upper midwest, but usually don’t bother with the upper. I also usually left Texas as it’s own entity in my head. In the south many people I knew used north, south, and west, and that seemed to be it. To me the west does not include the west coast, and the north does not include Wisconsin. Those are just two examples of where miscommunications and misunderstandings would happen.

As I stated in my original post, no wrong answers, but it’s interesting how many definitions there are, similar to America teaching there are seven continents and many other countries teaching there are six, some say five.

Gazzilion. LOL. Well, there is land west of there, but not too many states. Those states are big out west. As @Jeruba pointed out. Out east we are bunches of little-ish states. There was a TV show that talked about how the different states got their shapes/borders. Kind of cool to watch if you see it playing again.

There are 11 states further west! That’s kind of close to a gazzilion. Kind of.

@Dutchess_III I was just thinking directly west, you meant _all _of the states west, even if they are way up on the border of Canada. Yeah, ok, you can use gazillion then. :)

Funny, I remember when I lived in TN I got into a debate with a friend of mine (who doesn’t live in TN) that St. Louis is north of Memphis. The other person insisted it was west. I said yes it is a little west, but mostly north. She said, “St. Louis is west of the Mississippi and Memphis is east.” So? We actually went back and forth for several minutes about it. That conversation still baffles me.

The first time I pointed out that there were states west of Texas (this was on fb) I was only thinking directly west too, which is only 3 or so states. But then when I saw a map I realized that actually would include all the states up to the north and west too.

I don’t think it really makes a difference, because no matter what; TX is a certain distance from the Pacific ocean; that doesn’t change. What if AZ and NM split into 4 states, would it make a difference? When I think of the northeast, it doesn’t matter how many states, same with any region. East coast has a gazillion states by your definition :) the west coast only three. It doesn’t matter really does it?

No, it doesn’t really. Thing is, Texas isn’t “west” at all. It’s squarely in the middle, between west and east. We think of it as “west” because it’s so closely associated with cowboys and such.

Hi just logged in.

Re: The New England comment. New Englanders absolutely identify their region as Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

New York state, while it sits west of Vermont and goes all the way up to the Canadian border is never part of New England.

Hi @MadMadMax!

So much of the designation is really based on perceptions. I had a scruffy, long haired guy walk into our shop once. He mentioned he was going Back East to visit relatives over Christmas. I kind of gave him the once over. He looked like he should be huntin’ possums in his own home, rather than supping tea Back East, so I asked him where Back East was.
“Arkansas,” he said. I think he was serious so it took all I had not to burst out laughing! But, Arkansas is east of Kansas so…...

@Dutchess_III I don’t think of TX as west. Never have.

Edit: But, some of the states north of west texas are western states; part of the west. In my mind anyway.

Yes, but the states directly above Texas are not considered Western states, like Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska. They consider them “mid western,” which, if you think about it, is a little non-nonsensical. They’re just as close to the east coast as they are to the west.
I think it goes back to the early days when we settled America. Everything west of Mo, where Lewis and Clark launched their exploration, was considered “The” West.

@MadMadMax I don’t think there is any argument about what states are New England states. My only point was New Englanders identify more with that title than being called a northeasterner. I identify with being from the Northeast, even though the state I mostly grew up in is borderline sort of. But, my parents are from the Bronx, so even if I had grown up in China I would be a northeasterner in some ways. I did live in NY as a young child though. I rarely hear people from other regions of the country (meaning outside of New England and the northeast) refer to New England states as New England states, they usually use north or northeast or the state name. With the exception of Floridians who are from the northeast, and maybe Californias whose family started out in NY and areas close by.

Possibly people from other parts of the country don’t know what states make up New England. Our country is so big, it can be difficult to keep it all straight. I get some of those big square states out west mixed up sometimes. Especially when I was younger.

@Dutchess_III I was thinking states like Colorado and Montana. I need to look at a map. I think the eastern part of those states are above the western parts of TX.

It absolutely partly has to do with how the west was settled.

I definitely think of Montana as a Western state. Colorado, not so much so.
The states that, in MY mind I think of as Western are Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico. Funny, but I think of California as simply The West Coast, and Washington state as being North West,but it doesn’t have a “Western” feel to it.
I associate “The West” with cowboys and stuff.

