Several times I have heard commentators on the 2024 presidential election refer to "midwestern states" and list Pennsylvania among them. Is it standard in discussions of current events in politics to call Pennsylvania a midwestern state? Do such commentators not know that Pennsylvania is an eastern seaboard state and was a British colony and one of the original 13 states, and is where the Constitution of the United States was written in 1787?
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4Who cares? What difference does it make in the context in which the commentators are speaking? If I say that the claim that "Derbyshire is Northern" ignores the fact that it was historically within the kingdom of Mercia... who cares?– James KCommented Sep 29 at 9:34
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10Welcome to Pennsyltucky.– BobsonCommented Sep 29 at 14:45
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13It is in the sense that politically it acts more like Michigan or Wisconsin than New Jersey or New York. (As a native Philadelphian I also object to this usage, but I can see how it's a useful political shorthand.)– Michael LugoCommented Sep 29 at 16:17
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4Yes, it's odd that some eastern states such as Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and sometimes Pennsylvania are called "The Midwest" but that usage goes back to the beginning of the 19th century. Currently, would we consider Nevada, Colorado, and Idaho to be the "Midwest" because they are in the middle of the western states? Historically, that's not what "Midwest" means.– WastrelCommented Sep 29 at 16:20
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6@Wastrel some eastern states such as Ohio, Illinois, Indiana Whaaa? Lifelong Illinois resident here, and I have never once considered it to be an "eastern" state.– John GordonCommented Sep 30 at 2:42
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6 Answers
Pennsylvania is a very long state, east to west. The parts of Pennsylvania west of Philadelphia, Allentown, and their suburbs and exurbs have more of a midwest feel (or even a southern feel, or Appalachian feel) than an east coast feel. Pittsburgh very much has the feel of a midwest river city as opposed to the feel of an east coast city.
Central Pennsylvania is much closer to Appalachian (the Appalachians cover much of Pennsylvania) than east coast. In fact, the Appalachian Regional Commission includes all but a few counties in southeastern Pennsylvania as part of Appalachia. Note well: Appalachia does not have a midwestern feel to it. But it certainly does not have an east coast feel to it, either.
James Carville once described Pennsylvania as comprising Pittsburgh and Philadelphia separated by Alabama. That of course was an exaggeration, something Carville is prone to do. And it's not entirely true; for example, Centre County PA, more or less in the center of the state, is dominated by the politics of State College PA (the home of Pennsylvania State University), making the entire county have a bluish tint. Then again, southern and midwestern college towns tend to be much bluer than their red neighbors.
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9Having lived in Pittsburgh, I’d certainly agree it felt culturally more allied to Chicago and Cleveland (canonically midwestern cities) than to Philadelphia. Commented Sep 29 at 21:29
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6"Shortly after the Louisiana Purchase, Pennsylvania had claims extending all the way to the Mississippi River ": Wikipedia's article on the territorial evolution of the US contradicts this statement; it describes no such claim by Pennsylvania at any time. Other states that did have such claims were Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia, but these had all been ceded or otherwise resolved well before the Louisiana purchase in 1803.– phoogCommented Sep 29 at 21:55
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1Having done work in Jamestown, NY (and spent a significant amount of time in Erie, PA as a result), I can verify that western PA and western NY have a very midwest-y feel to them.– GOATNineCommented Sep 30 at 14:11
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2As a Pittsburgh resident, it's common for people to refer to that middle bit as "Pennsyltucky" or "Pennsylginia" with the running joke being that the bit in the middle is actually part of Kentucky or West Virginia. Commented Oct 1 at 14:45
Midwest is a loose term whose usage varies according to the user and has changed over time.
- Originally, Midwest referred to (etymonline)
West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas
Today, most would not consider Arkansas to be part of the Midwest. And most would be puzzled by the omission of Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana.
- In the Statistical Abstract of the United States 1938, one table includes as part of the Middle West these states:
Oklahoma, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico.
Today, most would consider it absurd to include New Mexico as part of the Midwest.
- The Energy Information Administration's (EIA) Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts (PADD) includes Tennessee as part of the Midwest:
Most would consider it absurd to include Tennessee as part of the Midwest.
Today I believe most would consider at least part of western Pennsylvania to be part of the Midwest. It is in this loose sense that I think journalists and media commentators use the term Midwest. They are thinking of the Rust Belt (or the Great Lakes megalopolis) and lumping western Pennsylvania in.
