Midwestern United States

The Midwestern United States, also called the Midwest or the Heartland, is one of the four main regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It covers the northern central part of the country, lying between the Northeastern United States and the Western United States, with Canada to the north and the Southern United States to the south.

The Midwest consists of 12 states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. As of the 2020 United States census, about 69 million people live in the Midwest. The land is mostly flat and lies between the Appalachian Mountain range and the Rocky Mountain range. Important rivers include the Ohio River, the upper Mississippi River, and the Missouri River.

Chicago is the largest city in the Midwest and the third-largest in the United States. Other big cities include Columbus, Indianapolis, Detroit, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Omaha, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Paul, and St. Louis. The Midwest’s economy mixes industry and farming, especially in areas known as the Corn Belt. Its central location makes it a key hub for transportation. The region includes important “swing states,” making it very influential in elections.

The West

The word West was used to describe areas far from the Atlantic coast in early times, when people in British America did not know much about the Pacific seaboard. By the early 1800s, any place west of the Appalachians was called the American frontier. Over time, the frontier moved west of the Mississippi River. During this time, French settlers lived in areas around the Missouri River and the Illinois River, calling the place the Illinois Country. In 1787, a law called the Northwest Ordinance created the Northwest Territory, which was between the Great Lakes and the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Some places in the Midwest still have "Northwest" in their names because of this history, like Northwestern University in Illinois.

People also called this area the Heartland and sometimes used the word Midwest to talk about places like Kansas and Nebraska.

Prehistory

Precolumbian

Main article: Mississippian culture

Among the Native Americans, the earliest people in North America were the Paleo-American cultures. They lived in the Great Plains and Great Lakes areas from about 12,000 BCE to around 8,000 BCE.

After this came the Archaic period (8,000 BCE to 1,000 BCE), the Woodland Tradition (1,000 BCE to 100 CE), and the Mississippian Period (900 to 1500 CE). Evidence shows that Mississippian culture began near St. Louis, Missouri and spread along rivers. They lived along river floodplains and grew crops like maize, beans, and squash. They also hunted and fished.

The Mississippians built large mounds and had a big drop in population around 1400, likely due to climate change. Their culture ended before 1492.

Great Lakes Native Americans

The Great Lakes area was home to many tribes, including the Huron, Ottawa, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and others. They spoke different languages and lived in various ways. Some were hunters, while others farmed. They made tools from stone and wood and lived in wigwams that could be moved easily.

Tribes traded with each other over long distances. They believed in different spiritual ideas, like the Great Spirit or sky beings.

Great Plains Indians

Main article: Plains Indians

The Plains Indians lived on the Great Plains. They are famous for their culture and conflicts with settlers. Some tribes moved with the buffalo herds, while others lived in villages and farmed. They used teepees for their homes because they could be taken down and moved easily.

The buffalo was very important to them for food, clothing, and tools. They followed the buffalo as they moved and used horses after they were introduced by the Spanish. The Dakota or Sioux were one of the most powerful groups, living in large areas of the Great Plains.

History

European exploration and early settlement

The Middle Ground theory

The idea of the middle ground was introduced in Richard White’s book, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815. White describes the middle ground as a place between different cultures and empires, where Native American allies of empires lived. It was located between the lands around the northern Great Lakes and south to the Ohio River. This area included modern Midwestern states such as Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan, as well as parts of Canada.

The middle ground developed from agreements and shared understandings between the French and Native Americans. Over time, these relationships weakened as the French lost influence after wars and sold their land.

New France

Main article: New France

European settlement in this area began in the 1600s after French explorers arrived. It became known as New France, which included the Illinois Country. French exploration started with Jacques Cartier’s journey down the Saint Lawrence River in 1534 and ended when France gave most of its North American lands to Great Britain in 1763.

Mapping the Mississippi River

Main articles: Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet

In 1673, the Governor of New France sent Jacques Marquette, a priest, and Louis Jolliet, a fur trader, to find a route to the Pacific Ocean. They traveled through Michigan’s upper peninsula and across Lake Michigan, reaching Green Bay, Wisconsin. They then entered the Mississippi River on June 17, 1673.

Marquette and Jolliet were the first to map the northern part of the Mississippi River. They discovered that traveling from the St. Lawrence River through the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico was possible. They also found that the local people were friendly and that the land had many natural resources. After their journey, French leaders built a network of fur trading posts.

