I think another way is to look at the state’s counties. How many could tell what county, other than your own by looking at it?
Well, to be fair, a lot of counties outside the original 13 states were drawn on adjacent lines of longitude or latitude. Michigan, for example, has 84 counties, but 34 of them are squares or rectangles that match the adjacent counties. Going westward, many states have the same issue. I would recognize all the counties surrounding my home in Ohio and all the counties that border those, but with 88 counties, I really would not attempt to identify more distant ones unless they had very noticeable riverine or lake shore boundaries.
In nations like Germany and France, arent the lines mostly where the old city states used to be like say Bavaria or Prussia in Germany?
I’m American, and if you told me that was in Australia, I’d recognize it. (Though only with the z 
I think I’d recognize all of the Australian state shapes. But then I love maps and like to look at them.
There was a Facebook meme a week or two ago where educated Britons were asked to label unlabeled states on a US map. A few of them were able to recognize California or Texas, but that was about it. So, no.
Actually, it was originally perfectly square, 10 miles to a side. You can still see part of that, including the 2 upper corners. But shortly before the Civil War, the part from Virginia went back to them. So the bottom border became a wavy line, following the Potomac River.
I am absolutely certain that I can distinguish Colorado and Wyoming as long as I’m looking at both of them, and am fairly certain I can tell which is which only seeing one as long as I have another state’s outline available to guide me on how skewed the aspect ratio is and what projection is being used. Wyoming’s boundary lengths are much closer to being equal than Colorado’s.
Only a little, actually. Wyoming is slightly squarer, but not by much. Both states are 280 miles north-south. Colorado is 380 miles east-west, while Wyoming is 360 miles east-west.
As a kid–a U.S. kid–I always had trouble with the middle ones.
I found this a particularly bizarre way of looking at the states, like looking at retail cuts of meat and trying to figure out where and what animal they come from. I never saw anything like it until just this moment in a search: http://i.imgur.com/KfIhxkf.jpg
This one appeared on Reddit, apparently, a few years ago, and it pleased the hell out of me, and I now know where Kentucky is: http://i.imgur.com/qCb99Sv.jpg
Now, to get this out of my system: I have this theory, which is mine, that says every piece of steak (off the bone) that you eat, genteelly cutting and taking your time, eventually looks like France on your plate before you polish it off. Tell me I’m wrong.
As an American, I’m pretty biased, but still I’d say most of it is just familiarity. That said, I think the most instantly recognizable states are Florida, Texas, Michigan, California, Alaska and Hawaii. Most for obvious reasons, as three of those are peninsulas (hell, Michigan is a double peninsula), another a string of islands and the other two are very popular coastal states.
Pretty much all of them got California and Texas. Florida too. Many got New York, Hawaii and Alaska. The rest, not so much.
Some did pretty damn good actually. Here it is.
I think people are misinterpreting the question. I’m pretty sure the OP meant to ask whether other country’s subdivisions are as iconic to them as our states are to us.
As others have pointed out, counties are an appropriate comparison. While many are rectangular in some places, everywhere I’ve lived was in a uniquely shaped county. I could always recognize my own county on a map, but I might not recognize the outline as a belt buckle or on a cake. OTOH, while I might not recognize every state by outline alone, I recognize most, and certainly every one I’ve lived in. Even Colorado, I can recognize if there’s a star for Denver or a couple of geographic features.
So which one are other subdivisions like?
Constituent countries of the UK are recognizable to most Britons, but counties are not. States and territories of Australia are recognized, as I’m sure are the provinces and territories of Canada. It sounds like Indian states have distinctive shapes, but would you recognize most of the outlines in a context other than a map, Dervorin? Would the average Frenchman expect to see the outline of a department on a t-shirt, and would they recognize it if they did? In the U.S., state outlines are ubiquitous on clothing, postcards, product labels, art, bumper stickers, etc., especially within a given state.
Hmmm. This thread makes me think that, in Canada, no one really goes around bragging about what province or territory he’s from. I’m sure there’s a definite bias for lots of people from Quebec, but for the rest of us, we don’t seem to care what province we’re from necessarily.
I’ve never, for example, defined myself as an Ontarian, in the same manner as Texans define themselves. I don’t think of people from Manitoba or Nova Scotia (for example) as any different than me.
So, in that regard, perhaps there is some uniqueness to US states that doesn’t exist elsewhere.
I’m saving this thread as a textbook case of American exceptionalism.
Yeah, I think there is some exceptionalism going on here, but I’ll throw this out there anyway…
Most American states have a combination of more-or-less straight line boundaries combined with non-straightline boundaries determined by geographical features. That’s similar to Canada and Australia, and also similar to a lot of countries with sparsely populated areas (such as in the Middle East).
But for a lot of countries, state boundaries follow geographical, historical, linguistic or ethnic lines or the like, so those countries states don’t look like American states. A lot of countries just don’t have straight-line boundaries in their states.
But anyone who grow up in a particular country probably knows that their states all look distinct.
For the Middle East straight lines were moulded by French/British imperialists ( sometimes understandably ). Americans have no such excuse: they chose that.
You must have missed the thread where some asked (in all seriousness) why American teams only have ever reached the Superbowl.
Pakistani and the shape of subnational entities like provinces and territories are quite familiar.
I think that’s just cluelessness. Exceptionalism is the baseball World Series
Some of them, definitely. Others, I’d say it’s unlikely at best. Karnataka, for example, has a pretty distinctive kidney bean (or fetus, if you’re inclined to think that way) shape that’s often seen by itself in official publications. Gujarat has a very clear double peninsula, West Bengal is very tall and skinny, and so on. On the other hand, I don’t think I’d be able to distinguish between Haryana and Himachal Pradesh without context.
I don’t think there’s the sort of state-based patriotism in India that I gather is widespread in the US, so people don’t really use the shape of the state in logos or emblems.
I’m not American and I think the OP is right. The American states have more iconic shapes than France or Brazil.
However the Indian state borders are probably more so.