East North Central States
The
East North Central States form one of the nine geographic divisions within the
United States which are officially recognized by the
United States Census Bureau.
The division contains five states:
Illinois,
Indiana,
Michigan,
Ohio, and
Wisconsin. It is one of two divisions used to categorize the
region of the U.S. archaically called the "
Midwest"; the other such division is the
West North Central States (The Great Plains States). The region closely matches the area of the
Northwest Territory.
The East North Central division is strongly identified with the
Rust Belt, although the latter also encompasses upstate
New York and western
Pennsylvania, and Northeastern Ohio along with the
Northern Panhandle of
West Virginia. Other alternate names for the division include the
Great Lakes Region (again, shared with upstate New York and western Pennsylvania, and also a small part of
Minnesota), the "Mideast," and the "North Coast," offered up as a non-pejorative substitute for "Rust Belt" and alluding to the fact that the Great Lakes provide access to the
Atlantic Ocean via either the
St. Lawrence Seaway or a combination of the
New York State Barge Canal and the
Hudson River (indeed,
Chicago, the division's largest city, is by far the largest fresh-water port in the
United States, and one of the largest such ports in the entire world).
