Birthplaces of U.S. presidents as of July 2026

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by JManc

I would not associate Bill Clinton with NYC by any stretch of the imagination other living in the vicinity post presidency.

I don't know if he's associated with NYC, but Clinton has lived here for much longer than anywhere else and is very much embedded in the city's fabric, with his office and foundation here, as well as kid/grandkids living near Union Square. I actually randomly ran into him on the street in Lower Manhattan maybe 15 years ago, and he uses the subway.

Nixon is NOT someone associated with cities, and definitely not NYC, but he lived in NYC for multiple stints in life, before and after Presidency, and he passed away in NYC. Nixon would be commonly associated with Orange County, CA and a rural/suburban base and policies openly hostile to cities.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

CB county mash-up silliness. Whadaya gonna do.....


Dixon is a hard-core cornbelt town. There is absolutely nothing "metropolitan" about Ronald Reagan's place of birth, then or now or ever.

Especially since Dixon is just his boyhood home. He was born in Tampico... which I guess is in the same county as Sterling/Rock Falls...

Interestingly enough he was born in one of the few urbanish buildings in Tampico: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.6305668,..._ep=EgoyMDI2MDYyOS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

[xzmattzx]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

The idea that Dixon, IL is a part of anything resembling an actual MSA or CSA is hilarious.

It is the freaking dictionary definition of small town Illinois.

Don't be knocking on the small MSAs like... Stuarts Draft!!!

[Docere]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I don't know if he's associated with NYC, but Clinton has lived here for much longer than anywhere else and is very much embedded in the city's fabric, with his office and foundation here, as well as kid/grandkids living near Union Square. I actually randomly ran into him on the street in Lower Manhattan maybe 15 years ago, and he uses the subway.

Nixon is NOT someone associated with cities, and definitely not NYC, but he lived in NYC for multiple stints in life, before and after Presidency, and he passed away in NYC. Nixon would be commonly associated with Orange County, CA and a rural/suburban base and policies openly hostile to cities.

And Hillary Clinton was elected to the Senate from New York. Hard to argue that the Clintons have "no association" with NYC.

[Docere]

You can find the Dixon "urban area" on this map:

https://www2.census.gov/geo/maps/DC2020/UA20/UA_2020_WallMap.pdf

[craigs]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Nixon is NOT someone associated with cities, and definitely not NYC, but he lived in NYC for multiple stints in life, before and after Presidency, and he passed away in NYC.

The hubs and I spent a weekend in the 40th-floor room at the Hotel Pierre, where, according to the elevator man, Nixon assembled his second cabinet. Amazing view of Central Park. Dumb history.

Nixon would be commonly associated with Orange County, CA and a rural/suburban base and policies openly hostile to cities.

Nixon is definitely associated with Orange County and the things in the rest of your post. The man hated cities and the people in them.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by Docere

And Hillary Clinton was elected to the Senate from New York. Hard to argue that the Clintons have "no association" with NYC.

The Clintons moved to New York in 1999, Hillary ran for Senate in 2000. When she ran for office, she was viewed as an outsider.

[xzmattzx]

If we are talking about the 250th anniversary of our nation's birth, here is a map of where the signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried. The map has limitations. For many, we don't know where someone is exactly buried, so a cemetery monument is marked. The burial sites for some are not really known at all. And one, Thomas Lynch Jr., was lost at sea.

This didn't seem to warrant a different thread, but is certainly a detour from Presidential talk, but seems appropriate in here for now.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer....32025342417815%2C-75.42757506514975&z=6

[iheartthed]

Bill Clinton is a New Yorker as much as Donald Trump is a Floridian.

[iheartthed]

Similar to the birthplaces of presidents, here is the aggregate of Founding Father birthplaces according to current day CSA/MSA designations. Founding Fathers born outside of the current day borders of the U.S. are counted per their country of birth. "none" means that the birthplace was within the current day U.S. but the location is not part of a CSA or MSA. Same rules as above regarding founders born in the Northern Neck region of Virginia. But one additional rule is that I split the Providence MSA into its own line instead of counting it as part of the broader Boston CSA. 69 of the 119 Founding Fathers (~58%) were born in a location that is currently part of (or directly adjacent) a major metropolitan area of the Northeast Corridor.

