It follows on from yesterday’s post about Which States Make Up The US Midwest?.
The US census defines the region as the following 16 states (plus DC):
- Alabama (Confederacy)
- Arkansas (Confederacy)
- Delaware (Not part of the Confederacy)
- The District of Columbia (Not part of the Confederacy)
- Florida (Confederacy)
- Georgia (Confederacy)
- Kentucky (Not part of the Confederacy)
- Louisiana (Confederacy)
- Maryland (Not part of the Confederacy)
- Mississippi (Confederacy)
- North Carolina (Confederacy)
- Oklahoma (Not part of the Confederacy)
- South Carolina (Confederacy)
- Tennessee (Confederacy)
- Texas (Confederacy)
- Virginia (Confederacy)
- West Virginia (Not part of the Confederacy)
Alternatively, you could just go with the 11 states that formed the Confederacy (noted in the list above).
But what do people who live there think about whether or not the states belong in the South?
So that’s what Walt Hickey set out to find:
The survey isolated 1,135 respondents who identified “a lot” or “some” as a Southerner and asked them which states are in the South. To get this sample, SurveyMonkey Audience polled 2,528 individuals, about half from a national sample and about half from states considered regionally South, according to the Census Bureau (Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas.)
And although they didn’t publish the full data in the article, they did publish it on Github, which you see below:
Is X State In The South?
Percent that agree:
| Southerners | All Respondents | |
|---|---|---|
| Georgia | 89.10% | 90.00% |
| Alabama | 87.40% | 88.90% |
| Mississippi | 81.80% | 83.00% |
| Louisiana | 80.20% | 83.70% |
| South Carolina | 78.40% | 80.80% |
| Tennessee | 70.10% | 69.70% |
| Florida | 69.30% | 70.90% |
| North Carolina | 61.10% | 61.90% |
| Texas | 56.80% | 56.40% |
| Arkansas | 50.30% | 54.90% |
| Kentucky | 49.50% | 52.20% |
| Virginia | 47.20% | 48.10% |
| West Virginia | 23.00% | 28.10% |
| Oklahoma | 19.60% | 18.90% |
| Missouri | 15.10% | 18.60% |
| New Mexico | 10.00% | 11.70% |
| Arizona | 8.50% | 9.70% |
| Maryland | 6.30% | 6.40% |
| Kansas | 4.10% | 6.10% |
| Indiana | 1.20% | 1.50% |
| Delaware | 0.90% | 1.60% |
| Colorado | 0.80% | 1.10% |
| Ohio | 0.70% | 0.90% |
| Illinois | 0.60% | 0.80% |
| Pennsylvania | 0.40% | 0.40% |
Only 10 states have 50%+ support of being southern by Southerners, even fewer than the Confederacy! Virginia failed to make the cut, despite Richmond, Virginia being the location of the capital of the Confederacy.
Among all respondents, you get up to 11 states, but again not Virginia is not included but Kentucky is.
However, if you look at a map splitting the US into 4 regions, respondent responses make a lot more sense. Most of Kentucky is in the geographically in the South, whereas less of Virginia is.
Southern Identity
Different Historical Definitions
- Civil War & Confederacy: Some people define “Southern states” as those that seceded and joined the Confederacy during the Civil War (11 states, plus Missouri and Kentucky which had competing Confederate governments).
- Antebellum South: Others include states that shared the plantation-slavery economy even if they didn’t secede (e.g., Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware).
- Postwar & Reconstruction: During Reconstruction, “the South” was sometimes used to mean the former Confederate states under military occupation, so that definition excludes border states entirely.
Geographic vs. Cultural South
- Geographically Southern: States like Florida or even Arizona are in the southern part of the U.S., but Arizona usually isn’t considered culturally “Southern.”
- Culturally Southern: Kentucky, West Virginia, and even southern Missouri share food, music, and accents with the Deep South, but might not always be counted politically or geographically.
Federal & Census Bureau Definitions
The U.S. Census Bureau has its own official definition of the “South,” which includes, which I looked at above.
But, many people, as the survey shows, find this too broad, for instance, Delaware or Maryland don’t feel “Southern” to everyone.
Modern Political & Cultural Associations
Today, “the South” can also mean:
- Politically conservative states (the “red state South”).
- The Bible Belt (heavily Protestant and religious areas).
- Southern cultural markers like country music, barbecue traditions, and certain dialects.
That’s why places like Florida’s Miami area (culturally Caribbean/Latin American) or Northern Virginia (politically tied to D.C.) might be excluded by some people, even though they are geographically southern.
Regional Identity Is Personal
Many people strongly identify as “Southern” (or not), regardless of state lines, for instance:
- Some Texans consider themselves more “Texan” than “Southern.”
- West Virginians often see themselves as Appalachian first.
- Parts of Missouri or Oklahoma might consider themselves “Midwestern” rather than “Southern.”
Some other attempts at defining the south:
Which Counties Make Up The South
Which Congressional Districts Make Up The South
What do you think?
Y.D. Robinson says
An argument can be made that most of southern Louisiana is *barely* more Southern than (say) southern Florida, because of the French/Creole/Cajun heritage (vs. the Anglo-origin stereotypical South) elsewhere in the South.