Which of these states do you consider Southern?

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I would include the Dallas, Houston, Oklahoma City, St. Louis, and maybe Kansas City metro areas in the South.

The first three I could definitely fathom arguments for, but St. Louis and Kansas City?

I get to St Louis fairly often, and it's no more Southern than Indianapolis. Both feel a lot more like Chicago than Atlanta.

There's virtually no way one can consider KC to be anything other than a Great Plains city like Omaha. My family lives in KC and I know it pretty well. From my visits to OKC you could put it in the Plains category or link it with western cities like Denver, but I didn't find it to be Southern at all. I lived and worked in Dallas as recently as the late 1980's and unless it has changed a lot in 30 years I lump it with OKC as either a Plains or Western city, but not in the South.

I'll concede Kansas City, I guess.  But, almost all of the people I know from OKC, DFW, Houston, and STL are very Southern culturally.  I would bet a suburban area in Dallas would have a ton in common with a suburban area of Atlanta or Nashville.

[muon2]

I would include the Dallas, Houston, Oklahoma City, St. Louis, and maybe Kansas City metro areas in the South.

The first three I could definitely fathom arguments for, but St. Louis and Kansas City?

I get to St Louis fairly often, and it's no more Southern than Indianapolis. Both feel a lot more like Chicago than Atlanta.

There's virtually no way one can consider KC to be anything other than a Great Plains city like Omaha. My family lives in KC and I know it pretty well. From my visits to OKC you could put it in the Plains category or link it with western cities like Denver, but I didn't find it to be Southern at all. I lived and worked in Dallas as recently as the late 1980's and unless it has changed a lot in 30 years I lump it with OKC as either a Plains or Western city, but not in the South.

I'll concede Kansas City, I guess.  But, almost all of the people I know from OKC, DFW, Houston, and STL are very Southern culturally.  I would bet a suburban area in Dallas would have a ton in common with a suburban area of Atlanta or Nashville.

Then your use of Southern is very broad. If St Louis is in that category, so must Indy, Cinci and other towns in Middle America that got significant migration from the South during various stages of their growth in the 19th and early 20th century. I hope it's not just about liking country music, since based on my family that would apply to rural areas of IA, too.

[hopper]

I picked Kentucky but none of the other states.

I view West Virginia as a more of a Northeast State along with Delaware and Maryland for some reason.

[Mr. Smith]

All but Delaware and Maryland.

[Bismarck]

Only the very southern part of Missouri is southern. The majority of the state is midwestern by geography and especially population.

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

Only Texas.  I define the South as the states that seceded.

[RINO Tom]

Only Texas.  I define the South as the states that seceded.

I get the logic behind this, but I imagine people in the Midwest or Northeast would be absolutely perplexed if you included WV in their regions...  Doesn't fit at all.

[muon2]

Only Texas.  I define the South as the states that seceded.

I get the logic behind this, but I imagine people in the Midwest or Northeast would be absolutely perplexed if you included WV in their regions...  Doesn't fit at all.

... or KY. It would be just as weird to have a two state Appalachian region of just WV and KY. Though at least with WV the northern part as far south as US 50 is fairly similar to western PA and southwestern NY, and the WV panhandle fits with the MD panhandle.

[White Trash]

All except MD and DE, which are more Mid-Atlantic than Southern.

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

Only Texas.  I define the South as the states that seceded.

I get the logic behind this, but I imagine people in the Midwest or Northeast would be absolutely perplexed if you included WV in their regions...  Doesn't fit at all.

I don't know what region WV fits into.

I'm originally from Kentucky, and I would consider that state more Midwestern than Southern.  Similar to Missouri.

[RINO Tom]

Only Texas.  I define the South as the states that seceded.

I get the logic behind this, but I imagine people in the Midwest or Northeast would be absolutely perplexed if you included WV in their regions...  Doesn't fit at all.

I don't know what region WV fits into.

I'm originally from Kentucky, and I would consider that state more Midwestern than Southern.  Similar to Missouri.

Maybe I'm biased because I'm from Illinois and my sister goes to school in Indiana (and therefore has most of her closest friends from the state), but I think most people in Illinois and Indiana very much view Kentucky as the South ... heck, they view the southernmost parts of their states as effectively the South (just not officially "there" yet, haha).

[jimrtex]

I would include the Dallas, Houston, Oklahoma City, St. Louis, and maybe Kansas City metro areas in the South.

The first three I could definitely fathom arguments for, but St. Louis and Kansas City?

I get to St Louis fairly often, and it's no more Southern than Indianapolis. Both feel a lot more like Chicago than Atlanta.