Fur trade

Main article: North American fur trade

The fur trade was very important in the early relationships between Europeans and Native Americans. It was the basis for their interactions and changed over time.

Goods traded often included guns, clothing, blankets, tobacco, silver, and alcohol.

France

Main article: Louisiana (New France)

The French and Native Americans exchanged goods in a way that felt like giving gifts rather than trading. These “gifts” were important for maintaining friendships and alliances. The French were seen as family leaders, and Native Americans were expected to help and obey them. Traders called voyageurs and coureur des bois visited Native villages to keep these relationships strong.

Marriage also became important, especially when the fur trade was difficult. French traders sometimes married Native American women to stay safe and successful. Native American women played a key role in processing animal skins for the fur trade, and their work was highly valued.

Britain

Main article: Indian Reserve (1763)

English traders entered the Ohio country in the late 1600s, competing with the French. They often offered better goods and prices, which helped them gain Native American support. However, after Britain won the Seven Years’ War and took control from France, they changed their approach. They stopped giving gifts, raised prices, and reduced trade in rum, causing unrest. This tension led to Pontiac’s War in 1763. After the conflict, Britain made compromises to restore trade relationships.

American settlement

Main article: American frontier § New Nation

Although France lost control in 1763, many French settlers stayed in small villages along the Mississippi River. Spain took control of Louisiana west of the Mississippi, with main towns like St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve in Missouri. In 1800, France briefly regained Louisiana from Spain but sold it to the United States in 1803 due to losses in the Haitian Revolution and defense concerns. American settlement began using routes over the Appalachian Mountains or through the Great Lakes waterways. Fort Pitt, now Pittsburgh, became a key base for settlers moving west. Marietta, Ohio, was the first settlement in Ohio in 1787, but large-scale settlement only began after Native American tribes were defeated in 1794. Many settlers came north from Kentucky into southern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

The region’s rich soil produced corn and vegetables, allowing most farmers to be self-sufficient. Settlers cut down trees to claim land, sold it to newcomers, and moved further west to repeat the process.

Squatters

Main articles: Northwest Territory and Squatting in the United States

Settlers without legal land claims, known as “squatters,” moved into the Midwest before 1776. They traveled down the Ohio River during the 1760s and 1770s, sometimes clashing with Native Americans. British officials disliked them, calling them lawless and hard to control. After the American Revolution, the new government considered removing squatters from federal lands. In 1785, soldiers destroyed crops and homes of squatters in the Ohio country. Federal policy aimed to move Native Americans west and allow many farmers to settle. Over time, squatters became pioneers and were allowed to buy the land they settled on through various laws in the 1810s–1840s.

Native American wars

Main article: American Indian Wars

In 1791, General Arthur St. Clair led a U.S. Army expedition near Fort Recovery, but they were defeated badly by a group of Native American tribes led by Miami Chief Little Turtle and Shawnee chief Blue Jacket. This battle, known as St. Clair’s Defeat, was the worst loss for the U.S. Army by Native Americans.

After the War of 1812, Britain stopped supporting Native American allies, leaving them to face the United States alone. Except for a short conflict in 1832, major Native American warfare east of the Mississippi River ended.

Lewis and Clark

Main article: Lewis and Clark Expedition

In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark on an expedition from May 1804 to September 1806 to explore the Louisiana Purchase and establish trade and U.S. control along the Missouri River. They traveled from Camp Dubois in Illinois and returned to St. Louis in 1806.

Party politics

The Midwest became an important area for national elections, with closely contested states often deciding the outcome. From 1860 to 1920, both major political parties sought candidates from the region.

The Republican Party began in the Midwest in the 1850s, with its first local meeting in Ripon, Wisconsin, and first statewide meeting in Jackson, Michigan. Many members were Yankees from New England and New York who settled in the upper Midwest. The party opposed the expansion of slavery and promoted Protestant values like hard work, self-reliance, and democracy.

In the early 1890s, wheat-growing areas supported the Populist movement. Starting in the 1890s, the urban middle class Progressive movement grew strong in the region, with Wisconsin as a key leader. Under the La Follettes, Wisconsin fought for efficiency, modernization, and solving social problems.

Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressive Party did well in states like Michigan, Minnesota, and South Dakota in 1912. In 1924, La Follette’s Progressive Party carried Wisconsin. The Midwest has often supported isolationism, a belief against getting involved in foreign affairs, influenced by German American and Swedish American communities. Isolationist leaders included the La Follettes, Ohio’s Robert A. Taft, and Colonel Robert McCormick of the Chicago Tribune.

