What does "the East" include?

[King of Kensington]

Inspired by jimrtx in the Upper Midwest thread.

What does the East include?  Is it the Northeast only?  Or is it a macroregion that extends into the Midwest and South?

Can vote for up to 8 options.

[Strudelcutie4427]

Any state bordering the Atlantic Ocean (not the gulf) plus VT, PA, and WV

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I suppose everything East of the Mississippi, but East Coast means something different (and, in vernacular, may or may not even include the South Atlantic states).

[DFL]

Any state bordering the Atlantic Ocean (not the gulf) plus VT, PA, and WV

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

Barry Goldwater must have had a different idea of what the East is, when he said he wanted to saw off the East Coast.

[Kamala]

East of the Mississippi, excluding Minnesota.

[TheLeftwardTide]

Red is almost always included, while pink is just occasionally included. This is my personalized criteria.

[Technocracy Timmy]

To me it means every state east of the Mississippi River.

However, if somebody tells me they're from "back east" then I'm gonna assume they're from either Maryland, DC, NOVA, or anywhere north of that. So PA, NY, NJ, DE, and New England.

[Beet]

Is "the East" an actual phrase used to reference domestic U.S. geography? Funny, I don't hear it.

[AN63093]

Yes, it is Beet, but you won't hear it when you are in the East.

When I used to live on the West Coast, people from the East would sometimes say "back East" in speech.  Like, "I'm heading back East to visit family," "I went to college back East," etc.

Anyways, the "East" isn't typically used to refer to a narrow, specific US region, but rather a large, amorphous area when someone is using short-hand to refer to the eastern side of the country.  So unlike, e.g., the "Mid-West" (which has a more specific definition), what constitutes the "East" will usually be based on the context in which it's used.

For example, people may assume you're talking about the Mid-Atlantic or New England without further specification.  But context matters a lot- take the phrase "East Coast Bias," often used to derisively refer to sports coverage, stuff like that, etc.  The phrase is not necessarily referring to a specific metro area or region, but just the eastern time zone in general, and the perception that large metro areas in this time zone receive a disproportionate amount of attention.

Assuming someone doesn't specify or there is no further context, I would say the East would tend to include the Mid-Atlantic and New England.  So these states:

From my definitive US regions county-map, I would include my Mid-Atlantic and New England regions (colored blue and green from my map):

Here is my very rough initial draft of my county map.  Some notes will follow in a separate post.

[Beet]

Oh, I know stuff like "back East" is a phrase, I just don't hear "the East"; and yes, "back East" generally refers to the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic area.

Anyway, I like your county map, only thing is the Upper South region seems less like a cohesive region and more like something defined by being in a gray area between other regions. Like, one doesn't normally think of North Carolina and Oklahoma/Missouri being in the same region. But they do make sense if you have a region labelled as the Upper South.

[Gass3268]

Yes, it is Beet, but you won't hear it when you are in the East.

When I used to live on the West Coast, people from the East would sometimes say "back East" in speech.  Like, "I'm heading back East to visit family," "I went to college back East," etc.

Anyways, the "East" isn't typically used to refer to a narrow, specific US region, but rather a large, amorphous area when someone is using short-hand to refer to the eastern side of the country.  So unlike, e.g., the "Mid-West" (which has a more specific definition), what constitutes the "East" will usually be based on the context in which it's used.

For example, people may assume you're talking about the Mid-Atlantic or New England without further specification.  But context matters a lot- take the phrase "East Coast Bias," often used to derisively refer to sports coverage, stuff like that, etc.  The phrase is not necessarily referring to a specific metro area or region, but just the eastern time zone in general, and the perception that large metro areas in this time zone receive a disproportionate amount of attention.

Assuming someone doesn't specify or there is no further context, I would say the East would tend to include the Mid-Atlantic and New England.  So these states:

From my definitive US regions county-map, I would include my Mid-Atlantic and New England regions (colored blue and green from my map):

Here is my very rough initial draft of my county map.  Some notes will follow in a separate post.

I would agree with this, but I think you can add most of Florida and a few southern cities (Atlanta and Charlotte).

[Bismarck]

Only the northeast and Virginia. Unless you are just dividing the country in half then it's everything east of the Mississippi River but those aren't coherent regions. Nobody from Indiana would describe themselves as being from "the east".

[Sirius_]

I say that it includes the northeast, MD, DE, DC, VA, WV, NC, SC, GA, and FL.

[pikachu]

I agree with beet - I've lived in LA for a few years now, and never have I heard someone say 'the East', or hearing it used in a similar context to 'the West.' When people are referring to the Northeastern states out here, they'll typically save the East Coast, and will just say the Midwest or the South for the parts. Very rarely have I heard all the states east of the Mississippi being grouped as one.