This is a list of some of the ways regions are defined in the United States. Many regions are defined in law or regulations by the federal government; others by shared culture and history, and others by economic factors.
Since 1950, the United States Census Bureau defines four statistical regions, with nine divisions. [1] [2] The Census Bureau region definition is "widely used ... for data collection and analysis", [3] and is the most commonly used classification system. [4] [5] [6] [7]
Puerto Rico and other US territories are not part of any census region or census division. [9]
The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 divided the country into twelve districts with a central Federal Reserve Bank in each district. These twelve Federal Reserve Banks together form a major part of the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States. Missouri is the only U.S. state to have two Federal Reserve locations within its borders, but several other states are also divided between more than one district.
The Federal Circuit is not a regional circuit. Its jurisdiction is nationwide but based on the subject matter.
In 1969, the Office of Management and Budget published a list of ten "Standard Federal Regions", [11] to which Federal agencies could be restructured as a means of standardizing government administration nationwide. Despite a finding in 1977 that this restructuring did not reduce administrative costs as initially expected, [12] and the complete rescinding of the standard region system in 1995, [13] several agencies continue to follow the system, including the Environmental Protection Agency [14] and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. [15]
Office location: Boston
States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont
Office location: New York City
States: New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands
Office location: Philadelphia
States: Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia
Office location: Atlanta
States: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee
Office location: Chicago
States: Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin
Office location: Dallas
States: Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas
Office location: Kansas City
Office location: Denver
States: Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming
Office location: San Francisco
States: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Guam, and American Samoa
Office location: Seattle
States: Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington
The Bureau of Economic Analysis defines regions for comparison of economic data. [16]
Connecticut has 9 official planning regions. These regions operate as councils of governments, and are recognized as county equivalents by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Some of Connecticut's informal regions include:
"Upstate" or "Up North"
"Slower Lower"
Directional regions
Local vernacular regions
Regions shared with other states:
Wisconsin can be divided into five geographic regions.
The geography of Alabama describes a state in the Southeastern United States in North America. It extends from high mountains to low valleys and sandy beaches. Alabama is 30th in size and borders four U.S. states: Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. It also borders the Gulf of Mexico.
The term "United States," when used in the geographical sense, refers to the contiguous United States, the state of Alaska, the island state of Hawaii, the five insular territories of Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa, and minor outlying possessions. The United States shares land borders with Canada and Mexico and maritime borders with Russia, Cuba, The Bahamas, and many other countries, mainly in the Caribbeanin addition to Canada and Mexico. The northern border of the United States with Canada is the world's longest bi-national land border.
The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America. Here, the term "Appalachian" refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range, and its surrounding terrain. The general definition used is one followed by the US Geological Survey and the Geologic Survey of Canada to describe the respective countries' physiographic regions. The US uses the term Appalachian Highlands and Canada uses the term Appalachian Uplands..
The Western United States is the region comprising the westernmost U.S. states. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term the West changed. Before around 1800, the crest of the Appalachian Mountains was seen as the western frontier. The frontier moved westward and eventually the lands west of the Mississippi River were considered the West.
The Nine Nations of North America is a 1981 book by Joel Garreau, in which the author suggests that North America can be divided into nine nations, which have distinctive economic and cultural features. He also argues that conventional national and state borders are largely artificial and irrelevant, and that his "nations" provide a more accurate way of understanding the true nature of North American society. The work has been called "a classic text on the current regionalization of North America".
The Pacific Coast Ranges are the series of mountain ranges that stretch along the West Coast of North America from Alaska south to Northern and Central Mexico. Although they are commonly thought to be the westernmost mountain range of the continental United States and Canada, the geologically distinct Insular Mountains of Vancouver Island lie farther west.
The territory of the United States and its overseas possessions has evolved over time, from the colonial era to the present day. It includes formally organized territories, proposed and failed states, unrecognized breakaway states, international and interstate purchases, cessions, and land grants, and historical military departments and administrative districts. The last section lists informal regions from American vernacular geography known by popular nicknames and linked by geographical, cultural, or economic similarities, some of which are still in use today.
West Texas is a loosely defined region in the U.S. state of Texas, generally encompassing the arid and semiarid lands west of a line drawn between the cities of Wichita Falls, Abilene, and Del Rio.
The Gulf Coastal Plain extends around the Gulf of Mexico in the Southern United States and eastern Mexico.
The North American Cordillera, sometimes also called the Western Cordillera of North America, the Western Cordillera or the Pacific Cordillera, is the North American portion of the American Cordillera, the mountain chain system (cordillera) along the western coast of the Americas. The North American Cordillera covers an extensive area of mountain ranges, intermontane basins and plateaus in Western/Northwestern Canada, Western United States and Mexico, including much of the territory west of the Great Plains.
USA Volleyball (USAV) is a non-profit organization which is recognized as the national governing body of volleyball in the United States by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). It is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and was founded by the YMCA of the USA. The organization is responsible for selecting and supporting US national teams that compete in FIVB-sanctioned international volleyball and beach volleyball competitions such as the Olympic Summer Games. USA Volleyball is also charged with fostering the development of the sport of volleyball within the United States through involvement with its forty Regional Volleyball Associations (RVAs).
The geography of Texas is diverse and large. Occupying about 7% of the total water and land area of the U.S., it is the second largest state after Alaska, and is the southernmost part of the Great Plains, which end in the south against the folded Sierra Madre Oriental of Mexico. Texas is in the South Central United States of America, and is considered to form part of the U.S. South and also part of the U.S. Southwest.
The Unitarian Universalist Association, an association of Unitarian Universalist Congregations in the United States of America, is composed of 19 Districts.
North America is the third largest continent, and is also a portion of the third largest supercontinent if North and South America are combined into the Americas and Africa, Europe, and Asia are considered to be part of one supercontinent called Afro-Eurasia. With an estimated population of 580 million and an area of 24,709,000 km2 (9,540,000 mi2), the northernmost of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere is bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west; the Atlantic Ocean on the east; the Caribbean Sea on the south; and the Arctic Ocean on the north.
The Mountain states form one of the nine geographic divisions of the United States that are officially recognized by the United States Census Bureau. It is a subregion of the Western United States.
The 2011–12 North American winter by and large saw above normal average temperatures across North America, with the Contiguous United States encountering its fourth-warmest winter on record, along with an unusually low number of significant winter precipitation events. The primary outlier was Alaska, parts of which experienced their coldest January on record.