Do You Agree With The US Census Bureau "Region Classifications" (See Map)

[JRP1994]

Blue: Northeast
Red: Midwest
GOLD: South
GREEN: West

[ottermax]

In general it works surprisingly well for limiting the USA to 4 regions, but as a person from the "West" I've always felt that the West needs some division - although from a statistical standpoint California takes up so much population that it makes everything else seem meaningless.

[Goldwater]

I can't think of any complaints, although it's always seems odd to me that the term "Midwest" refers to both the Great Lakes and the Great Plains. Also, having lived in the West my whole life, I think of the Midwest as part of the east.

[IceSpear]

MD, DE, DC should be Northeast.

Aside from that it's pretty accurate.

[muon2]

The South is too large and diverse in the Census classification. I also think that the others would do well to be divided, there's no good reason to restrict the data groupings to only four categories. For instance I use nine regions to subdivide the US for my own demographic analysis. If one then wants to regroup the states from more categories into fewer categories, that remains an option.

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[Goldwater]

The South is too large and diverse in the Census classification. I also think that the others would do well to be divided, there's no good reason to restrict the data groupings to only four categories. For instance I use nine regions to subdivide the US for my own demographic analysis. If one then wants to regroup the states from more categories into fewer categories, that remains an option.

Interesting. I would think that West Virginia has more in common with Kentucky and Tennessee than New York and New Jersey, but that's just my outsider opinion. Other than that, the placement of everything on your map seems accurate to me.

[Vosem]

The South is too large and diverse in the Census classification. I also think that the others would do well to be divided, there's no good reason to restrict the data groupings to only four categories. For instance I use nine regions to subdivide the US for my own demographic analysis. If one then wants to regroup the states from more categories into fewer categories, that remains an option.

Interesting. I would think that West Virginia has more in common with Kentucky and Tennessee than New York and New Jersey, but that's just my outsider opinion. Other than that, the placement of everything on your map seems accurate to me.

I'd also shift Minnesota to the Great Lakes. It's a shame how impractical it is to divide states for this sort of thing; otherwise, these regions could be a great deal more coherent.

[muon2]

The South is too large and diverse in the Census classification. I also think that the others would do well to be divided, there's no good reason to restrict the data groupings to only four categories. For instance I use nine regions to subdivide the US for my own demographic analysis. If one then wants to regroup the states from more categories into fewer categories, that remains an option.

Interesting. I would think that West Virginia has more in common with Kentucky and Tennessee than New York and New Jersey, but that's just my outsider opinion. Other than that, the placement of everything on your map seems accurate to me.

Since there's a whole thread recently active on WV, I won't go into all my reasons here. The short answer is that I find the demographics and economy to be a better fit to PA than to KY. I'm not looking at politics for the grouping.

[ElectionsGuy]

The only thing I would change is put MD, DE, and DC in the Northeast (although they do have some southern elements, such as high black populations). It just fits better there geographically and the South has too much population as it is anyway. The Census also has more divisions within those divisions.

[Tender Branson]

MD, DE and DC belong to the NE.

MO is probably South, but I have no problem with it being Mid-West (the map would look weird).

[kcguy]

Random thoughts that have nothing to do with one another:

1.  Regarding Census Bureau definitions. . .Putting Delaware in the South seems strange.  If I had to choose, I might consider moving KY and WV into the Mid-West, and moving DE, MD, DC, and VA into the Northeast.  Three reasons:
     a.  The South is overpopulated with respect to the other regions, so this would even out the
         populations.
     b.  For some reason, I like having a straight-line northern boundary for the South at 36°30'.
         (37° at Oklahoma.)
     c.  A number of major metropolitan areas lie along the Ohio River.  It seems weird to split the
         metros of Evansville, Louisville, Cincinnati, and Wheeling between two different regions.

2.  In the mid-90's, Michael Barone proposed dividing the country politically into 6 regions, and his regions have stuck with me.  Two decades later, they seem to hold up fairly well.
     a.  In NY and PA, he thought that NYC and Philadelphia belonged in the Northeast, but the
         rest of those two states belonged in the upper Midwest.  Since metro NYC makes up a
         majority of New York, but Philadelphia makes up a minority of Pennsylvania, they're
         allocated as shown in the map above.
     b.  In the Mississippi Valley, he thought the dividing line between north and south should be
         I-70, which runs through the middle of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri.
     c.  Total EV's are Northeast = 92;  Southeast = 82;  Upper Midwest = 111;
         Lower Miss Valley = 63;  Interior West = 112; and Pacific Coast = 78.

3.  I also saw a map online about a month ago that I thought was worth sharing.  The author divides North America into 11 historic cultures, which he attempts to describe.  (The cultures are Yankeedom, New Netherland, The Midlands, Tidewater, Greater Appalachia, Deep South, El Norte, The Left Coast, The Far West, New France, and First Nation).  He also provides a county-level map.  For some reason, south Florida is not part of any of these regions.

The article is seen through the prism of communitarianism-versus-self-reliance and the prevalence of violence, and he spends much of the article discussing gun control and the death penalty.

http://www.tufts.edu/alumni/magazine/fall2013/features/up-in-arms.html

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Might be a mistake to judge this sort of thing (mostly) by how people vote. Just a thought.

[Padfoot]

MD, DE, DC should be Northeast.

Aside from that it's pretty accurate.

