What is the Upper Midwest?

[forward looking]

Michigan is very much upper mid-western alright but also can be considered a north -eastern state. A part of the rust belt. A part of the great manufacturing center of the United states and the maker of arms , bombers,helmets, jeeps , tanks, bullets and whatever else it took to win WWll ; Detroit was called the arsenal of democracy.
As a transplanted Texan to Detroit, Michigan I couldn't figure out what the accent , twang, nasally dialect was until a Canadian on this Detroit Forum told me it was a New York accent.
A dollar is a dahller for instance. Nasally and a little drawn out.
Now the Michiganians from Michigan's upper peninsula(Yoopers) have an entirely different inflection-accent, and speak more like Canadians. These are similar to Wisconsinites and Minnesotans. Yes, very much so.
I'd say lower peninsula Michiganians, as citizens, are like Ohioans. Detroit has a very,very diverse population however. Indeed I couldn't believe the many different ethnicities represented inside a very large fruit grocer named Randazzo's. Africans, Eastern Europeans, Middle easterners, Asians, Mexicans ( working there). I am sure that I left some ethnicities out, unintentionally. One can hear many different languages from one spot inside the store. I stopped going during the pandemic because it is so crowded inside the store. One elementary school in Hamtrammack, an inner city suburb of Detroit, has to have different teachers whom are fluent in 13 different languages because of immigration. Detroit is a port city, very much so and is still a manufacturing hub of the northeast.

Originally Posted by Docere

Is Michigan more similar to Ohio or Wisconsin overall?

Demographically it's more similar to Ohio. If you use emphasize geographic area, probably more like Wisconsin, but the population is concentrated in the southeast of the state, closer to Ohio.