NM to me is southwest, I don’t lump it in with Montana. West coast is west coast, I never call California, Orgeon or Washington just west. The only time it sort of is in a sentence is if I said something like, “we are driving west to California, but that isn’t really calling Cali a western state.

Upstate New Yorker’s refer to their region as North Country. But Vermonters never use that term nor do those in Maine whose state reaches much more north.

Vermont was the last state to join the union in the 18th century. They were holdouts, I believe wanted to be Canadian and then were part of New York State of a time. Northern Vermont has a distinct French inheritance – you hear it in the names of places and old family names of people, while as you travel to the center and south in Vermont, old family names are clearly British origin.

@MadMadMax I have never heard the term North Country for NY. I have to ask my parents that one. You say upstate, so places like the Catskills? Or, you mean up in the Adirondocks, or near Buffalo, or what?

But New Mexico and Montana are roughly in the same place, east to west.

“North Country,” to me, seems like Canada….

@Dutchess_III I’m just saying what I call it. Like I usually call GA a southern state, but it is also east coast. Still, I think of it more as the south.

I agree with you. So much of it is perception, and it goes back a couple hundred years. It reflects wars and exploration and settlements.

@Leslie: I think the Adirondacks and Platsburgh. A lot reference to North Country. Also businesses and commercials refer to the region as North Country. Living in Vermont I heard it all the time. Not so much Canada. We had Canadian TV shows, and commercials for Montreal
and a TV station from Plattsburgh – also a PBS Platsburgh station.

Here are some examples:

North Country Kids, Inc – Early Intervention, Child Development…
www.nckidsinc.com/‎

RE/MAX North Country: RE/MAX of New York
www.remax-northcountry-ny.com/‎
RE/MAX North Country. 68 Cornelia St Plattsburgh, NY 12901. Office: (518) 563–1200. Fax: (518) 562–0951.

North Country Food Co-op
northcountryfood.coop/‎
North Country Regional Office
esd.ny.gov/NorthCountry.html‎

The North Country Small Business Development Center (SBDC) is staffed with… Choosing the Right Legal Form of Business Ownership – Plattsburgh… The Adirondack Coast Wine Trail has been approved by New York state, providing a…

North Country Cultural Center for the Arts
plattsburgharts.org/‎
North Country Cultural Center for the Arts 23 Brinkerhoff Street Plattsburgh, NY 12901 (518) 563–1604. Organic Premium WordPress Themes. Copyright 2013…

Home – Planned Parenthood – North Country New York
www.plannedparenthood.org/north-country/‎
Planned Parenthood of the North Country New York (PPNCNY) is a merger between Northern Adirondack Planned Parenthood and Planned Parenthood of…

North Country Center for Independence
www.ncci-online.com/‎
The Mission of the North Country Center for Independence is to empower… Plattsburgh, NY 12901… NCCI serves Clinton and Essex Counties, New York.
North Country Chamber of Commerce – Plattsburgh, NY… – Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/NorthCountryChamber‎
North Country Chamber of Commerce, Plattsburgh, NY. 783 likes · 28 talking about this. To Promote the Economic Vitality of the North Country Region.

We were New England, they were the North Country.

Georgia is a absolutely southern state.

For American History class purposes, Missouri, Kansas, and Texas are all “The west”. Anything west of the Mississippi is “the west”. Trailblazer country. Manifest destiny, Louisiana Purchase, and all that.

In modern-day America, we have the census designations – four regions: Northeast, South, Midwest, and West.

Anything else is a regional preference – or even personal preference. Some places you aren’t “really south” unless you’re south of the Mason/Dixon line.

@MadMadMax I found this(New_York) regarding north country.

@Seek_Kolinahr I don’t think most southerners go by the Mason Dixon though, not in my experience.

As I said, regional or even personal preference.

Where there are people in pseudo cowboy hats and pointy cowboy boots and everyone loves a rodeo and doesn’t particularly care for American Indians, you’re probably in the west.

^ New York City in the 1980s?

That was kind of what I was thinking only I couldn’t place it!

@JLeslie Good info but I have to tell you that while Vermont borders Canada, I have never ever heard it referred to as the North Country by anybody.