Yankees and ethnocultural politics

Main article: Indiana Territory

Yankee settlers from New England arrived in Ohio before 1800 and spread through the northern Midwest. They started as farmers but later moved to towns and cities as business leaders and professionals. Chicago grew to dominate the Midwestern cities over the past century.

Historian John Bunker studied Yankee settlers in the Midwest and noted that they brought New England traditions, values, and customs. They emphasized hard work, private property, responsibility, practical living, religion, public order, education, honest government, and town meetings. They saw themselves as morally right and felt duty-bound to set standards for behavior.

Midwestern politics often had conflicts between Yankees and groups like German Catholics and Lutherans, often led by Irish Catholics. These groups shared values like hard work and community spirit but differed on economic matters and opposed government control of personal habits. Southern and eastern European immigrants tended to align more with Germanic views, while modernization and industrialization changed everyone’s sense of responsibility.

Development of transportation

Waterways

Three waterways were crucial for the Midwest’s development. The Ohio River, flowing into the Mississippi River, was the most important. Spain’s control of the southern Mississippi blocked American trade until Pinckney’s Treaty in 1795.

The second was the Great Lakes network. The Erie Canal, opened in 1825, created a direct water route to New York City. The Illinois and Michigan Canal, completed in 1848, connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi Valley and the Gulf of Mexico. Lake and river cities grew to support these routes. During the Industrial Revolution, the lakes carried iron ore from Minnesota to steel mills in the Mid-Atlantic. The Saint Lawrence Seaway, finished in 1959, linked the Midwest to the Atlantic Ocean.

The third was the Missouri River, which extended water travel nearly to the Rocky Mountains.

In the 1870s and 1880s, the Mississippi River inspired Mark Twain’s books Life on the Mississippi and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain’s hometown, Hannibal, Missouri, is a tourist spot showing the Midwest of his time.

Canals in Ohio and Indiana connected to Great Lakes and Ohio River traffic, helping New York City grow wealthier than Boston and Philadelphia.

Railroads and the automobile

The Midwest got its first railroads in the mid-1800s, with Chicago becoming the world’s largest railroad hub. By 1910, over 20 railroads served six downtown terminals in Chicago. Today, six major railroads still meet there.

From 1890 to 1930, many Midwestern cities had electric interurban railroads, more than any other region. Ohio had 2,798 miles in 1916, and Indiana had 1,825 miles, making up almost a third of the country’s interurban tracks. Indianapolis was the largest interurban center. In the early 1900s, population growth in Indianapolis was largely due to interurbans.

Competition from cars and buses hurt interurbans and other passenger rail services. By 1900, Detroit was the world’s auto center, and cities within 200 miles produced auto parts for its factories.

In 1903, Henry Ford started the Ford Motor Company. Automotive leaders like William C. Durant, the Dodge brothers, Packard, and Walter Chrysler made Detroit the global automotive capital. This growth led to garages, gas stations, and factories for parts and tires. Greater Detroit still homes General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford today.

American Civil War

Main article: American Civil War

Slavery prohibition and the Underground Railroad

The Northwest Ordinance area, the heart of the Midwest, was the first large U.S. region to ban slavery. The Ohio River was the boundary between free and slave states. The Midwest, especially Ohio, was a main route for the Underground Railroad, helping enslaved people escape to freedom via the Ohio River and Lake Erie to Canada. Operating from the early 1800s and peaking from 1850 to 1860, the Underground Railroad included meeting points, secret paths, transportation, and safe houses run by abolitionist supporters. Escaped individuals often traveled in small groups to keep secrets. They usually moved on foot or by wagon, sometimes using boats or trains.

The region was shaped by the lack of slavery (except in Missouri), pioneer settlement, education in public schools, democratic ideas from Revolutionary War veterans, Protestant faiths, experimentation, and agricultural wealth moved by riverboats, flatboats, canal boats, and railroads.

Bleeding Kansas

Main article: Bleeding Kansas

The first violent conflicts before the Civil War happened between Kansas and Missouri, with anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery “Border Ruffians” fighting over whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free or slave state. This conflict, called “Bleeding Kansas,” lasted from 1854 to 1858. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 created Kansas and Nebraska territories, allowed settlers to decide on slavery through popular sovereignty, and repealed the Missouri Compromise. This led to massive immigration by activists from both sides. Kansas had two governments at one point, but only one was federally recognized. On January 29, 1861, Kansas became a free state, less than three months before the Civil War began.