There's virtually no way one can consider KC to be anything other than a Great Plains city like Omaha. My family lives in KC and I know it pretty well. From my visits to OKC you could put it in the Plains category or link it with western cities like Denver, but I didn't find it to be Southern at all. I lived and worked in Dallas as recently as the late 1980's and unless it has changed a lot in 30 years I lump it with OKC as either a Plains or Western city, but not in the South.

I'll concede Kansas City, I guess.  But, almost all of the people I know from OKC, DFW, Houston, and STL are very Southern culturally.  I would bet a suburban area in Dallas would have a ton in common with a suburban area of Atlanta or Nashville.

There may be a selection bias in the people you know from those cities, particularly if they are relatives who have moved from Tennessee.

[RINO Tom]

Side note: I'll make the bold prediction that Virginia will never be considered a Northeastern state.  Politics is very, very irrelevant to that, and I think the South will stay static like other regions have (North Dakota and Illinois don't have to be in different regions because they vote very differently, LOL) the further we get away from the civil rights movement.  The South will come to be viewed just like the West: a region that includes a LOT of very different states, not some separate kingdom of people who are all the same and love grits.  That's not to say cultural Southernness (God, that felt dumb to type, LOL) will go away, because it never will.

I think the only reason Delaware and Maryland ever became associated with the Northeast is that they were, in fact, north of DC, and people still subconsciously see DC as the divider between North and South dating back to the Civil War.

[AGA]

Kentucky, West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Texas.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

"Appalachia" really deserves it's own distinction from "The South".    The two really do have quite a few differences.

Where is the line between the two, though? Is Tennessee "Southern" or "Appalachian"? Should Pennsylvania be considered part of "Appalachia"?

If you use this distinction, the only state that would purely fit into Appalachia is West Virginia, but parts of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia would fit as well.  But, by the time you move far enough down the mountain chain to Tennessee (look at places like Knoxville and Chattanooga), the culture is much more Southern than Appalachian.  Plus, over two-thirds of Tennessee lies outside the Appalachian Mountains (even Knoxville isn't really high up at all).  Where I am in Middle Tennessee, it is pretty flat, and parts of West Tennessee have more in common with Mississippi than East Tennessee.

With this in mind, unless you are getting very specific with your divisions "Appalachia" should just be considered part of "The South", IMO.

Amen.  Do people think regions can't be diverse in and of themselves?  The South, for some reason, seems to get more of this attention than other areas.  Nobody denies that both Ohio and North Dakota are Midwestern, for example, though they are clearly not exactly the same culturally.  Regions, however you chose to define them, should be static (once they're defined), and it's perfectly fine if they encompass several different types of people.

[King of Kensington]

I consider Maryland, DC and NOVA to be a transition zone, even though many say they're Northeastern because Northeastern = liberal and affluent. 

[muon2]

Texas, Kentucky, and West Virginia are Southern without question—all of Texas, Kentucky (sans perhaps the Cincy burbs) and West Virginia (sans Wheeling) fit right (that said, my family's mostly from the Southern-est parts of both WV and KY, so that colors my perception of the states). Oklahoma’s a trickier case, but I’m inclined towards “no” just because I feel Tulsa and OKC fit better with Kansas than Texas, but the presence of Little Dixie makes it probably the trickiest state to place. Missouri is more easy to call Midwestern, because the bulk of the state is Midwestern and only some small cities towards the southern edge of the state are really that Southern. Delaware is entirely Northeastern, and most of Maryland is too. You could make a case for Salisbury I guess.

How is San Antonio and the Rio Grande valley southern? It's culturally much more like the other southwestern states.

[RINO Tom]

I consider Maryland, DC and NOVA to be a transition zone, even though many say they're Northeastern because Northeastern = liberal and affluent. 

Why are more of these lists not made to be adjusted for cost of living?  That's how we'd judge literally anyone's affluence in real life.  In other words, a "higher median income" in the Northeast doesn't make it more affluent if it's met with a higher cost of living...

https://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/2016/10/17/median-household-purchasing-power-for-the-50-states-and-dc

States like Nebraska and Utah are functionally more affluent than Massachusetts or Vermont, really, even if they have lower median incomes.

[The Govanah Jake]

Probably Kentucky, Texas, and Probably NOVA. I dont see Oklahoma as Southern, more of a Plains state and West Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware are more Northeastern and Rust Belt States.

[Cubby]

All the states listed are Southern, with the exception of Missouri, which is Midwestern.

[Lord Halifax]

All the states listed are Southern, with the exception of Maryland and Delaware, which used to be Southern, but aren't anymore.