You might think you know where the Midwest is, but, turns out, it's a pretty subjective question. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 12 states in the American Midwest. They include Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
However, in a 2023 poll by the University of Nebraska and Emerson College, the people living in Oklahoma and Wyoming also said they think of themselves as Midwesterners. The most Midwestern state, according to the poll, turned out to be Iowa. 96.7% of the people there think of themselves as Midwesterners.
And in Ohio, which the U.S. Census Bureau officially counts as part of the Midwest, only 73.8% of the respondents said they "live in the Midwest."
As Jon K. Lauck, editor of Middle West Review, notes, there are nuances to what is the Midwest. "The western parts of the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas are sort of the West. The southern tier of counties in Ohio, are Appalachia.
"The southern half of Missouri is quite southern. So there are some nuances it's important to take notice of. That's what the historians and social scientists involved in Midwestern history are sorting out and making more clear," he explained.
But wait a minute, what does "west" even have to do with this region? Isn't this technically the center of America, in between the West and the East Coast regions? Well, the term "Midwest" comes from the time when all the territories west of the Mississippi but in between the North and South were considered the West.
Some claim that you'll know the Midwest when you see it. As Jacob K. Friefeld, a research historian at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum writes, "People may not agree on where to find the Midwest, but they generally agree on what you'll find there."
And the idea of the Midwest in most Americans' minds is one of a pastoral paradise. A simple place where everyone knows their neighbors and farm fields sprawl as far as the eye can see. That's why people call it the Heartland of America: it helped form the agricultural and economic foundation that the country is built on.
But being from the Midwest is not just about geography. Being a Midwesterner is a cultural identifier too. Many say that state fairs are the quintessential part of the American Midwest. In 2015, USA Today named the Minnesota State Fair as the very best, with Iowa taking second place.
