Upper Midwest - Definition and Overview

The Upper Midwest is a region of the United States with no agreed-upon definite boundary, which

• always
  • lies within the Census Bureau definition of the Midwest, and
  • includes the states of Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, as well as at least the Upper Peninsula of Michigan,
• often includes all the rest of Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and
• sometimes extends further
  • southwest to include Missouri,
  • east to Ohio, and/or
  • west to North and South Dakota.

AIRUM definition

The Association for Institutional Research in the Upper Midwest defines the region as including the states of Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Library of Congress definition

According to the Library of Congress, the area is a region of the United States that comprised the old Northwest Territory which includes the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

NWS definition

The National Weather Service defines the Upper Midwest as the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin.

US Geological Survey definitions

The United States Geological Survey has at least two definitions of the Upper Midwest:

• The USGS Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center considers it to be the six states, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin which comprise the watersheds of the upper Mississippi River and upper Great Lakes.
• The USGS Mineral Resources Program considers the area to be Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

Summary chart

External links

• The History of the Upper Midwest: An Overview (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/umhtml/umessay5.html)
• USGS Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/umesc_home.html)
• U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Upper Midwest Mineral Resources Program (http://pubs.usgs.gov/info/mwinfo/)
• AIRUM web site (http://www.wisc.edu/airum/)