US Regions and Divisions Explained

Ask five people which region Maryland belongs to and you may get five different answers. That is not a failure of geography — it is a reminder that "region" in the US is not one thing. There are several official groupings, each drawn for a different purpose, and several informal groupings that exist only in everyday speech. This page walks through the system most commonly used on this site and in government data, and then shows where other systems disagree.

The four US Census Bureau regions

The US Census Bureau divides the 50 states and the District of Columbia into four regions. This is the grouping used by most federal statistics, by the economic releases on this site, and in the "Region" field on each state page. Every state belongs to exactly one region.

A few placements surprise people. Delaware, Maryland, and the District of Columbia all sit in the Census South even though in everyday conversation they are often called "Mid-Atlantic" or lumped with the Northeast. Missouri and Kansas are Midwest in the Census, though culturally and historically they overlap with the South and West. Texas and Oklahoma are Census South even though most Americans call them "Southwest". These are not errors — they are a reflection of the Census Bureau's long-standing definitions, which give you a single consistent grouping for every state.

The nine Census divisions

Each region is subdivided into two or three "divisions". Divisions group states that tend to share economic or historical characteristics more tightly than the broader region. Many statistical reports publish at the division level rather than the region level because the divisions are more internally consistent.

If you see a reference to "the Mountain states" or "New England" in a federal publication, these are the definitions being used.

BEA regions: a different grouping for economic data

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) publishes GDP, personal income, and related economic data using its own eight-region scheme. The BEA regions are similar in spirit to the Census regions but slice the country differently so that each region has a similar economic scale. The eight BEA regions are New England, Mideast, Great Lakes, Plains, Southeast, Southwest, Rocky Mountain, and Far West.

If a source says "the Great Lakes region" in an economic context, it usually means the BEA grouping (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin). "Mideast" in BEA terms includes Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania — not the global Middle East.

Informal regions people actually use

In everyday speech, regions often follow cultural lines more than administrative ones. A handful of the most common informal groupings are below. None of them are official, and the exact list of states is disputed, but these are the versions most Americans would recognize.

New England

Here the informal definition matches the Census: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont. One of the few regions where everyone agrees.

Mid-Atlantic

Informally, the Mid-Atlantic usually means New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and sometimes Virginia and the District of Columbia. The Census splits this group — NY, NJ, and PA go into Middle Atlantic (Northeast); the rest are part of the South Atlantic division.

Southwest

Informally, the Southwest usually means Arizona, New Mexico, and often Texas, Oklahoma, and Nevada. The Census splits this too: Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada are West; Texas and Oklahoma are South.

Pacific Northwest

Usually Washington and Oregon, sometimes extending to northern California, Idaho, and parts of Alaska or Montana. No official federal definition.

Rust Belt, Sun Belt, Bible Belt

These are cultural and economic labels rather than geographic regions. The Rust Belt refers loosely to the post-industrial states around the Great Lakes; the Sun Belt stretches roughly from the Carolinas across the South to California; the Bible Belt describes a culturally Protestant swath of the South and Lower Midwest. None have agreed-upon state lists.

How this site uses "Region"

Each state page shows a short "Region" label such as "Northeast", "South", "West", "Midwest", or "Southwest". In most cases this label matches the Census region. A few state pages use "Southeast" or "Southwest" when those informal terms are the most natural match for the state's identity — Florida and Georgia as "Southeast", Arizona and New Mexico as "Southwest". When you need the official federal grouping, use the Census table above; when you need a cultural shorthand, use the label on the state page.

Common points of confusion

• Is Texas "South" or "Southwest"? Officially, Census South. Informally, often "Southwest" or "Texas-and-the-South". Both are in use.
• Is Maryland in the South? In Census data, yes. Culturally, most people treat it as Mid-Atlantic, not Deep South.
• Is Missouri in the South? In Census data, no — it is Midwest. But it sits on the boundary culturally, and several Civil War histories place it with the South.
• Is Hawaii in the West? In the Census and BEA, yes — it is Pacific/Far West. Hawaii is geographically thousands of miles from the mainland West, but statistically grouped with it.
• Where does DC go? Not a state, but the Census and BEA both place DC with the South / Mideast respectively. It appears in regional totals alongside states.

A checklist when a region looks "wrong"

1. Check whether the source is using Census, BEA, or an informal grouping.
2. For federal demographic and population data, Census regions are the default.
3. For federal economic data (GDP, income), BEA regions are the default.
4. For cultural or media use, treat "region" as informal and check the source's definition.
5. When in doubt, quote the state directly rather than the region — it avoids the ambiguity entirely.

Keep exploring

From here, you can browse the full directory of states, look up a single state's profile (for example Texas, California, or New York), compare states side-by-side with the state comparison tool, or see the state capitals reference. If you are looking at geography rather than population, the climate zones map and time zones map show the country sliced in very different ways.