Can someone explain to a european why this huge chunk of the eastern half of the country is called “midwest”?
It makes more sense when you consider that for most of US history the country was significantly smaller than it is now. Originally the country pretty much just consisted of the East Coast - and France, England, and Spain still had large chunks of territory within the US’s current borders.
Much of what’s now considered the west wasn’t captured from Spain/Mexico until much later. So basically just look at it from the perspective of the East Coast where the US originated. To them at that time what we consider the Midwest now would have just been the west. And the terms changed with the westward expansion.
As someone who moved here from New England let me explain.
- Cheese curds
- Dontcha know?
- Discount Canada
That’s the midwest.
Man, I WISH we had good cheese curds in Ohio.
Because Midwest is a nice way of saying “flyover country”
Manifest destiny / westward expansion
wyoming and colorado are so high? like nah bro ur j west. also ohio being lower than illinois is nuts. maybe a lot of people in the appalachia region bc here in toledo we know where we are.
From the driver’s seat of a semi, Colorado feels like bits and pieces of its neighboring states smooshed together. You got Utahrado, New Mexirado, Wyomirado, and, yes, Nebraskarado, which is probably where the Midwestern Coloradans live. The only part where I really feel like I’m in a distinct state is the high mountain forests that shoot down the middle of the state.
Denver is probably where it is because it’s right at the intersection of quite a few of these biomes. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn it’s been a major trading center for about as long as humans have roamed the continent.
My bet with Wyoming is that most of the (admittedly small) population is in the Eastern part of the state, like Cheyenne and Laramie, if kinda makes sense they’d see themselves as more “Midwest”
Same for Eastern Colorado. It looks suspiciously like Kansas, but more desolate.
It’s probably the same confused souls in Kentucky
Yeah I can’t believe it. We are “mountain west” (as opposed to pacific west).
It really feels like there’s been some sort of movement in Ohio to disown being in the Midwest. I’m in north east Ohio and I know I’m in the Midwest.
my best guess is people who live in the appalachia region bring the percentage down. it is a stunningly gorgeous, non-midwesty-looking part of the state
Lol The Ohio
Is Idaho 25% dumbasses? I’ve never been
Higher percent then that considering how OBGYN’s are running from the state like its on fire due to post Roe stuff they’ve been doing.
Good point.
I’ll give the western Midwest states a pass but the really confusing part here is how anyone in Minnesota/Wisconsin/Illinois/Indiana/Iowa/Ohio can think they aren’t in the Midwest…
For Ohio, it’s important to remember that the southeast 1/3 of the state is Appalachian foothills. As for the other state, I have no fucking clue
Ohioian here. Its the name. Mid…west. We aren’t in the middle of the country, and we’re not west. If anything, Maine to Indiana should be called the “North East”.
The mid-west should be South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado should be the “Mid-west”.
This area might have been the mid-west in the early 1800s, but we gained a crapload of states since then!
More than that. Another 25% just happened to get this answer right through random chance.
I’m from Idaho. So the first answer is, yes a lot of people there are. School is meant to hit legal requirements sorta while training kids to take over the farming business from their parents. Second answer is south Idaho is basically flat deserty farmland with lots of wind, cattle, and small farming towns. It can feel very Midwest in that sense even if it is pretty far from the official Midwest border
I suppose that’s a fair way to look at it if you’re considering the “functional” definition of Midwest (farming-based flyover states) instead of the geographic location
I’d be curious about Texas. I hear it labeled as South, Southwest and then just Texas
Coastal part is The South. Inland, you get Southwest. Then there’s the panhandle, and while I don’t know much about what the locals think of it, from the driver’s seat of a semi it’s indistinguishable from the flatter parts of Oklahoma. (Meanwhile, one of my favorite truck stops is in the hilly part of Oklahoma: the Chocktaw travel center in Stringtown.)
SW = texmex so def SW
I’ve definitely visited that 9% in Pensyltucky.
The Ohio River was once the border of the frontier. Some ways that border is still there.
Some ways that border is still there.
Yes, but flipped. Have any y’all been to West Virginia?
So I guess the US doesn’t know how NESW works as well as understandable measurements…
3% of Iowans in denial
Western Iowa gets awfully Great Plains-ish. I could see someone living there answering “no” to the survey.
Lizardman constant. You’d probably have about 3% answering yes in California or Maine as well.
Actually the lowest value on the map for the discrepancy to the definition.
Imagine living in Arkansas and trying to claim you are a Midwesterner with a straight face.
Imagine doing so in Idaho! Like that’s almost all the way west
okay but i live on like the very edge, so… pseudo-midwest?
I can get on a bike and ride to Oklahoma or Missouri from my house, but I can’t fathom saying “you guys.”
HEEYYY YOOUU GUUUYYYYSSSS
(im a yall user)
Missing a few colors for a small patch of Philadelphia-region “youse” and Pittsburgh-region “yinz”.
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25% confusion. Idaho is mid and west, but not midwest. Y’all Pacific Northwest.
Idaho is sometimes considered Pacific Northwest (in particular North Idaho) but generally Idaho is Inland Northwest
I’d argue it should be in The Rockies region. Not sure if that’s a regional identifier out west like Appalachia is, but 1/2 of Idaho is in the Rocky Mountain range
I’m used to people saying Rockies when talking about the mountains themselves. See other comments about calling the region the Mountain West though, or Mountain States, which are named that because of the Rockies
Would that be a subregion within the mountain west?
Yes, although sometimes east Washington is also called inland Northwest but is distinctly not part of the mountain west. A lot of the “who is what Northwest” confusion comes from which group a person wants to associate with or other from more. People in Seattle typically call anything east of the Cascades inland Northwest, people in the Palouse area often refer to themselves as Pacific Northwest so naturally that includes all of Washington, Idaho is in a perpetual identity crisis because of the large cultural difference between North and South Idaho. People in South Idaho refer to themselves either as inland Northwest to be more associated with Washington/Oregon (but not be so left leaning as to associate with the pnw) or as Midwest if they’re culturally closer to the farmers and truckers coming out of the actual Midwest.
Poor Ohio. Not west enough to be Midwest, not east enough to not be flyover country.
Conservatives in charge of education in Idaho got mfrs identifying as Midwesterners. 🪓🚁
I’m a product of the Idaho education system, and it’s not great. Luckily got a start in Washington, so it didn’t ruin me completely. But that result does not surprise me at all.
How is Ohio officially midwest 🙄
I would call ND SD KS NE “Great Plains.”
Idaho? Really?
Oklahoma is also not Midwest. They aren’t friendly enough.
Great Plains and Midwest are almost synonymous.
