Do you agree with the Census Bureau's region classifications?

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Docere

Maybe there is Mid-Atlantic identity in Philly?

I'm not really sure what a Mid-Atlantic "identity" really is.

I think it's kinda like... you have New England, then you have NYC, and then you have the Mid-Atlantic. Philly, southern NJ, Baltimore/MD, Delaware, DC.

Connection, yes. Not sure if there's a really strong identity though.

Originally Posted by Docere

I would include West Virginia in this DMV-centered Mid-Atlantic too, as much as "BosWash" partisans in suburban Maryland or NOVA want to assign it to the "backward" South. WV has much in common with Western Pennsylvania too

Few dispute Virginia's southern identity but it kind of makes sense to link Maryland and Virginia, Virginia with West Virginia and Maryland with Delaware.

WV is really a rather diverse state in terms of regional identity. Eastern WV is much more aligned with the DC/MD/VA area, southern WV is "real" West Virginia... very Appalachian and to an extent, Midwestern. Northern WV is pure Rustbelt... much like Western PA, Eastern OH, and even Western NY.

And none of it is really the South. Places like Princeton, Beckley, Bluefield identify much more closely with places like Pittsburgh, Lexington, Cincinnati, even DC area, than they do with more traditionally thought of southern locales.