#.........Birthplace region
17……….Boston CSA
16……….Philadelphia CSA
13……….New York CSA
13……….Washington-Baltimore CSA
9….….….Charleston, SC MSA
6….….….Richmond MSA
5….….….none
5….….….Northern Ireland
4….….….England
4….….….Hartford CSA
3….….….New Haven MSA
3….….….Providence MSA
3….….….Scotland
2….….….Hampton Roads CSA
2….….….Ireland
2….….….St. Kitts and Nevis
2….….….Charlottesville MSA
2….….….Portland, ME MSA
2….….….Albany, NY CSA
1….….….Hilton Head MSA
1….….….Savannah CSA
1….….….Wales
1….….….Myrtle Beach CSA
1….….….Virginia Beach - Norfolk - Newport News, VA
1….….….Greensboro-Winston Salem-High Point, NC CSA

[Serenade]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Ohio having produced so many presidents had a lot to do with the Civil War. Civil War hero Ulysses S. Grant was the first president from Ohio and six of the 12 presidents that followed him in office were, like him, Republicans from Ohio.

Ohio was a bellwether after the Civil War era because it had cultural overlap from northern and southern regions. Winning the presidency meant winning Ohio. The presidents elected from Ohio were all post-Civil War Republicans, with the last one being Warren G. Harding near the end of the Progressive Era. Nearly all of the presidents elected between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the Great Depression were Republicans from the North. A few years after Harding died in office the long string of post-Civil War Republican presidencies ended with Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression.

Until the last 5-10 years or so, I always considered Ohio the most "American" state.

[Docere]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Similar to the birthplaces of presidents, here is the aggregate of Founding Father birthplaces according to current day CSA/MSA designations. Founding Fathers born outside of the current day borders of the U.S. are counted per their country of birth. "none" means that the birthplace was within the current day U.S. but the location is not part of a CSA or MSA. Same rules as above regarding founders born in the Northern Neck region of Virginia. But one additional rule is that I split the Providence MSA into its own line instead of counting it as part of the broader Boston CSA. 69 of the 119 Founding Fathers (~58%) were born in a location that is currently part of (or directly adjacent) a major metropolitan area of the Northeast Corridor.

#.........Birthplace region
17……….Boston CSA
16……….Philadelphia CSA
13……….New York CSA
13……….Washington-Baltimore CSA
9….….….Charleston, SC MSA
6….….….Richmond MSA
5….….….none
5….….….Northern Ireland
4….….….England
4….….….Hartford CSA
3….….….New Haven MSA
3….….….Providence MSA
3….….….Scotland
2….….….Hampton Roads CSA
2….….….Ireland
2….….….St. Kitts and Nevis
2….….….Charlottesville MSA
2….….….Portland, ME MSA
2….….….Albany, NY CSA
1….….….Hilton Head MSA
1….….….Savannah CSA
1….….….Wales
1….….….Myrtle Beach CSA
1….….….Virginia Beach - Norfolk - Newport News, VA
1….….….Greensboro-Winston Salem-High Point, NC CSA

It seems like Philadelphia's influence really diminished after the Revolution. It was in the same "tier" as New York and Boston in colonial times but didn't really have a special role after that.

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Ohio was a bellwether

I can't believe how influential the book "Bellwether" was in both reviving use of the term and its application to the State of Ohio.

after the Civil War era because it had cultural overlap from northern and southern regions.

This is not correct. The mixed state, historically, was Kentucky, not Ohio. The Northern Kentucky counties were heavily Catholic, which by default means "not southern". Northern Kentucky has its own small diocese, which is an anomaly in any "southern" state:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Categ...siastical_Province_of_Louisville_map.png

Winning the presidency meant winning Ohio.

Yeah it had many electoral votes, like today's Florida relative to California and Texas. The majority of the country's population was in the north and Ohio was always culturally northern. A lot of southern whites and blacks didn't move to Ohio until the 1920s.

[TempleGuy1000]

Originally Posted by Docere

It seems like Philadelphia's influence really diminished after the Revolution. It was in the same "tier" as New York and Boston in colonial times but didn't really have a special role after that.