On May 21, 1856, a pro-slavery group from Missouri attacked the Free Soil town of Lawrence, Kansas. In response, abolitionist John Brown and his followers killed five men along Pottawatomie Creek. Skirmishes continued until a new governor persuaded Missourians to leave in late 1856.

National reactions showed the country’s deep divisions. The South praised the Border Ruffians, while the North largely ignored Brown’s actions. The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 finally triggered Southern secession.

The federal government was backed by 20 Northern free states and five slave states known as border states. All Midwestern states except Missouri banned slavery. Most battles were in the South, but fighting between Kansas and Missouri continued until the Lawrence Massacre on August 21, 1863, when Quantrill’s Raiders attacked Lawrence, killing over 150 and burning buildings.

Immigration and industrialization

Main articles: Immigrants to the United States and Industrialization

By the Civil War, European immigrants settled directly in the interior, with Germans in states like Ohio, Wisconsin, and Illinois; Irish in Great Lakes port cities like Cleveland and Chicago; Danes, Czechs, Swedes, and Norwegians in Iowa, Nebraska, and the Dakotas; and Finns in Upper Michigan and northern Minnesota. Poles, Hungarians, and Jews settled in Midwestern cities.

The U.S. was mostly rural during the Civil War, with the Midwest full of small farms. The late 19th century brought industrialization, immigration, and urbanization, driving the Industrial Revolution, centered in the Great Lakes states until its decline in the late 20th century.

A growing economy attracted rural residents and immigrants. Manufacturing, retail, and finance became dominant, shaping the American economy.

Printing, publishing, and food processing also became important in the Midwest’s economy. Chicago was a base for industrialists who built Midwestern and global industry. John D. Rockefeller made his fortune in Cleveland, and by the late 19th century, Cleveland had many millionaires on Millionaire’s Row.

In the 20th century, African American migration from the Southern United States changed cities like Chicago, St. Louis, and Detroit, offering new opportunities.

The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, built in the shape of an arch, is the tallest U.S. monument and symbolizes westward expansion. It is the centerpiece of Gateway Arch National Park, formerly Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, and is a famous St. Louis landmark.

German Americans

Main article: German American

As the Midwest opened to settlement via waterways and rail in the mid-1800s, Germans settled there in large numbers. Nearly six million Germans immigrated to the U.S. between 1820 and World War I, with the largest wave from 1840 to 1880. Cities like Milwaukee, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Chicago were popular destinations. By 1900, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Hoboken, and Cincinnati were over 40% German American. Dubuque and Davenport, Iowa, had even higher percentages, and Omaha, Nebraska, was 57% German American in 1910. Many other Midwestern cities had at least 30% German Americans.

Milwaukee was known as “the German Athens,” with Germans leading politics, crafts, and brewing industries like Pabst, Schlitz, Miller, and Blatz.

Half of German immigrants settled in cities, while the other half farmed the Midwest. From Ohio to the Plains, German Americans remained a strong presence in rural areas into the 21st century. Western railroads helped Germans become farmers, offering land and cheap transport.

Politics 1860s–1920s

The Midwest was a battleground for political and economic issues after the Civil War, with voters splitting along ethnic and religious lines. Movements like temperance, Greenback, and populism gained support, with pietists backing Republicans and ritualists supporting Democrats. Prohibition was a big issue, with groups like the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and Anti-Saloon League starting in the region. Most Midwestern states ratified the 18th Amendment, but the Midwest also resisted Prohibition, with ethnic, urban Catholic, and German Lutheran voters wanting repeal while rural Protestant Midwesterners opposed it.

Women

The presence of women in Midwest public life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries matched growing movements for women’s rights and prohibition. Women’s activism often grew from their domestic roles. Activists used the Women’s Christian Temperance Union’s fight against alcohol to push for voting rights. Midwestern states granted women voting rights before the 19th Amendment, led by Carrie Chapman Catt from Iowa. The 1970s feminist movement also began in the Midwest, with Betty Friedan from Illinois writing The Feminine Mystique in 1963. Economic needs and career desires also brought women into jobs outside the home, especially in teaching and nursing.

