Western United States

The western United States consists of the thirteen states west of the Great Plains: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. They can be grouped into different subregions. Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming are sometimes called the Mountain States. Arizona and New Mexico are sometimes included in that group; they may also be considered the Southwest, a subregion sometimes taken to include Texas and Oklahoma. Oregon and Washington are called the Pacific Northwest. The region also includes the two states not contiguous with the rest of the United States—Alaska and Hawaii.

These thirteen states cover about half of the land area of the United States and include both the largest state (Alaska) and third through tenth largest states (California, Montana, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Wyoming, and Oregon, respectively). The region had the second-largest regional population in 2024, with 80 million of the 340.1 million in the United States, according to the US Census Bureau. In 2024, California had 39.4 million people, giving it the largest population in the region and in the nation as a whole. The region has four of the ten largest cities in the nation (Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Jose, California, as well as Phoenix, Arizona).

The population of the region has been growing more rapidly than the population of the nation as a whole for several decades. Utah grew an average of 1.68 percent per year from 2008 to 2023. Every other state in the region grew at least a little, while some states in other regions saw a decreate in population. Idaho grew an average of 1.66 percent per year from 2008 to 2023. Even the slowest growing state, California, grew an average of 0.42 percent per year from 2008 to 2023. In 1960, when Alaska and Hawaii became states, the western states had 15.9 percent of the 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. By 2024, its share had increased to 23.9 percent, a gain of more than 30 seats.

The western states have abundant natural resources and vast spaces, including some areas of harsh environments and others with fertile land. The push for those resources and that land was a major force in driving national history in the nineteenth century. Possession of those lands came at the expense of the Native Americans and Hispanics who were displaced by Anglo American expansion. The resources and innovative people of the region have been a major factor in national economic growth in the twentieth century into the early twenty-first century. The west has long featured in the American mythology, with such figures as the Native Americans of the Plains, the cowhand, the self-reliant settler family, and the modern Internet entrepreneur figuring prominently in American iconography—though the content of those images often distort the reality of those figures. The western states are an important contributor to the US economy. The generated around $5.85 trillion in production in 2023—around 18 percent of the US gross domestic product (GDP) that year. California accounted for 14 percent of the US GDP.

Historical Perspective

Native American groups of the west adapted their way of life to the environment and resources of the area where they lived. Lifestyles changed dramatically in the sixteenth century, with the arrival of Europeans, who brought the horse, sheep, cattle, and guns.

The Spanish established settlements in modern New Mexico in the early 1600s and in California a century later. Rich farmland drew thousands of Anglo-American settlers to Oregon in the 1840s and in 1848, the United States defeated Mexico in war and gained the area from New Mexico to California and north to Utah and Nevada.

Mineral strikes in California, Colorado, Nevada, and elsewhere spurred more migration to the region and promoted urban growth. Development of the West was aided by the Homestead Act of 1862, which made land freely available to settlers, and the construction of transcontinental railroad lines, the first of which was completed in 1869. With expanded White settlement, Native Americans were forced onto reservations. While western lands were exploited, a tradition of preserving wilderness also began in this period with the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in 1872.

The West, particularly California, boomed during World War II, when many military facilities were located there and shipyards and aircraft factories turned out ships and planes needed for the war effort. Aircraft manufacturing also became important in the Northwest. In the 1960s and 1970s, innovations in computer science led to the establishment of new commercial centers near San Francisco and Seattle and in other areas as well.

Geography and Climate

The western United States are dominated by several tall mountain ranges: the Rocky Mountains in the east, the Sierra Nevada of eastern California, and the Coast Ranges near the Pacific. Much of the rest of the region is high plateaus. Lowland valleys lie between the Sierra Nevada and coastal mountains. Some of these valleys are very productive in terms of agriculture.

Generally, the states of the Southwest have warm summers and cool winters. California’s climate is generally mild, though temperatures are cooler toward the north than the south. The Pacific Northwest has a maritime climate, with plentiful rainfall. The interior north has a dry continental climate with cold winters. Climates are greatly affected by altitude—sunny California has snow-capped mountains in the Sierra Nevada—and landforms—mountain chains have a rain shadow effect that creates dry areas to their east. Much of the region has a dry climate, with low amounts of seasonal rainfall. These areas are prone to drought, making the availability of water for agriculture and growing populations a problem.

The two non-contiguous states have distinct geographies. Alaska has mountain ranges along the northern and southern rims with lowlands between them. The narrow southeastern coast is cut by fjords. The climate is arctic and subarctic, with long, harsh winters. Alaska has abundant reserves of oil. Hawaii is an archipelago of volcanic islands in the midst of the Pacific Ocean with a tropical climate.

The Pacific coast states are in a tectonically active zone. Alaska, California, Hawaii, and Washington all have active volcanoes, and Alaska and California are vulnerable to earthquakes.

Economy

The old extractive industries remain important to some degree. Oil is a major industry in California and Alaska, coal is mined in Wyoming, and other minerals are mined in other areas. California is one of the nation’s leading producers of agricultural products, and Oregon is a major farm state as well. Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, and Wyoming produce beef. Fisheries are important in Alaska and among the states along the Pacific coast. Lumbering is still important in the Northwest and mountain states.

However, the region’s economy has grown beyond its nineteenth-century reliance on minerals, farms, cattle, and timber. Areas around San Francisco, Seattle, Albuquerque, Boise, Denver, and Salt Lake City are home to many high-technology and computer companies. Several states have a high share of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) jobs and jobs in information services. Leisure and hospitality is important to areas like Las Vegas, Nevada; the skiing areas of the Rocky Mountains; and parts of California. Manufacturing is strong in some areas, and the region produces about 21 percent of the nation’s exports. Major manufacturing industries include aerospace, computer and electrical equipment, scientific instruments, and telecommunications equipment. Food processing is important in several states with strong agricultural bases, such as California and Oregon, and wood processing is a major industry in the Northwest. Southern California is well known as a center of the entertainment industry. The California ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland and Seattle and Tacoma in Washington are among the busiest in the nation in container shipping tonnage.

Demographics

The western states have great ethnic diversity. They have the highest share of both Hispanics and Asian Americans in the population. In the 2020 US census, 29 percent of the region’s population was Hispanic, and almost 10 percent was at least partly Asian American. California led the way among both groups, with nearly a third of all Hispanics and Asian Americans in the nation. Arizona and New Mexico also had large numbers of Hispanics; Hawaii and Washington also had large Asian American populations. By 2020, three states in the west—California, Hawaii, and New Mexico—had "majority-minority" populations, meaning that more than half the people were non-White.

With its rich ethnic mix, the region has a diverse cultural heritage as well. The foods, languages, music, and traditions of many different groups have entered into the region’s culture. Chinese American enclaves in San Francisco and Seattle draw tourists; and Los Angeles is known for its ethnic neighborhoods, from Little Tokyo and Koreatown to Tehrangeles, populated by Iranian Americans.

Median income in just under half of the region (Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington) was higher than the national average, and Arizona, Utah and Wyoming were close to the national median. While many are well off, Arizona, California, Montana, Nevada, and New Mexio all had a higher percentage of households living in poverty than was the national average.

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