Some time ago on the Dope, in a thread that I can’t remember, I opined that Ohio should not be considered part of the Midwest, because it’s far closer to the Atlantic Coast than the Pacific. I was roundly chastised for my opinion, as many posters pointed out that in the US, the ‘Midwest’ is more of a historical or political region than a geographical one.
Well, a recent poll asked residents of 22 states if they considered themselves part of the Midwest. The results were, shall we say, interesting.
Note that over 9% of Pennsylvanians consider themselves to live in the Midwest, as do 25% of Idahoans. Over half of Wyoming residents think they live in the Midwest as well.
I’m not going to pass any judgments here, save to say that the ‘Midwest’ is a lot larger than I thought it was.
I personally think of “The Midwest” as MN, WI, IL, IA, MO, IN, OH, MI – states connected by significant water access via the Great Lakes or Mississippi River and major urban centers that traditionally had some decent manufacturing & union presence. Feel free to try to pick that apart at the fringes but it probably won’t change my opinion; better people have tried! Indiana is probably the oddest man out but it was also usually the reddest state and, being sandwiched in there, would be weirder to exclude it.
I don’t see much value in including states west of Iowa and Minnesota if “Midwest” is supposed to be a meaningful term for anything other than vague geography. There’s far less historically/culturally/politically connecting Illinois and North Dakota than there is IL and Michigan or even Missouri (which at least has St. Louis). I’d call anything in that direction Plains States or something.
That map, at least the states where over 75% identify as Midwestern, aligns surprisingly well with my conception of “The Midwest.” Although I’d argue with those Oklahomans who claim to be Midwestern, I’m at something of a loss to describe them as anything else. I think of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Colorado as Mountain West states, and Arkansas is firmly in the South. Those Pennsylvanians who think they’re Midwesterners are probably from Cleveland originally.
I don’t live in the Midwest, but I’ve spent time in KY and I’m surprised that 30% of residents report it as being Midwestern. I always thought that it was a state that took pride in being Southern.
Could those 6% of Illinois non-Midwestern residents think that they’re Northern?
It’d be fascinating to see that map but rendered separately for each decade of age. I bet the 70-79yos have a Midwest that’s a LOT farther east than do the 20-29yos.
With any term with a hundred-plus year history it’s always instructive to ask: “Do you what did it mean when coined, or what does it mean now?”
Born in Omaha, NE, grew up outside Kansas City in Kansas, currently live in Indiana. I’m Midwest born, raised and current resident. I’ll certainly say when you get any further west than KC/Omaha, people are going to stop self-identifying as midwestern, but I have never in my life heard someone described themselves as a “Great Plainsian” or whatever it would be.
I have lived in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana (oh the shame!) since we left Texas in 1964, so I am definitely a Midwesterner.
Strange that Ohio only has 78.2% that claim to be Midwestern. Must be a mix of those people from Cleveland who always consider themselves “different” from the rest of Ohio and the southeastern people that think of themselves as Appalachian. IMHO Ohio is the very definition of Midwestern.
Not sure why anyone from Pennsylvania would ever consider themselves to be Midwestern. When I lived there the people I met made it very clear that they were not at all like Ohio people and that the people of the Commonwealth were a people unlike any other.
And 25.2% of the people of Idaho think that they are Midwestern? WTF?
I remember back in fourth grade, we had a geography book. (which was referred to as “social studies” at the time, I have no idea why.) The book made a great impression upon my nine year old self, and solidified my notion of Midwest USA. To me, the Midwest is OH IN IL MI WI MN IA MO ND SD NB and KS. I will never be convinced otherwise.
Only Missouri’s status is questionable because they were a border state in the Civil War.
My personal definition would include OH, MI, IN, WI, IL, MN, IA, MO, ND, SD, NE, and KS. KY and WV I’d call Applachian/southern states, AR is southern, OK is an odd duck and could be considered but I call it southwest. I wouldn’t include MT, WY, CO, or ID. Those are mountain states.
Of the states in the map, I think it is just Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana for the midwest. Missouri I don’t know where it fits, but Kentucky, W Va, Tennessee(!) Arkansas (!!) are all southern, Ohio and Pennsylvania are east, everything west is West.
FWIW southern Illinois is more aligned with the south than it is with the midwest, or even the rest of Illinois.
Having lived all my life in Kansas, I (and 90% of my fellow Kansans) consider it to be part of the Midwest. But the Midwest, as described in the map and in this thread, is obviously quite diverse.
‘Prairie People’ might be a better description. I have a t-shirt that says ‘Wild Prairie Child’ which I proudly wear.
The original colonies north of Virgina were always considered the east. Ohio was the frontier at the end of the Revolutionary War and was part of the northwest territory (not a state). The wild frontier at the time, where wars with the Native Americans took place to take over the land. So not ever part of “the East”.
Although I did have a roomate from Brooklyn in college, his parents would not allow him to go to school any further west than Ohio State. Anything further was considered uncivilized to them.