Workers and populists

The Midwest saw labor unrest against the capitalist economy. Chicago was key in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. In 1886, labor leaders held a protest at Haymarket Square in Chicago, where a bomb was thrown, leading to convictions of eight anarchists for murder in the Haymarket affair. The Pullman Strike of 1894 shut down much rail traffic in the Midwest and West, turned violent, and was stopped by federal troops. Eugene V. Debs, leader of the American Railway Union, went to prison and later supported Socialism. His ideas appealed to some immigrants but were too extreme for most Midwesterners.

Farmers distrusted big businesses and used cooperatives like the Grange in the 1870s or the Farmers’ Alliance in the 1890s. They wanted farmer-controlled cooperatives, lower rail rates, and silver money to raise prices. The Alliance created the Populist Party in 1892, which had success in wheat and mining areas but merged with the Democrats in 1896 to support William Jennings Bryan. Leftwing rural politics continued in the 20th century in the Dakotas and Minnesota with the Farmer–Labor Party.

1920s

The second Ku Klux Klan rose in the Midwest in the early 1920s, driven by fears against immigrants and Catholics. The KKK was a local group with independent chapters that had little effect on laws. Members wanted to enforce vice laws, especially Prohibition, which many immigrants broke. The Klan peaked in Indiana, where the governor had ties to the group. However, Indiana Klan chapters collapsed after a scandal involving the leader in the abduction and murder of a young woman. The Klan reflected a desire to conform.

Middletown (actually Muncie, Indiana) was the basis for a major sociological study by Robert S. Lynd. The book showed a strong business class promoting civic pride, patriotism, and voting the same ticket, while discouraging activism and dissent.

Progressive Era

Main article: Progressive Era

The problems of industrialization led to the Progressive movement, aiming to fix its harms through social reform and government rules. Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr started Hull House in Chicago in 1889 to help new immigrants. Settlement houses offered services and helped with civic life, naturalization, and government services. Midwestern mayors like Hazen S. Pingree and Tom L. Johnson led early reforms against boss-controlled city politics, while Samuel M. Jones supported public ownership of utilities. Robert M. La Follette began by defeating his state’s Republican party in 1900. The “Wisconsin idea” of expanded democracy included reforms like direct primaries, campaign finance controls, civil service, lobbyist limits, taxes, child labor laws, food safety, and workers’ compensation. La Follette pushed for government control of railroads, utilities, factories, and banks. Though he lost national influence in 1912, Wisconsin’s reforms became a model for other states.

Geography

Main articles: Geography of Illinois, Geography of Indiana, Geography of Iowa, Geography of Kansas, Geography of Michigan, Geography of Minnesota, Geography of Missouri, Geography of Nebraska, Geography of North Dakota, Geography of Ohio, Geography of South Dakota, and Geography of Wisconsin

The Midwest has many different landscapes. In the east, near the Appalachian Mountains, the land is hilly. Near the Great Lakes, there are also hills and forests. In Minnesota, there are rocky areas from long-ago glaciers. In the south, the Ozark Mountains are hilly too. In southwest Wisconsin, southeast Minnesota, northeast Iowa, and northwest Illinois, there is an area called the Driftless Area with deep valleys.

As you move west, the land becomes flatter. This flat land is great for farming and growing food. Most of the eastern two-thirds of the Midwest is flat and low, called the Interior Lowlands. Further west, the land rises and becomes the Great Plains, which are higher and more open.

The Midwest has many rivers, including the big Mississippi River. These rivers help shape the land. Rain falls more in the east and less in the west, so the plants and animals change. In the east, there are tall grasses, while in the west, the grass is shorter.

Definitions

"Lake states" and "Plains states" redirect here. For the geographic regions, see Great Lakes region and Great Plains.

People have used the words Midwestern and Midwest to talk about this part of the United States since the 1880s. The Midwest includes states from the old Old Northwest and the Louisiana Purchase. The U.S. Census Bureau says the Midwest has 12 states:

• Illinois
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Missouri
• Nebraska
• North Dakota
• Ohio
• South Dakota
• Wisconsin

Some groups add or remove states when they talk about the Midwest.

Major metropolitan areas

Demographics

The Midwest has many different kinds of people. Many people there have German, Irish, English, or Mexican family roots. Some places, like North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Nebraska, have lots of people whose families came from Germany. Minnesota has many people with Norwegian and Swedish family histories.

