Northeastern United States

A map of the Northeastern United States. The dark red areas are the commonly accepted definition of the Northeast while the pink areas are the outer boundaries.

The Northeastern United States (sometimes called simply the Northeast) is a region of the United States. According to the definition used by the United States Census Bureau, the Northeast region consists of nine states: the New England states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut; and the Mid-Atlantic states of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Major cities in this area include New York City, Newark, Philadelphia, Boston, Pittsburgh, Jersey City and Buffalo.

The Northeast, as defined by the Census Bureau, is the wealthiest region of the United States; New Jersey and Connecticut have the highest median incomes in the country after Maryland, while Massachusetts is ranked fifth. Pennsylvania also ranks high in per capita income, with Chester County coming in on the list of wealthiest counties. It also accounts for approximately 25% of U.S. gross domestic product as of 2007. All eight Ivy League schools are located in the Northeast. New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Massachusetts rank in the top 15 states in terms of population.

Geography

The Northeast region is the smallest in area of the four Census Bureau-defined regions of the US. The region's landscape varies from the rocky coast of New England to the fertile farmland of the Ohio River Valley behind the Allegheny Front in Pennsylvania. Beginning at West Quoddy Head Peninsula in Maine, the easternmost point in the United States, the Atlantic coastline is largely rocky, with jagged cliffs rising up to a hundred feet above the ocean. South of the Isles of Shoals near the Maine/New Hampshire border, the coastline begins to subside to sandy beaches which extend through the rest of the Northeast's Atlantic coastline.

Four major rivers pierce the coastline to empty into the Atlantic: the Delaware at the New Jersey/Delaware border, the Hudson at the New York/New Jersey border, the Connecticut in Connecticut, and the Kennebec in Maine. A fifth river, the Susquehanna, is the longest river on the east coast of the United States and flows through New York and Pennsylvania but reaches tidewater in the South Atlantic region of the country. Two of the Great Lakes, Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, form part of the northern border of the region.

Climate

Despite being geographically one of the smallest regions of the United States, the northeastern states possess a wide range of climates. Rainfall varies from over 50 inches (1.3 m) annually in some coastal areas, to 32 inches (810 mm) in the western part of Pennsylvania and New York. Snowfall can range from over 100 inches (2.5 m) per year in Upstate New York to only a foot or so in the coastal areas of southern New Jersey.

Generally, northern New England, the parts of New York north of the Mohawk River, highland areas in the Appalachians and some coastal areas possess a warm summer humid continental climate (Koppen climate classification Dfb), with warm, humid summers and snowy, often bitterly cold winters. Cities in this zone include Syracuse, New York; Burlington, Vermont; and Portland, Maine. Portland's winters are softened because it is on the coast.

Below this line, much of the region (except for the higher elevations) has a hot summer humid continental climate (Koppen Dfa), with hot, humid summers and cold, snowy winters. Much of New England and the northern part of the Mid-Atlantic States have this climate. Boston, Hartford and Pittsburgh have this climate. Portions of extreme southern New York State including New York City; northeast, central, and southern New Jersey; extreme southeastern Pennsylvania including Philadelphia; and southwestern Connecticut have a humid subtropical climate (Koppen Cfa), with hot, humid summers and more mild winters.

The Northeast megalopolis

Main article: Northeast megalopolis

Today, the part of the Northeastern United States comprises the Northeast megalopolis. Almost the entire U.S. eastern seaboard, inlcuding the megalopolis, is linked by the I-95 Interstate, which runs from Florida through Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and up to Boston and into Maine.

History

New England

Main article: New England

New England is perhaps the best-defined region of the U.S., with more uniformity and more of a shared heritage than other regions of the country. New England has played a dominant role in American history. From the late 17th century to the mid to late 18th century, New England was the nation's cultural leader in political, educational, cultural and intellectual thought. During this time, it was the country's economic center.

The earliest European settlers of New England were English Protestants who came in search of religious liberty. They gave the region its distinctive political format — town meetings (an outgrowth of meetings held by church elders), in which citizens gathered to discuss issues of the day. Town meetings still function in many New England communities today and have been revived as a form of dialogue in the national political arena.

The cluster of top-ranking universities and colleges in New England—including four of the eight schools of the Ivy League - Harvard, Yale, Brown and Dartmouth; as well as MIT, NESCAC schools, Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern University, Brandeis University, Tufts University, and numerous other colleges and universities—is unequaled by any other region. Many of the graduates from these schools end up settling in the region after school, providing the area with a well-educated populace and its most valuable resource, as the area is relatively lacking in natural resources other than "ice, rocks, and fish". Soon after many descendants of original New England settlers migrated westward in search of land, new waves of immigrants from Canada, Ireland, Italy, and Eastern Europe moved into the region to take industrial jobs. Many of their descendants became educated and joined the middle classes. Despite a changing population, New England has maintained a distinct cultural identity. As a whole, the area of New England has tended to be liberal in its politics. It is has been strongly supportive of education and community-building.

