East North Central States

Encyclopedia : E : EA : EAS : 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).

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