A long time ago, many African Americans moved from the South to cities in the Midwest looking for better lives. This changed the makeup of cities like Chicago and Detroit. Today, about 10% of people in the Midwest are African American, mostly living in cities. Illinois is the biggest and most varied state in the Midwest.

The Midwest’s median household income is $70,283, which is a bit lower than the national average. About 12% of people live below the poverty line, including many children. The average household has about 2.4 people. The median age is 39.2 years, and the population is almost evenly split between males and females.

Religion

Most people in the Midwest are Christian. Many are Protestants, but the Catholic Church is also very common. In some areas, especially where there are many German and Scandinavian people, Lutherans are a big group. Smaller numbers of people practice Judaism or Islam, mostly in big cities. About 35% of people go to religious services every week, and 69% go at least sometimes. Around 22% of people do not follow any religion.

Economy

Farming and agriculture

Further information: Corn Belt, Wheat production in the United States, and History of agriculture in the United States

Farming is very important in the Midwest. The land here is very rich and good for growing many crops. Farmers grow a lot of corn, wheat, soybeans, oats, and barley. This makes the Midwest a key part of feeding the country, often called the nation's "breadbasket".

Early farmers had trouble with the tough soil until a blacksmith named John Deere made a better plow in 1837. This helped farmers grow more food. Today, the Midwest grows a big part of the world’s food.

Rules and schools helped farming grow even more. Special schools and research helped farmers learn better ways to grow crops. Iowa State University was the first school to teach about farming in this way.

The Midwest grows a lot of wheat too. The U.S. is a top wheat country, and much of it comes from here. The Midwest also leads in raising pork, beef, dairy, and chicken eggs.

Finance

Chicago is a big money center in the Midwest. It has many important banks and places where people trade money and goods. Chicago has groups that help decide how money works in the country. Other cities in the Midwest, like Cleveland, Kansas City, Minneapolis, and St. Louis, also have important money centers. Big banks and insurance companies have offices in many Midwest cities.

Manufacturing

The Midwest has good roads, rivers, and ports, which helped build many factories. The region is great at making things, especially cars. Henry Ford started making cars in a new way in Detroit, and many car factories grew there. The area around Akron, Ohio also became important for making rubber, like tires. Lots of goods move through the Great Lakes every year.

Culture

Midwestern cities and the Midwest are often seen as a typical example of American life. The phrase "Will it play in Peoria?" uses Peoria, Illinois, to check if something will appeal to everyday Americans. As of 2010, the Midwest had a higher job-to-people ratio than the Northeast, South, or West.

The card game Euchre stays popular in the Midwest and parts of the Upper South, especially in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania.

Education

Many important universities in the Midwest belong to a group called the Association of American Universities. There are 17 of these universities in the Midwest. Some well-known ones are Case Western Reserve University, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, University of Notre Dame, and Washington University in St. Louis. Public universities include the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, Indiana University Bloomington, the University of Iowa, the University of Kansas, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, the University of Minnesota, the University of Missouri, the Ohio State University, Purdue University, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Other important public universities are the University of Cincinnati, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Indiana University Indianapolis, Iowa State University, Kansas State University, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Ohio University, Southern Illinois University, and Wayne State University.

Many state universities have branches across their states. After 1945, many teachers' colleges became full state universities.

Well-known private universities include Beloit College, John Carroll University, Saint Louis University, Butler University, Loyola University Chicago, DePaul University, Creighton University, Drake University, Marquette University, University of Dayton, and Xavier University. Many colleges were started by local groups, often with ties to churches, in the mid-1800s. Top liberal arts colleges today include Augustana College, Carleton College, Denison University, DePauw University, Earlham College, Grinnell College, Hamline University, Kalamazoo College, Kenyon College, Knox College, Macalester College, Lawrence University, Oberlin College, St. Olaf College, College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University, Mount Union University, Wabash College, Wheaton College, and The College of Wooster.

Health

The number of avoidable hospital visits in the Midwestern United States went down from 2005 to 2011 for all health issues, both quick and long-term.

Linguistics

Main articles: Inland Northern American English, North Central American English, Yooper dialect, and Midland American English

The way people talk in the Midwest is usually different from the South and the Northeast. It is often seen as the "standard" American way of speaking, which many radio and TV producers like to use. Linguist Thomas Bonfiglio says that Midwest speaking became the standard in the 20th century, mainly because of radio.

