Midwestern United States

The Midwestern United States is a large geographic region in the center of the United States. Its boundaries are the Rocky Mountains in the west and the Appalachian Mountains and the Ohio River in the east and south. The US Census Bureau defines the Midwestern United States as one of four national regions. From east to west, the region includes twelve states: Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota.

The US Census Bureau subdivides the Midwestern United States into two regions. The East North Central Division includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. These five Midwestern states are part of the Great Lakes Basin, and are referred to as the "Great Lake Region." The West North Central Division includes Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. These states are referred to as the "Plain States."

Also called the Middle West, the Midwest, or the North Central States, this vast region derives from the old Northwest Territory and the Great Plains. Given the area’s size and tremendous diversity, the Midwest is in some respects less a geographic region than a concept. Midwestern has become almost a synonym for average American—but in a nonpejorative sense. Many of the states have in various ways been held up as paragons of the national average. For example, Columbus, Ohio, the Buckeye State capital, has long been used as the test market for mass-appeal products.

Midwestern values is a vague term that is often used to describe a whole range of solid, salt-of-the-earth, unpretentious virtues. The stereotypical idea of a Midwesterner is of an individual who is stolid, hard-working, honest, church-going, and family-oriented. This cliché may derive from the region’s historic blend of agriculture and heavy manufacturing. Regardless of the origins of this image, the caricatures cannot begin to encompass such a large, varied region. The so-called Heartland to the west of the Mississippi River, the Breadbasket states of the Central Plains, and the Rustbelt cities of the Great Lakes states all have many cultural differences that set them apart from one another.

Yet despite the many differences among the peoples and states, a unifying concept remains. It is an idea of the center, of the middle of America, of the straightforward, modest, unaffected, and patriotic America depicted in stories, plays, and movies. Midwesterners have been seen as typical Americans. Even the Midwestern accent is considered the standard American accent.

Historical Perspective

The concept of a Midwestern region came only long after Europeans began to explore and settle in the area. All twelve states that make up the region are former parts of either the former Northwest Territory or the Louisiana Purchase.

The Northwest Territory joined the United States in 1783, following the American Revolution. This area was sparsely populated by Europeans at the time, but the treaty that ended the Revolution gave the new United States all of the land northwest of the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River. Twenty years later, the rest of the land area that now makes up the Midwest was added by the Louisiana Purchase.

The former Northwest Territory included present-day Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and parts of Minnesota and was home to numerous Indigenous tribes. In Ohio and Indiana, the Shawnee, Miami, and Delaware (Lenape) were prominent. The Miami primarily inhabited western Ohio and Indiana, while the Delaware had migrated westward from the East Coast. In Illinois and Indiana, the Kickapoo, Potawatomi, and Sauk and Fox (Meskwaki) lived, with the Potawatomi also extending into Michigan and Wisconsin. Michigan and northern Ohio were home to the Ottawa (Odawa) and Wyandot (Huron), while the Chippewa (Ojibwe) occupied Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. In Wisconsin and northern Illinois, the Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) had a strong presence. These tribes played key roles in resisting U.S. expansion, particularly during the Northwest Indian War (1785–1795) and later conflicts such as Tecumseh’s Confederacy. However, many were forcibly removed due to U.S. policies like the Indian Removal Act (1830).

The twelve Midwestern states entered the Union at different times. Ohio was the first to become a state in 1803. The rest of the old Northwest Territory was divided into states that were admitted over the following decades: Indiana in 1816 and Illinois in 1818, followed by Michigan (1837) and Wisconsin (1848). The states that were part of the Louisiana Purchase were added over a longer period of time. Missouri entered the Union in 1821, followed by Iowa in 1846, Minnesota in 1858, Kansas in 1861, Nebraska in 1867, and South Dakota and North Dakota in 1889. This gradual and often bloody expansion of the United States into the Midwest led to exploitation of the region’s resources.

The Great Plains states were primarily developed agriculturally, but the abundance of natural resources in addition to fertile soil meant that the old Northwest Territory states developed more diverse economies. The initial attraction throughout the region, however, was the farmland.

Geography and Climate

Most of the Midwestern United States is relatively flat. At least some part of every state was glaciated during the various Ice Ages. Moreover, the vast grasslands that covered much of the land both around the Mississippi River and to the river’s west created extremely fertile soil. However, the topographic variation in the region is much greater than nonresidents believe.

The plains once supported millions of bison, but by the closing decades of the nineteenth century, the herds had been hunted nearly to extinction. Billions of migratory birds live in and cross the Central Plains or follow the flyways of the great continental rivers of the Mississippi Drainage (including the vast areas drained by the Missouri and Ohio Rivers). The Midwest and Central Plains are important habitats for these birds as they either nest, stopover, or winter in the region while traveling along major flyways. The Mississippi Flyway, which follows the Mississippi River and its tributaries (including the Missouri and Ohio Rivers), is one of the most important bird migration routes in North America. More than 325 bird species, including sparrows, warblers, owls, ducks, plovers, and cranes, traverse the Mississippi Flyway annually. Notable species include the Prothonotary Warbler, which is commonly found within this flyway.

From the Appalachian foothills to the Great Lakes Basin to the Great Plains, the immense region supports dramatic variations in fauna, from prairie dogs and black-footed ferrets in the Dakotas to fishers and wolverines in the forests of Michigan.

The grasslands and prairies of the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas are home to prairie dogs, black-footed ferrets, bison, pronghorn antelope, and Western meadowlarks. The forests and woodlands of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota host fishers, wolverines, white-tailed deer, eastern chipmunks, and pileated woodpeckers. Wetlands and rivers like the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio River systems, as well as the Great Lakes, support beavers, river otters, common loons, snapping turtles, and American bullfrogs. The Appalachian foothills and eastern woodlands of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois are home to bobcats, red foxes, barred owls, ruffed grouse, and timber rattlesnakes.

