How do you define the Midwest?

[Scott5114]

That's a pretty good question for the "Great Plains is not the Midwest" crowd—what exactly is the difference supposed to be between Kansas and Indiana, anyhow?

[freebrickproductions]

That's a pretty good question for the "Great Plains is not the Midwest" crowd—what exactly is the difference supposed to be between Kansas and Indiana, anyhow?

Honestly, to me, I always mentally associated Indiana and other more directly "Midwestern" states around it as being part of the Rust Belt, but not so much the Plains states.

[Scott5114]

That's a pretty good question for the "Great Plains is not the Midwest" crowd—what exactly is the difference supposed to be between Kansas and Indiana, anyhow?

Honestly, to me, I always mentally associated Indiana and other more directly "Midwestern" states around it as being part of the Rust Belt, but not so much the Plains states.

The Kansas City and Indianapolis metropolitan areas lost roughly the same number of manufacturing jobs between 1954 and 2002.

West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and upstate New York are generally considered part of the Rust Belt, but are clearly not Midwestern.