The State Similarity Index attempts to quantify how similar American states are to each other relative to other states. The index is a statistically-based way to measure this. It weighs equally five major aspects of states: their demographics, culture, politics, infrastructure, and geography. The methodology is exactly the same for each state.
The data from the State Similarity Index was used to cluster American states into different regions. Some unique states, like Alaska and Hawaii, are very difficult to group with other states. Therefore, it was necessary to make the largest regions still have a great deal of variation within them. This resulted in 6 distinct macro-regions and 12 different sub-regions, since there are still some significant differences within them.
The states in each region and their individual pages are as follows:
Alaska
Northeast
North New England
— Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont
BosWash
— Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, East Pennsylvania
— Delaware, Maryland
West
Rocky Mountain
— Idaho, Montana, Wyoming
— Colorado
— Utah
Pacific Coast
— Oregon, Washington
— California
Southwest
— Arizona, Nevada
— New Mexico
Midwest
Great Lakes
— Illinois, Indiana,Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, West Pennsylvania, Wisconsin
Great Plains
— Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, North Missouri
South
Florida
— Florida
South Central
— Texas, Oklahoma
Southeast
— Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, South Missouri, Mississippi, Tennessee
— Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia
— West Virginia
Hawaii
It is hoped that this study has created a more rigorous and logical map of the United States by region than any previously created. More information on the similarities of each region to follow in later articles.
A larger, high resolution version of the United States regions map:
