Regions of the United States

This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

A region is an area of land that has typical traits. There are innumerous methods to split the United States into regions, using natural or artificial features: geography, language, religion, government climate, forests, wildlife, ext.

The US Census Bureau, for instance, assumes there to be 4 regions of the United States: the Northeast, the Midwest, the West, and the South. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Economic Analysis operates a map that divides the country into 8 regions, from New England to the Great Lakes to the Rocky Mountains.

Geographers who research regions may also uncover other physical or cultural likenesses or dissimilarities between these areas.

Regions, according to the US Census Bureau

The US Census Bureau defines 4 statistical regions with 9 divisions.

1. Northeast
– New England (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont)
– Mid-Atlantic (New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania)

2. Midwest
– East North Central (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin)
– West North Central (Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota)

3. South
– South Atlantic (Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, District of Columbia, and West Virginia)
– East South Central (Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee)
– West South Central (Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas)

4. West
– Mountain (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming)
– Pacific (Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington)

The map below shows how Americans see the US divided into 5 regions. It shows the average of a total of 612 responses to the question: “If you had to divide the 50 US states into exactly 5 general regions, what would they be?”

Classification of regions in the United States according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis

According to the official classification of the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the territory of the United States is divided into 8 regions.

Major Physiographic Divisions of the U.S.

The physiographic regions of the contiguous U.S. include 8 major regions. Below is the map of physiographic divisions of the conterminous U.S.

How America divides itself fivefold

Cultural and geographical regions of the United States

Map of the seven infrastructure mega-regions in the United States

The Great Northeast
Boston thrives, but much of New England suffers. Better transportation and affordable housing will lift surrounding towns.

The Southeast Manufacturing Belt
It’s is America’s second manufacturing hub but remains plagued by poor roads. Tennessee alone needs $40 billion in infrastructure by 2017. Rather than cooperate, states like Georgia and South Carolina compete for jobs and investment.

Gulf Coast
Louisiana is the region’s linchpin, and yet budget cuts and the aftermath of Katrina have left it unable to keep up with Texas and Florida. Regionwide efforts to boost the state’s roads and other infrastructure would help the entire Gulf Coast.

The Great Plains
The breadbasket of America, but too little of the food is consumed by the region’s people and businesses. Regionwide research into agricultural systems and production is needed to meet further food demand and strengthen the economy. And better connections are needed between rural states like South Dakota and export hubs to Asia.

Pacific Coast
Home to three thriving urban archipelagos: The Cascadia corridor, Silicon Valley, and Greater Los Angeles. The California High-Speed Rail Authority aims to partly link this spine, but more can be done to join the three areas’ high-tech sectors.

Inland West
Boise has seen steady growth in agriculture, alternative energy, and even investment interest from China as an assembly and logistics hub for its exports. Stronger rail connections across the region would bring more technology to help diversify its economy.

Below are other ways to divide a nation by natural or artificial features.

United States East-West division of the 48 contiguous states (Four methods)

United States North-South division of the 48 contiguous states (Four methods)

Interestingly, even sports teams in the United States have their own division of the country into regions.

How major sports teams divide the U.S.

Cultural Regions According to Twitter

But according to social media, the nation’s division into regions is different. Reddit user WGrieve created the map of Inferring American cultural regions based on topics of discussion on Twitter. For the creation of this map, he used data is all from Twitter from 2015 to 2021.

Regions of the United States according to the State Similarity Index

The State Similarity Index is an attempt to evaluate how similar U.S. states are to each other relative to other states. The Similarity index is a statistically based way to estimate this. It weighs equally 5 significant aspects of regions or countries: their demographics, geography, culture, politics, and infrastructure. Below is the map of American regions according to the state similarity index created by the ObjectiveLists team.

For example, according to this map, Kentucky is more analogous to Indiana than Louisiana, but Kentucky and Louisiana are considered to be part of the South, while Indiana is Midwest.

Related post:
– Identifying Regions of Europe using Multiple Maps through Various Sources
– The megaregions of the United States
– This Map Poster Shows All the Metropolitan Areas in the United States