West North Central States
The
West North Central States form one of the nine geographic divisions within the
United States that are officially recognized by that country's
census bureau.
Seven states comprise the division:
Iowa,
Kansas,
Minnesota,
Missouri,
Nebraska,
North Dakota and
South Dakota, and it makes up the western half of the
United States Census Bureau's larger
region of the
Midwest, the eastern half of which consists of the
East North Central States of
Illinois,
Indiana,
Michigan,
Ohio and
Wisconsin. The
Mississippi River marks the bulk of the boundary between these two divisions.
Where the East North Central States are seen as being synonymous (though not absolutely coterminous) with the
Rust Belt by the vast majority of Americans, the West North Central States are regarded as constituting the core of the nation's "Farm Belt." Almost all of the territory contained within the West North Central division falls into what
Joel Garreau called
The Breadbasket in his
1981 book
The Nine Nations of North America, and what
James Patterson and
Peter Kim labelled the
Granary in their similarly-themed work
The Day America Told The Truth (the only exception being southern Missouri, placed in
Dixie by Garreau and
Old Dixie by Patterson and Kim). Another name popularly applied to the division is the "Agricultural Heartland," or simply the "Heartland."
Beginning in the early
1990s, the West North Central division has consistently had the lowest
unemployment rate in the
United States (especially in its many college towns), and has also been noted for its plentiful supply of affordable
housing.
