19 4.5 Regions of the United States and Canada
Learning Objectives
- Name the key characteristics of the regions of the United States and Canada.
- Understand the patterns of population growth or decline for the various regions.
- Determine which regions have significant minority groups and why.
- Examine the environmental and social costs to rapid growth in the West.
- Explain how physical geography has contributed to economic activities.
The Northeastern Core
The Northeastern Core includes the upper Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan); the mid-Atlantic states of Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, and New Jersey plus northern Virginia; and the southern New England states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. It also includes southern Ontario, Canada’s capital (Ottawa), and its largest city (Toronto). The physical environments of the Northeastern Core are quite diverse, including the northern Gulf-Atlantic Coastal Plain, the northern Appalachians, and the area surrounding the Great Lakes. This region, anchored by North America’s largest metropolis, New York, is the economic heart of the United States and Canada and home to more than a third of each country’s population. The megalopolis—the built-up area from Washington, DC, to Boston—is part of this region. The core region contains the Manufacturing/Rust Belt, which was once the main manufacturing region for North America but suffered decline with the advent of the information age. The core region hosts the headquarters of countless corporations, banks, financial markets (e.g., Wall Street), universities (from community colleges to the Ivy League), cultural institutions (e.g., Broadway, world-class museums, dance and music organizations), and even global organizations such as the United Nations.
This large region includes geographic swaths of both wealth and economic suffering. Eight of the United States’ ten wealthiest counties are in this region, most of them in the Washington, DC, area, and a number of billionaires live in New York City. Meanwhile, cities such as Detroit and Cleveland have suffered from deindustrialization and have experienced a major population decline since the 1950s. Detroit, for instance, has lost 61 percent of its population since 1950, and the decline continues. The city decreased in population by 25 percent just between 2000 and 2010. While manufacturing is not dead in the Northeastern Core, heavy industry has been in long-term decline.
New England and the Canadian Maritimes
New England and the Canadian Maritimes overlap with the Northeastern Core because its major city—Boston—is considered the northern edge of the megalopolis. South of Boston, the low-lying states of New England were the center of colonial settlement in the region and were the birthplace of America’s Industrial Revolution. Southern New England began as an agricultural and fishing colony, and as industry developed in the nineteenth century, the region attracted European immigrants