Nowadays, many cities around the Great Lakes are changing how they say vowel sounds.

The way people talk in Minnesota, western Wisconsin, much of North Dakota, and Michigan's Upper Peninsula is called the Upper Midwestern Dialect, and it has influences from Scandinavian and Canadian languages.

Missouri has bits of three different ways of speaking: Northern Midland in the very north, Southern Midland in most of the state, and Southern in the southwest and southeast.

Music

German immigrants had a big effect on music in the Midwest, especially choral and orchestral music. Czech and German traditions together helped start polka music.

During the Southern Diaspora in the 20th century, many people from the South moved to big Midwestern cities like Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and St. Louis. They brought jazz, blues, bluegrass, and rock and roll with them. Chicago became a key place for jazz, blues, and rock and roll. Kansas City also had its own jazz style.

Rock and roll started in Cleveland in 1951 when a radio host named Alan Freed began playing this new type of music and calling it "rock and roll." Rock and roll came from rhythm and blues, which came from blues, boogie woogie, jazz, swing music, gospel, country, and folk music. Alan Freed helped make Cleveland famous for rock and roll, which led to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame being built there. Chuck Berry from St. Louis was an important early rock musician.

Since rock and roll began, many famous music groups and artists have come from Chicago. Detroit is famous for Motown Records, which produced big names like Aretha Franklin, the Supremes, Mary Wells, the Four Tops, the Jackson 5, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, the Marvelettes, the Temptations, and Martha and the Vandellas. These artists were most popular in the 1960s and 1970s.

Midwest fans loved country music, heavy metal, arena rock, heartland rock, and TOP 40. In the 1970s and 1980s, Midwesterners like Bob Seger, John Mellencamp, and Warren Zevon became famous with heartland rock, which told stories about everyday Midwestern life. Other famous rock bands from this time include REO Speedwagon, Styx, and Kansas.

Prince, The Time, Morris Day, Jesse Johnson, Alexander O'Neal, The Family, Paul Peterson from St. Paul, Apollonia 6, Vanity 6, Sheila E., and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis made music called the Minneapolis sound.

House Music, a type of Electronic Dance Music, began in Chicago in the early 1980s and became popular worldwide by the late 1980s and early 1990s. Famous house music artists include Frankie Knuckles and Marshall Jefferson.

Techno music started in Detroit in the late 1980s and early 1990s with artists like Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson. Though popular in America, techno became even more popular in Europe.

Many famous classical music composers have lived in Midwestern states, including Easley Blackwood, Kenneth Gaburo, Salvatore Martirano, and Ralph Shapey in Illinois; Glenn Miller and Meredith Willson in Iowa; Leslie Bassett, William Bolcom, Michael Daugherty, and David Gillingham in Michigan; Donald Erb in Ohio; and Dominick Argento and Stephen Paulus in Minnesota.

Sports

Big sports leagues like the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), National Hockey League (NHL), Major League Soccer (MLS), and National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) have teams in Midwestern cities:

• Chicago: Bears (NFL), Cubs, White Sox (MLB), Bulls (NBA), Sky (WNBA), Blackhawks (NHL), Fire (MLS), Stars (NWSL)
• Cincinnati: Bengals (NFL), Reds (MLB), FC Cincinnati (MLS)
• Cleveland: Browns (NFL), Guardians (MLB), Cavaliers (NBA)
• Columbus: Blue Jackets (NHL), Crew (MLS)
• Detroit: Lions (NFL), Tigers (MLB), Pistons (NBA), Red Wings (NHL)
• Green Bay: Packers (NFL)
• Indianapolis: Colts (NFL), Pacers (NBA), Fever (WNBA)
• Kansas City: Chiefs (NFL), Royals (MLB), Sporting or the Wizards (MLS), Current (NWSL)
• Milwaukee: Brewers (MLB), Bucks (NBA)
• Minneapolis–Saint Paul: Vikings (NFL), Twins (MLB), Timberwolves (NBA), Lynx (WNBA), Wild (NHL), United or the Loons (MLS)
• St. Louis: Cardinals (MLB), Blues (NHL), City SC (MLS)

Well-known teams include the St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Lynx, Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears, Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs, Kansas City Royals, Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Tigers, Chicago Blackhawks, and Columbus Crew.