There is a diminishing amount of annual rainfall in the region as you travel from east to west across the region. It is abundant in the east and also in the tallgrass prairie region of the Interior Lowlands. As average amounts of rainfall decrease, the land supports mixed grasses and then shortgrass prairies in the west. The native flora corresponds roughly to the dominant agriculture of the region. Corn and soybeans thrive in the east, wheat can be found where the mix-grass prairies once stood, and rangeland dominates in the dry shortgrass prairies.

The Midwestern climate can be dramatic. Although the Great Lakes have an impact on the climate by moderating the temperature swings near their shores, the rest of the region is subject to drastic seasonal variation. The temperature range from summer to winter can be in excess of 100 degrees F (38 degrees C). Over most of the region, precipitation is abundant, but it varies widely as well. Both droughts and floods are regular events, as are tornadoes, which occur in the southern portions of the region.

Economy

The Midwest has an unusually diverse economy. It is both a huge farming region and the center of heavy manufacturing. Financial services, insurance, and health care are also significant industries in the region. By 2023, altogether, the gross domestic product of the Midwestern United States is roughly similar to the United Kingdom's or Germany’s. By 2022, about 20.6 percent of the US population, or approximately 68.9 million people, lived in the Midwest. By 2023, The region accounted for approximately 18 percent of the nation’s GDP.

Chicago is the region’s largest city and the third-largest metropolitan area in the United States. Other important metro areas in the region include Indianapolis (in Indiana); Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Toledo (all in Ohio); Detroit (Michigan); Milwaukee (Wisconsin); Kansas City and St. Louis (Missouri); Omaha and Lincoln (Nebraska); Minneapolis–St. Paul (Minnesota); and Wichita (Kansas). All are important manufacturing and financial centers, but Chicago remains the economic and cultural center of the region. This city is also a vital transportation center: It serves as a port on the Great Lakes, it is home to one of the world’s busiest airports, and it is the hub of the nation’s rail system. Also significant is Chicago’s role as a global financial center, especially for trading commodities, including agricultural products.

It makes sense that Chicago became a transportation center, because the Midwest is also dominant in terms of farming and this city is centrally located in the region. The region’s climate and soils make it perfect for farms. It has three main belts of crops—the Corn Belt, the Wheat Belt, and the Dairy Belt. Iowa and Illinois are the top producers in the Corn Belt, which extends west from western Ohio to Nebraska. The Wheat Belt runs north–south through the Great Plains, with Kansas and North Dakota the top producers. The Dairy Belt includes Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

Fishing, tourism, oil and gas production (especially in North Dakota), pig farming, mining (particularly coal, limestone, and iron ore), soybeans, technology and biotech, and insurance and other financial services round out the businesses in the region’s economy.

Demographics

The general demographics of the Midwest are similar to those of the nation as a whole. In terms of racial divisions, slightly more White people live in this region than in the rest of the United States, but regional variations are great. Illinois is the most populous Midwestern state, and its percentage of White people is slightly lower than that of the rest of the country. North Dakota is the least-populated Midwestern state, with very few African American citizens—just 3.8 percent as opposed to a national figure of 12.7 percent. On the other hand, 5.5 percent of North Dakota’s population is Native American, and this total greatly exceeds the national figure of 1.2 percent.

For the most part, slavery was not a legacy of the Midwest. Only Missouri passed slavery into law in their state. However, Kansas played a pivotal role in the fight against slavery in the years leading up to its statehood. Known as "Bleeding Kansas," the territory was a battleground for pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions following the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which allowed settlers to decide whether to allow slavery when the territory became a state. Pro-slavery settlers from Missouri and anti-slavery activists from the North flooded into Kansas to influence the vote. This led to violent clashes from both sides as tensions escalated. The conflict ultimately contributed to the Civil War, and Kansas was admitted as a free state in 1861.

This history had an impact, helping shape the demographics of the region. The waves of European immigrants who came directly to the interior of the country from their native lands also had a major impact on the population. Most notably, large numbers of Germans settled in the region, moving into Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, and eastern Missouri. People from Scandinavia settled in Wisconsin, Minnesota, northern Iowa, and the Dakotas; Poles, Italians, Hungarians, and others settled in many Midwestern cities. Amish farming communities are found in Ohio, Indiana, and Iowa.

The region’s religion is predominately Protestant Christian. However, the urban areas are often dominated by Roman Catholics. Two periods of immigration brought Roman Catholics to the area’s cities. First came the wave of German, Irish, Italian, and Polish immigration that ended around 1915; and then later, after the 1950s, large numbers of Mexican American immigrants flocked to the region. The population swelled in response to expanding manufacturing jobs.

Throughout much of the twentieth century, the Midwest's booming manufacturing industry attracted European immigrants seeking better economic opportunities and escaping difficult conditions in their home countries. At the same time, large numbers of African Americans from the South, particularly through the Great Migration, were drawn to the region in search of better job opportunities, safer living conditions, and freedom from the pervasive racial discrimination they faced in the South. This influx of diverse populations helped reshape the cultural and economic landscape of the Midwest, contributing to its status as a major industrial hub.

In every case, people have flowed into the Midwest in search of economic opportunity. Factories, fertile land, and schools have enticed thousands in the past and continue to provide enduring allure. In the twenty-first century, the trend of migration to the Midwest for manufacturing jobs has diminished somewhat due to the decline of traditional manufacturing industries and the rise of automation. However, new waves of migration are still occurring in different forms. Immigrants from Latin America, Asia, and Africa continue to be drawn to the region, particularly to cities like Chicago, Detroit, and St. Louis, seeking opportunities in industries such as healthcare, technology, and service sectors.

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