Mid-Atlantic (United States)
Region of the United States / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Mid-Atlantic is a region of the United States located in the overlap between the Northeastern and Southeastern states of the United States. Its exact definition differs upon source, but the region typically includes Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia[3] with other sources including or excluding other states or areas in the Northeast and Southeast.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] The region has its origin in the Middle Colonies of the 18th century, its states being among the Thirteen Colonies of pre-revolutionary British America. As of the 2020 census, the region had a population of 60,783,913, representing slightly over 18% of the nation's population.
Mid-Atlantic | |
|---|---|
   .jpg)   .jpg)  Left to right from top: Lower Manhattan skyline, Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Assateague Island, the skyline of Philadelphia, the Catskills seen from the Hudson River, Downtown Pittsburgh, Downtown Jersey City, and the Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, and Washington, D.C. skyline | |
 U.S. states in the northern half of the Mid-Atlantic region (highlighted in dark red), states in the southern half of the Mid-Atlantic region (highlighted in pink). North Carolina (which is included occasionally is highlighted in grayish-pink). | |
| Coordinates: 41°N 77°W / 41; -77 | |
| Composition | |
| Metropolitan areas | |
| Largest city | New York |
| Area | |
| • Total | 191,299.86 sq mi (495,464.4 km2) |
| • Land | 174,468.45 sq mi (451,871.2 km2) |
| • Water | 16,831.41 sq mi (43,593.2 km2) 8.80% |
| Population | |
| • Total | 60,783,913 |
| • Density | 320/sq mi (120/km2) |
| GDP (nominal) | |
| • Q3 2022 | $5.233 trillion |
The Mid-Atlantic region played an instrumental and historic role in the nation's founding and the development of the nation. Each of the seven states were members of the Thirteen Colonies that sent delegates to the Second Continental Congress, which assembled in Philadelphia and unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, and formalized the Continental Army under George Washington's command during the American Revolutionary War. Following independence, the states again gathered in Philadelphia at the Constitutional Convention, in 1788, where they ratified the United States Constitution, which remains the oldest and longest-standing written and codified national constitution in force in the world.[10]
The Mid-Atlantic region was settled during the colonial era between the early 17th century and the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War in 1783 by European Americans of primarily Dutch, German, Swedish, English, and other Western European ethnicities. Religious pluralism and freedoms existed in the original Thirteen Colonies and were particularly prevalent in Province of Pennsylvania and the geographic region that ultimately broke from Pennsylvania to form the Delaware Colony. Among the 13 colonies, the Province of Maryland was the only colony with a substantial Catholic population.
Following the American Revolutionary War, the Mid-Atlantic region hosted each of the historic capitals of the United States. The nation's capital was constructed in Washington, D.C. in the late 18th century, and relocated there from Philadelphia in 1800.
In the early part of the 19th century, New York and Pennsylvania overtook Virginia as the nation's two most populous states, and the Mid-Atlantic region overtook New England as the most important trading and industrial center in the nation. During this period, large numbers of German, Irish, Italian, Jewish, Polish, and other immigrants arrived in the region's coastal cities, including Baltimore, Newark, New York City, Philadelphia, and interior cities such as Pittsburgh, and Rochester, Albany, and Buffalo, with their skyscrapers and subways, which emerged as icons of modernity and American economic and cultural power in the 20th century.
In the late 19th century, the region played a vital and historic role in the development of American culture, commerce, trade, and industry sectors. Historian Frederick Jackson Turner labeled it "the typically American."[11]
The Northeast Corridor and Interstate 95 in the region link an almost contiguous urban sprawl, which includes large and small cities and their respective suburbs and forms the Northeast megalopolis, one of the world's most important concentrations of finance, media, communications, education, medicine, and technology. The Mid-Atlantic is a relatively affluent region of the nation; nearly half of the nation's 100 highest-income counties based on median household income are located in the Mid-Atlantic, and 33 of the nation's top 100 counties based on per capita income are in the region. Most of the Mid-Atlantic states rank among the 15 highest-income states in the nation by both median household income and per capita income.
The region is home to eight of the top 25 ranked universities in the nation: Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Columbia University and NYU in New York City, Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia according to U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges Ranking.[12][13][14]