North Country was reserved for northern NY and then “The Northeast Kingdom” or “The Kingdom” is an area of northeastern Vermont.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_East_Kingdom

I’m not overly knowledgeable about NH other than the more central and coastal areas.

@Seek_Kolinahr ”^ New York City in the 1980s?”

I was gone by then but probably tight brimmed cowboy hats, boots and those broncho riders in bars but I don’t think New York City types were into rodeos – or at least not for long. Passing phases definitely don’t make for western culture.

It’s a dim memory, but my dad was one of the “Urban Cowboys”. He didnt’ do hats much but was always in boots and flannel.

This all reminds me of the “north-south” debates in England. To a Londoner, anything north of Bedford (or even Watford) is “north”, but to a Geordie (from Newcastle upon Tyne), anything south of Durham is “south”. That’s one hell of an overlap.

MA NEM ANEM!!!!

Anywhere the confederate flag is a big fav is the neo-confederacy.

People who are angry they lost their slaves, miss Jim Crow even if they weren’t alive to experience it, are big into redistricting to favor white voters, anti-women’s rights, and hate immigrants (even if Mexicans lived there long before we took the land by force, they are illegal immigrants).

True that, @MadMadMax. WE’RE the illegal immigrants.

@JLeslie Definitely. New England is a state of states to me.

@dxs Not really. New Hampshire is an upsidedown Vermont in more ways than one.

Vermont is very progressive, very green.

http://irregularnews.com/states/vermont.html

New Hampshire is conservative, a traditional republican base. “Live Free or Die” is on their license plates.

“NH still has a much more traditional brand of conservatism along with libertarian ideals compared to the Bible Belt or western US. Social conservatives who are not as numerous around here.”

I don’t know what Maine is.

@MadMadMax Yeah really. I can perceive whatever I want to perceive. I’ve lived there my whole life. The six states carry a close bond in my opinion, regardless of whether or not their politics clash.

I had a summer “camp” (read; many,large drafty unheated buildings) on Lake Placid for 25 years. The area is known to everyone as The North Country. In Saranac is North Country Community College, for example. There are some interchangeable terms as well.. inside the blue line, the Adirondack Park, the High Peaks region…but it’s all the same place. Here

@dxs I lived there most of life. Degree there, raised a family there, but not born there. I guess you have a better handle.

Bob Dylan fell for a Girl From the North Country which I alwys figured was northern Minnesota…

It was not long ago that the two big ways of dividing east/west was “West of the Mississippi” and “West of the Rockies.”

One reason for Texas being construed as “west” is from “Western” movies.

@zenvelo “Bob Dylan fell for a Girl From the North Country which I alwys figured was northern Minnesota…”

She could always have been Sami. :)

New York also has a North Country, but I don’t know if it’s contiguous with the midwestern one. Seems some say it is.

1. Missouri- Midwest
2. Illinois- Midwest
3. North Carolina- East Coast, mid-Atlantic
4. Kentucky- South, Bluegrass
5. Florida- South East or region too hot for me
6. Texas- South or South West depending on what part of the state
7. California- West Coast
8. The state where you live and what region you consider it to be.- I’m in Illinois, not far from the MIssissippi River and close to the Iowa and MIssouri borders. I live in the Midwest.

Geography is huge passion of mine.

@jonsblond I used to sometimes call NC mid Atlantic also, but some things I read said the southern most state is Virginia. It also went more north than I would have thought in my own mind. It included PA, and I wouldn’t if I were making a list.

@bolwerk: NYS’s North Country and The North Country Trail that you refer to (which I have never heard of, in spite of summering in the North Country for 25 years) are two different kettl of fish.

I live in New York state; it is officially considered middle Atlantic. i think of it as sui generis. . I am 20 minutes from the MA. and CT borders, but it would take me almost six hours to drive to the western end of the state, where it is really the same as non-urban PA.

@gailcalled: “North Country” refers to both a region of NYS and another in the Midwest, and both are connected by that trail. I was just curious if some people considered those regions contiguous somehow, because I never did. But the fact that a trail will be connecting them implies some people might.

M. Being from Kansas, I guess North Country would be Nebraska.