The below map is the definition of the Midwest by Hunter Morrison (2005), who
drew upon the historical and geographical precedents for the Midwest, including the glaciation that formed the Great Plains, the Great Lakes, and the major rivers, which together account for the Midwest’s shared history.
Observe that it includes some portion of western Pennsylvania.
The US Census Bureau does not include Pennsylvania in its definition of the Midwest. But this is purely out of convenience.
Its definitions of regions are by state. If instead its definitions were finer and by say county, I'm pretty sure they'd include at least some western counties of Pennsylvania as part of the Midwest.
Note also that
Prior to June 1984, the Midwest Region was designated as the North Central Region.
From a 2023 poll (only residents in the 22 shaded states were polled):
Only 9.4% of Pennsylvanians consider themselves to be living in the Midwest. The poll doesn't seem to give county breakdowns but I suspect these 9.4% mostly live in Western Pennsylvania.
Note that 66.2% of Oklahomans consider themselves to be living in the Midwest (although Oklahoma is not in the Census Bureau's definition of the Midwest). Similarly Wyoming (53.5%) and Colorado (42.1%) are not in the definition.
Conversely, although Ohio is in the definition, only 78.2% of Ohioans consider themselves to be living in the Midwest.
This illustrates that the term Midwest is loose and fluid.
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1While only 9.4% of Pennsylvanians consider themselves to be living in the Midwest, it might well be that a much larger percentage of people living on the East Coast consider Pennsylvanians to be living in the Midwest. So it might well be that it is used by others to describe them.– vszCommented Sep 30 at 9:08
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3"All models are wrong, but some are still useful." That map by Morrison appears to be a bit off. Almost all of Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri are excluded, as are all of the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas. That makes no sense. Commented Sep 30 at 12:17
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1@vsz Some interesting data here: today.yougov.com/society/articles/…, suggesting that non-Midwesterners are indeed more likely to consider PA to be Midwest than people who actually consider themselves Midwesterners. I also found a 2019 statistic indicating that about 35% of Pittsburghers consider themselves to be living in the Midwest (compared to 9% of Pennsylvanians), suggesting this is indeed a view that's more common in western PA. Commented Sep 30 at 15:16
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1@NuclearHoagie: non-Midwesterners are indeed more likely to consider PA to be Midwest than people who actually consider themselves Midwesterners Isn't it the opposite? Doesn't the last figure say that 24% of Midwesterners consider PA to be part of the Midwest, while 14% of non-Midwesterners do the same? Commented Oct 1 at 1:42
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1@user182601 Hm, I did read that backwards. Honestly that makes a bit more sense to me - PA doesn't look too Midwestern on a map but it can sure feel like it when you're there. Commented Oct 1 at 12:22
Generally speaking, the 'midwest' region means the agricultural and industrial areas dependent on the Great Lakes, the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, and all their various tributaries and canals. The 'eastern' region usually refers to coastal areas more geared towards commercial seaways. Pennsylvania has no direct seaway access, but it does border Lake Erie. Philadelphia can access the Atlantic down the Delaware river and through the bay, but it was never positioned to be a shipping powerhouse like New York City or Norfolk. So Pennsylvania is typically classed with states like Ohio and Michigan that are based more in domestic production and distribution than international trade.
answered Sep 29 at 21:59
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5"never positioned to be a shipping powerhouse like New York City or Norfolk": but it was just that for much of its existence. It owes its importance ultimately to its status as one of the United State three preeminent Atlantic ports. It was only in the 20th century that this began to decline.– phoogCommented Sep 29 at 23:42
I think "midwest" is not consistently defined, however one authoritative source for the term is the U.S. Census Bureau. According to the Bureau, there are 12 "midwest" states:
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Missouri
- Nebraska
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- South Dakota
- Wisconsin
The U.S. Census Bureau does not consider Pennsylvania to be a "midwest" state.
Certainly people who live in the Northeast are likely to consider Pennsylvania as in the same region - Philadelphia is easily accessible to New York, Baltimore, Washington, DC, and even Boston. At the same time, western Pennsylvania (including Pittsburgh) borders Ohio and has cultural and economic ties to states to the west.
So the unfortunate answer is that there's a case to be made that Pennsylvania is definitely not a "midwest" state and also reasons to include it in a list of midwest states. If I were writing a story, I would probably write something like "...the Midwest, along with Pennsylvania..."