Certain architecture and sights have come to stand as New England icons: the simple woodframe houses and white church steeples that are features of many small towns, and lighthouses that dot the Atlantic coast. New England is well known for its mercurial weather, its crisp chill, and vibrantly colored foliage in autumn. In colonial times, the colder weather killed off germs and gave the region a healthier environment than that of the Chesapeake Bay Colony, where settlers suffered from summer illnesses and mortality was much higher.

Mid-Atlantic

These areas provided the young United States with heavy industry and served as the "melting pot" of new immigrants from Europe. Cities grew along major shipping routes and waterways. Such cities included Philadelphia on the Delaware River and New York City on the Hudson River.

Dutch immigrants moved into the lower Hudson River Valley in what is now New Jersey and New York State. An English Protestant sect, the Friends (Quakers), settled Pennsylvania. In time, all these settlements came under English control. With the great shipping ports of Philadelphia and, later, New York City, the region continued to be a magnet for business, industry, and peoples of diverse nationalities.

Early settlers were mostly farmers and traders, and the region served as a bridge between North and South. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania midway between the northern and southern colonies, was the site of the Continental Congress, the convention of delegates from the original colonies that organized the American Revolution. The same city was the birthplace of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the U.S. Constitution in 1787.

The Mid-Atlantic, with two of America's largest cities, New York City and Philadelphia, has been a center for industry and international trade. Many immigrants are attracted to the region. New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey are rich in immigrant culture. Still rich in cultures influenced by European heritage, the region has recently attracted more Asian and Hispanic immigrants. African immigrants also have many centers in urban and suburban areas.

Maryland and Delaware had a colonial immigrant history associated with the Chesapeake Bay Colony, similar economy for years, and more extensive slavery that contributed to a different culture and demographic pattern for centuries from that of most of the Northeast. Between the American Revolution and the eve of the Civil War, however, because of changing agricultural needs, Delaware freed most of its slaves, and close to half the blacks in Maryland were also free by 1860. When these immigrants came to the North East Region they usually worked in factories. These factories were known as sweat shops.

Demography

New York City, the largest city in both the Northeastern United States, and the United States as a whole

The population of the northeastern United States is estimated at 54,680,626.

Rank	Metropolitan Area	State(s) and/or Territory	July 1, 2007 Population Estimate
1	New York	CT, NJ, NY, PA	18,815,988
2	Philadelphia	DE, MD, NJ, PA	5,827,962
3	Boston	MA,NH	4,482,857
4	Pittsburgh	PA	2,355,712
5	Providence	MA, RI	1,600,856
6	Hartford	CT	1,189,113
7	Buffalo	NY	1,128,183
8	Rochester	NY	1,030,435

Rank	City	State(s) and/or Territory	July 1, 2007 Population Estimate
1	New York	NY	8,274,527
2	Philadelphia	PA	1,449,634
3	Boston	MA	686,919
4	Baltimore	MD	636,591
5	Pittsburgh	PA	311,218
6	Newark	NJ	280,135
7	Buffalo	NY	272,632
8	Jersey City	NJ	242,389
9	Rochester	NY	206,759
10	Yonkers	NY	199,244

Economy

Until World War II, the Northeast's economy was largely driven by industry. In the second half of the 20th century, most of New England's traditional industries have relocated to states or foreign countries where goods can be made more cheaply. In more than a few factory towns, skilled workers have been left without jobs. The gap has been partly filled by the microelectronics, computer and biotech industries, fed by talent from the region's educational institutions.

Like New England, the Mid-Atlantic region has seen much of its heavy industry relocate elsewhere. Other industries, such as drug manufacturing and communications, have taken up the slack. The economy of the New York City sub-regions is more complex; its fortunes are heavily (but far from completely) dependent on the financial industry and the stock market.

As the service sector is less dependent on heavy labor than the formerly dominant industrial sector, the incentives unskilled immigrants and unskilled laborers once had to move to the Northeast have diminished. They lack the skills to compete in, for example, the financial, technical, educational, and medical markets. However, the Northeast remains a magnet for skilled workers from around the world.

Politics

The Northeast region has been known recently for its political liberalism. For example, every state in the region had a majority vote for John Kerry in the 2004 election and Barack Obama in the 2008 election. However, both Pennsylvania and New Hampshire were considered "battleground states" in the 2000, 2004, and 2008 presidential elections, meaning that they were seen as winnable by both political parties. New Hampshire did vote Republican in 2000, as George W. Bush won the state by one percentage point. Pennsylvania voted for Al Gore in 2000 by a 51-47% margin. In 2004, both New Hampshire and Pennsylvania gave Democratic candidate John Kerry a 51-49% victory. In 2008, Democrat Barack Obama carried both states; he won Pennsylvania with 55% and New Hampshire with 54% of the vote.

See also

• Geography of the United States
• East coast of the United States