Although they did not secede from the Union, Maryland and Delaware were both slave states all the way up to start of the Civil War.  Maryland abolished slavery during the war but Delaware was still a slave state up until the passage of the 13th Amendment.  Also, if you've ever visited the more rural areas of those states you will notice a more southern-like culture that still has a detectable scent of Jim Crow-style racial prejudice.  Finally, the mega-metro of Baltimore and DC can't really be separated from Virginia.  I would say that MD, DE, VA, DC, and possibly WV represent a distinct "capital" region that is decidedly not Northeastern in nature.

[Padfoot]

The South is too large and diverse in the Census classification. I also think that the others would do well to be divided, there's no good reason to restrict the data groupings to only four categories. For instance I use nine regions to subdivide the US for my own demographic analysis. If one then wants to regroup the states from more categories into fewer categories, that remains an option.

Muon2's map is actually very similar to the way the Census subdivides its four regions into smaller divisions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_regions_of_the_United_States#Census_Bureau-designated_areas

[Padfoot]

If you're going to limit yourself to four regions then yes; I think the Census map works well.  However, even if you were to subdivide the map into more regions to increase accuracy I think many states simply defy classification.  Hawaii and Alaska in particular are hard to really place into any true region due to the the geographic and cultural differences they have with the continental US.  I think other states are hard to classify because they share elements with multiple regions.  For example, NYC and Philadelphia are clearly "northeastern" but Buffalo and Pittsburgh have much more in common with the other major cities of the Rust Belt/Great Lakes.  Then you have Texas and California which are so large in both population and area that they cover multiple cultural and geographic regions.

There are tons of criteria one could use for sorting the states into regions but I think to truly understand the population-geography of the US you have to ignore the arbitrary state borders. If instead we all listed the major regions of the US without mentioning the names of specific states, we would all end up with very similar lists including regions like the Pacific Northwest, The Gulf Coast,  Appalachia, the Great Plains, the Great Lakes, etc.  Looking at populations from the perspective of geography and climate really highlights the unique way that geographical features influence the culture of the people who live there.  It also demonstrates the comparatively minimal influence that state boundaries have on shaping culture, especially those that follow lines of longitude & latitude.  Having said all that, I think the Census does a relatively decent job of sorting the states into regions based on the dominant culture within each state.

[muon2]

One thing that is particularly missing in the Census classifications is the impact of Mexican culture. I think it's due to old groups set by the Census that I find dated. That's why I regrouped AZ, NM, and TX into a Southwest region. One could argue for CA as well due to its Mexican influence, but I wouldn't want to put the large and distinct states of TX and CA together.

[Del Tachi]

Here's a six region map:



Red - Northeast
Blue - Mid Atlantic
Light Green - South
Purple - Midwest
Dark Green - Northwest 
Orange - Southwest

[jimrtex]

Blue: Northeast
Red: Midwest
GOLD: South
GREEN: West

They're only used for statistical purposes, and provide continuity for over a century.

If they are going to change every census, there is really no purpose for them.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I'd move Delaware, Maryland, and D.C. to the Northeast, and I'd move Kentucky and West Virginia to the Midwest. To me, the South generally includes the Confederate states plus Oklahoma (because the Confederacy claimed and controlled the area that is now Oklahoma). Downtown Dayton, Ky., is not rural Mississippi.

[TDAS04]

Maryland, Delaware, and DC should be in the Northeast, and that's probably the only change I'd make.  While Missouri is more culturally Southern than Midwestern, it's Midwestern enough to be placed in the Midwest for geographical reasons.

There is a little overlap.  The Plains states have a strong Western streak, but Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas are Midwestern overall, while Texas and Oklahoma are more Southern.

A case could be made that Pennsylvania is culturally and politically more Midwestern than Northeastern, it doesn't make sense geographically to place it anywhere but the Northeast.

[Orser67]

This is how I tend to think of the states, although it's probably more based on stereotypes and partisanship than on actual cultural similarities.

[⛄]

The only region I wouldn't change is the Midwest.

The Middle Atlantic would be extended by Maryland, Delaware and D.C.

The West I wouldn't split into Mountain and Pacific, but rather into North and South.

The Southern region (minus MD, DE and DC) is okay, but I'd section it off into different divisions:
Upper South, Deep South East and Deep South West.

[Consciously Unconscious]

MD, DE and DC belong to the NE.

MO is probably South, but I have no problem with it being Mid-West (the map would look weird).

Basically this.  I think MO is fine being in the Mid-West.

[jimrtex]

The only region I wouldn't change is the Midwest.

The Middle Atlantic would be extended by Maryland, Delaware and D.C.

The West I wouldn't split into Mountain and Pacific, but rather into North and South.

The Southern region (minus MD, DE and DC) is okay, but I'd section it off into different divisions:
Upper South, Deep South East and Deep South West.

What if the objective were to make the regions equipopulous?

Northeast 55,317,240
Midwest 66,927,001
South 114,555,744
West 71,945,553

Quota: 77,186,384

So we might add KS, NE, SD, and ND to the West.
And add DE, MD, DC, VA, NC, and WV to the Northeast.
And add KY, TN, and AR to the Midwest.

How close is that?

Alternatively we use 5 regions, and begin by splitting the South.

Or what if 9 Supreme Court justices were elected by district, and voters in VI, PR, DC, MP, GU, and AS were permitted to vote?

[muon2]

Following jimrtex's suggestion of 9 divisions for SCOTUS seats, this division has an average deviation of 3.6% and a maximum of 7.3% from the quota (PR and other territories are with DC).