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Dividing the country into only four regions and then using state boundaries to mark the boundaries of those four divisions is not particularly useful. (Useless is a better term.) Using counties would be better, and more than four regions would be better still. Commented Oct 1 at 13:30
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@DavidHammen Since laws vary from state to state, it’s hard to ignore state boundaries when it comes to statistics and policy. Commented Oct 1 at 14:21
You Might Blame Colin Woodward
In 2011 a writer named Colin Woodward put out a book that sought to explain currently political trends in the US based on historical demographics. He grouped the US into 11 "nations" based on who had settled there and when.
For example: the "New Netherlands Nation" was settled by Dutch colonists in the 17th Century, and includes parts of New York (esp NYC) New Jersey, and Connecticut.
Under this theory, the cultures of the original settlers strongly influence current culture and politics, since later migrants tend to align themselves with the existing culture.
He basically breaks what most people would think of as the Midwest into two "nations" - a northern Midwest which also extends East into northern Pennsylvania, upstate New York, and New England that he calls "Yankeedom" and a southern Midwest that also extends East into parts of Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland that he called "Midlands."
Lexicon Analysis Actually Agrees
While I felt like Woodward might have a kernel of something interesting, I expect culture might be more fluid than he gives it credit for.
A stronger case for "Pennsylvania is Midwestern" is this paper in Nature from 2023, which looked at lexicon data and found that people in most of Pennsylvania use a vocabulary that matches Ohio and Illinois better than it matches New York or Virginia, while only far Eastern Pennsylvania speaks like a Coastal state.
There is no spoon Midwest
This may seem like a boring answer, but the reality is that "Midwest" is an abstract human-defined entity that doesn't exist in physical reality. If you look at the Earth from a satellite, you won't find a defined line that separates the "Midwest" from the rest of the US (unlike, say, the US-Mexico border which at least has a physical demarcation in some parts). Consequently, "Midwest" can mean whatever each person or group wants it to mean.
Do such commentators not know that Pennsylvania is an eastern seaboard state and was a British colony and one of the original 13 states, and is where the Constitution of the United States was written in 1787?
While you're right about the history of Pennsylvania, commentators are not bound to follow any conventions whatsoever. They could theoretically call California "Midwestern" tomorrow if they chose to, regardless of historical precedent, dictionary definitions, or local opinions of Pennsylvania residents. Listeners (such as yourself) can disagree and voice their opinion in return, but otherwise no one can enforce a single standard for a particular term.
Geographical concepts can evolve over time, and what seems misplaced today could become accepted usage in the future. Some examples from the past 100 years:
- "Third World" - Originally referred to non-aligned countries during the Cold War, now often used (controversially) to denote developing nations, as the Soviet Union has long collapsed.
- "Scandinavia" - Traditionally included only Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, but now often includes Finland and Iceland in popular usage.
- "Eastern Europe" - Shifted significantly after the fall of the Soviet Union, with countries like Czech Republic now referred to as "Central Europe".
- "Near East" - Once commonly used to refer to the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire, now largely replaced by "Middle East" with a different geographical focus.
Likewise it's possible that in another century most people will change their definition of "Midwest" over time to include Pennsylvania.
answered Sep 30 at 19:23
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In 1776 Pennsylvania west of the Appalachians was pretty thinly settled compared with the east. While Washington benefitted from the French and Indian Wars, the general situation was not conducive to major settlement at that time. Commented Sep 30 at 19:52
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@JonCuster it doesn't matter. People don't have to follow the dictionary or history books. Anyone can make up their own definition for any abstract entity with a complete disregard for all of human history. Commented Sep 30 at 19:53
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1I did not phrase that well - eastern PA is indeed an old British colony. Western PA is much more aligned with, say, Ohio in terms of historic settlement and landscape. Few would claim Ohio not to be in the Midwest, so western PA gets thrown in there as well. Commented Sep 30 at 20:02
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Most of human language consists of “abstract human-defined entities” that can change over time — that doesn’t mean it’s meaningless, or not worth asking about usage and the reasons behind it at a given point in time. Commented Oct 1 at 16:49
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This is a weirdly unreconstructed radical nihilism about the nature of language. It's not in fact the case, in any meaningful sense, that I could go around calling California a "Midwestern" state starting tomorrow, because nobody would play that language game with me. The fact that there are no eternal god-given meanings doesn't mean there aren't any meanings at all. Commented Oct 2 at 5:52