image:Map of USA Midwest.svg [[image:Censuelve states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. A 2006 Census Bureau estimate put the population at 66,217,736. Both the Geographic Center of the Contiguous United States.

Chicago is the largest city in the region, followed by Detroit and Indianapolis. Sault Ste. Marie is the oldest city in the region, having been founded in 1668.

The term Midwest has been in common use for over 100 years. Other designations for the region have fallen into disuse, such as the "Northwest" or "Old Northwest" (from Northwest Territory) and "Mid-America". Since the book Middletown appeared in 1929, sociologists have often used Midwestern cities (and the Midwest generally) as "typical" of the entire nation. The region has a higher employment-to-population ratio (the percentage of employed people at least 16 years old) than the Northeast, the West, the South, or the Sun Belt states.

Definition

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Traditional definitions of the Midwest include the Northwest Ordinance "Old Northwest" states and many states that were part of the Louisiana Purchase. The states of the Old Northwest are also known as "Great Lakes states." Many of the Louisiana Purchase states are also known as "Great Plains states."

The North Central Region is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as these 12 states:

• Illinois: Old Northwest, Ohio River, and Great Lakes state.
• Indiana: Old Northwest, Ohio River, and Great Lakes state.
• Iowa: Louisiana Purchase, Great Plains state.
• Kansas: Louisiana Purchase, Border state, Great Plains state.
• Michigan: Old Northwest and Great Lakes state.
• Minnesota: Old Northwest and Great Lakes state; western part Louisiana Purchase.
• Missouri: Louisiana Purchase, Border state, Great Plains state.
• Nebraska: Louisiana Purchase, Great Plains state.
• North Dakota: Louisiana Purchase, Great Plains state.
• Ohio: Old Northwest (Historic Connecticut Western Reserve), Ohio River, and Great Lakes state. Also a Northeastern Appalachian state in the southeast.
• South Dakota: Louisiana Purchase, Great Plains state.
• Wisconsin: Old Northwest and Great Lakes state.

Physical geography

These states are relatively flat. That is true of several areas, but there is a measure of geographical variation. In particular, the eastern Midwest, lying near the foothills of the Appalachians, the Great Lakes Basin, and the Driftless Area of southwest Wisconsin, southeast Minnesota, and northeast Iowa demonstrate a high degree of topographical variety. Prairies cover most of the states west of the Mississippi River with the exception of central Minnesota and the Ozark Mountains of southern Missouri. Illinois lies within an area called the "prairie peninsula", an eastward extension of prairies that borders deciduous forests to the north, east, and south. Rainfall decreases from east to west, resulting in different types of prairies, with the tallgrass prairie in the wetter eastern region, mixed-grass prairie in the central Great Plains, and shortgrass prairie towards the rain shadow of the Rockies. Today, these three prairie types largely correspond to the corn/soybean area, the wheat belt, and the western rangelands, respectively. Although hardwood forests in the northern Midwest were logged to extinction in the late 1800s, they were replaced by new growth. The majority of the Midwest can now be categorized as urbanized areas or pastoral agricultural areas.