In college sports, the Big Ten Conference and the Big 12 Conference have many top teams from the Midwest, including the Cincinnati Bearcats, Illinois Fighting Illini, Indiana Hoosiers, Iowa Hawkeyes, Iowa State Cyclones, Kansas Jayhawks, Kansas State Wildcats, Michigan Wolverines, Michigan State Spartans, Minnesota Golden Gophers, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Northwestern Wildcats, Ohio State Buckeyes, Purdue Boilermakers, and the Wisconsin Badgers.

Other notable college teams are the Akron Zips, Ball State Cardinals, Butler Bulldogs, Creighton Bluejays, Central Michigan Chippewas, Dayton Flyers, Grand Valley State Lakers, Indiana State Sycamores, Kent State Golden Flashes, Marquette Golden Eagles, Miami RedHawks, Milwaukee Panthers, Missouri Tigers, Missouri State Bears, Northern Illinois Huskies, North Dakota State Bison, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Ohio Bobcats, South Dakota State Jackrabbits, Toledo Rockets, Western Michigan Broncos, Wichita State Shockers, and Xavier Musketeers. Some of these schools, like Butler, Dayton, Indiana State, Missouri State, North Dakota State, and South Dakota State, don't play top-level college football. Others, like Creighton, Marquette, Milwaukee, Wichita State, and Xavier, don't have football teams at all.

The Milwaukee Mile held its first car race in 1903 and is one of the world's oldest tracks, though it is not active as of 2019. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway, opened in 1909, hosts the famous Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, the Brickyard 400, and the IndyCar Grand Prix. Other racing tracks in the Midwest include Road America, Mid-Ohio, Indianapolis Raceway Park, Michigan International Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway, Kansas Speedway, Gateway International Raceway, and Iowa Speedway. The Kentucky Speedway, just outside the Midwest, is linked to the region because it's in the Cincinnati area.

Popular golf tournaments in the Midwest include the Memorial Tournament, BMW Championship, and John Deere Classic.

Cultural overlap

The Midwest can be split into the Great Plains and the Great Lakes region. Some think the small towns and farms in Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois show the classic Midwestern way of life, while the big industrial cities around the Great Lakes have a different history and feel separate from the core Midwest. The Great Plains states, especially in the west, share cultural and geographic traits with the Frontier West and ranching lifestyle, which makes them less like the traditional agricultural Midwest.

South Dakota is an example of a place that doesn't fit neatly. West of the Missouri River, called West River, has the Black Hills, which are part of the Rocky Mountain Front and share culture with the Mountain West. East of the river, called East River, is more like the rest of the Great Plains.

Appalachia and the Ozark Mountains also overlap with the Midwest. Appalachia is in Southern Ohio, and the Ozarks are in Southern Missouri. The Ohio River has always been a border between North and South and between the Midwest and the Upper South. Many lower Midwestern states, especially Missouri, have Southern influences because they border the South. Missouri was a slave state before the Civil War because of the Missouri Compromise.

Western Pennsylvania, with cities like Erie and Pittsburgh, shares history with the Midwest but also overlaps with Appalachia and the Northeast.

Kentucky isn't considered part of the Midwest; it's part of the South, though some northern parts might seem Midwestern. Kentucky is grouped with the South by the U.S. Census Bureau because of its history, culture, and way of speaking.

The Upper Peninsula of Michigan has strong ties to Canada, partly because of early French Canadian settlers. The Yooper accent shares some features with Canadian English, showing these cross-border cultural links. Similar, but weaker, Canadian-American cultural ties exist throughout the Great Lakes area.

Politics

The Midwestern United States is a region where political views differ. The Democratic Party is stronger in the Great Lakes Region, while the Republican Party is stronger in the Great Plains areas. Some states in the Upper Midwest, like Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, often vote Democratic in presidential elections. Minnesota has a long history of voting Democratic, last supporting a Republican in 1972. Recently, Republicans have gained more support in states like Iowa and Ohio.

Missouri has been won by Republicans in every presidential election since 2000, even though it used to be a state that often matched the nation's overall vote. Indiana has voted Republican in every election since 1940, except for two specific years. The Great Plains states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas have mostly voted Republican since 1940. Nebraska's legislature is officially nonpartisan.

All Midwestern states hold primary elections to choose delegates for the Democratic and Republican national conventions, except for Iowa. The Iowa caucuses in early January of years when presidents are elected are the first votes in the presidential nominating process for both major parties and get a lot of attention.