Well that's wrong. The only time Boston has ever been more "important" than Philadelphia is in the post-WW2 era of globalization. Philly was the #1 city in the US until the 1820/1830s. The #2 city until Chicago's rise in the 1870/80s. The railroads and industry came from Philly (No one has a "Mass station" in their city). Philly's 1876 World's Fair put the US on the map technologically with the introduction of things like the telephone, typewriter, and calculator. Fashion like the Stetson hat company became defacto American attire. By the 1890s, The Pennsylvania Railroad was the largest corporation in the world and the tallest building in world was Philadelphia's city hall. What Boston always had was intellectual capital, which can be viewed as influential in some ways (seems to be good for rewriting history), but not in the actual physical world that people lived in. Philadelphia's midland accent eventually evolved into the "general American"-accent that is what most people sound like now. Not the NY/New England accent.

The irony of this topic, is that anyone who knows Presidential elections knows that PA has constantly played a central role in the elections up until this day. Only 4 Presidents have ever won the election and lost PA, and it hasn't happened since Tricky Dick.

[Crawford]

Boston may have played an outsized early role, esp. Revolution and earlier, bc I believe it was a Patriot stronghold, while NYC was a Loyalist stronghold. There were, of course Patriots in NYC and Loyalists in Boston, but I'm pretty sure Boston was much more pissed at Britain. I don't know how Philly leaned.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

The Northern Kentucky counties were heavily Catholic, which by default means "not southern". Northern Kentucky has its own small diocese, which is an anomaly in any "southern" state:

It's not an anomoly in southern Louisiana, the El Paso, San Antonio, and borderland areas of Texas, and southern Florida. They are heavily Catholic parts of the South.

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by craigs

It's not an anomoly in southern Louisiana, the El Paso, San Antonio, and borderland areas of Texas, and southern Florida. They are heavily Catholic parts of the South.

And...where else in the South? Right, basically nowhere. That's what "anomaly" means - a rare exception. The U.S. as a whole was anti-Catholic and the South was even more so, with the Klan being an explicitly anti-Catholic organization. The broad anti-Catholic sentiments of the 1800s are a big reason why the U.S. didn't annex Cuba or push into other Catholic areas south of the border.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Docere

It seems like Philadelphia's influence really diminished after the Revolution. It was in the same "tier" as New York and Boston in colonial times but didn't really have a special role after that.

Philadelphia was the most important of those three cities in the Revolutionary War era. As the first capital of the United States, Philadelphia was the site of the First Continental Congress, the Second Continental Congress, the Declaration of Independence, and where the original U.S. Constitution was written. Philadelphia spent the most time as the country's capital of any city other than Washington, D.C. (NYC was second. Boston never served as the capital.)

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

This is not correct. The mixed state, historically, was Kentucky, not Ohio. The Northern Kentucky counties were heavily Catholic, which by default means "not southern". Northern Kentucky has its own small diocese, which is an anomaly in any "southern" state:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Categ...siastical_Province_of_Louisville_map.png

Ohio absolutely had cultural overlap from the North and South in the Civil War Era and it still does. Ohio more than any of the other lower north states (Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania) has that foot in the north, foot in the south dynamic.

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Philadelphia was the most important of those three cities in the Revolutionary War era. As the first capital of the United States, Philadelphia was the site of the First Continental Congress, the Second Continental Congress, the Declaration of Independence, and where the original U.S. Constitution was written. Philadelphia spent the most time as the country's capital of any city other than Washington, D.C. (NYC was second. Boston never served as the capital.)



Ohio absolutely had cultural overlap from the North and South in the Civil War Era and it still does. Ohio more than any of the other lower north states (Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania) has that foot in the north, foot in the south dynamic.

Ohio and Kentucky are in many ways inverse of each other.
Ohio: 70/30 non-south/south
Kentucky: 30/70 non-south/south

[cabasse]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

And...where else in the South? Right, basically nowhere. That's what "anomaly" means - a rare exception. The U.S. as a whole was anti-Catholic and the South was even more so, with the Klan being an explicitly anti-Catholic organization. The broad anti-Catholic sentiments of the 1800s are a big reason why the U.S. didn't annex Cuba or push into other Catholic areas south of the border.

there are many dozens of diocese in the south, multiples in every state. atlanta, houston, mobile, miami, new orleans, san antonio are all archdiocese, and many other cities in the south have a diocese...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Catholic_dioceses_in_the_United_States