Is Delaware a Northeastern State? (Wilmington, Laurel: live, association, suburbs)

[sheena12]

Originally Posted by Chriscross309

People often want to confuse culture with geography. I don't look at states and say they are southern or northern based on civil war history or economic ties. Delaware is in the NE because that is where it is on the map, no explanation needed! But also it is more similar to other NE states like PA and NJ. IMO Maryland is also a NE state.

So well said! There have been a spate of threads asking if this or that state is Southern, Midwestern - or whatever.

This is generally asked about "border states" - those that are geographically at the crossroads of two pr perhaps more geographical regions.

These states are located where they are. They will obviously incorporate social and cultural aspects of the neighboring regions. Delaware is a prime example. It boarders the middle Atlantic/North East. And the south.

So it's a mixture. As are many states.

Migration as well as geography can figure into this. I live in Ohio. There have been questions about Ohio as a "Midwestern State" because it borders some North Eastern states and WVA as well as Kentucky.
Does that make it Northeastern or Southern? Do some people here speak with a Southern accent? Sure. But Ohio is IN the Midwest.

No. Of course not. It's Midwestern. Geographically. With influences from border states and migration.

Not everything can be neatly packaged socially and culturally. When it comes to geography, there should be fewer problems.

[beasley106]

Originally Posted by muppethammer26

If the Mason-Dixon Line is used as a line between the Northeast and the Southeast, then Delaware and New Jersey would be northeastern states, but Maryland, an another state similar to New Jersey and Delaware would be placed in the Southeast instead.

http://www.exploretheline.com/images/linemap.jpg

The Mason-Dixon Line is just a line that settles a boundary dispute between Maryland and Delaware, in all reality there are much more similarities than differences between Maryland and Pennsylvania/Delaware then there are with truly southern states such as Virginia/North Carolina especially if you look at it from a historical, economical, and cultural standpoint. If you want to get an accurate cultural boundary between the Northern states and Southern states it would make much more sense to use the Potomac River and the Ohio River as boundaries between the Northern states and Southern states.

[gr8cakes]

Here's a map I found that shows Delaware as a northeast state.

click to enlarge

[Pocopsonite]

And here's one, from the EPA no less, that puts Delaware in the Mid-Atantic region.
NOx SIP Call Status Map for the Mid-Atlantic States | Mid-Atlantic Air Protection

I can list a dozen more links that do the same, like this one: Mid-Atlantic states - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

That's why this poll question is just stupid. Delaware is a Mid-Atlantic state. It's not Northeastern. The U.S. East Coast is too big and too varied to divide into Northeast or not Northeast. And Mid-Atlantic is certainly not a subset of Northeast.

Delaware has a lot in common with the states just north and south, and not much with the ones that get to be 250 miles away in either direction. It's Mid-Atlantic. It's a distinct region.

The map you posted is quite simplistic. The whole West Coast is part of "The West"? Oregon and Washington are commonly known as the "Pacific Northwest," which is very different from the West of the Rockies.

Maybe the underlying question is: How many regions are required to adequately fine-tune a definition of regions in the continental U.S.? I certainly don't think FIVE -- as in the above map -- are enough.

[Nema98]

Not Northeastern, just Eastern. It is a mid Atlantic state, not part of the South.

[Nema98]

Originally Posted by Pocopsonite

And here's one, from the EPA no less, that puts Delaware in the Mid-Atantic region.
NOx SIP Call Status Map for the Mid-Atlantic States | Mid-Atlantic Air Protection

I can list a dozen more links that do the same, like this one: Mid-Atlantic states - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

That's why this poll question is just stupid. Delaware is a Mid-Atlantic state. It's not Northeastern. The U.S. East Coast is too big to divide into Northeast or not Northeast. And Mid-Atlantic is certainly not a subset of Northeast.

Delaware has a lot in common with the states directly north and south, and not much with the ones that get to be 250 miles away in either direction. It's Mid-Atlantic. It's a distinct region.

Go easy there, no need for insults.

[ILikeMike91]

Delaware is easily northeastern. Nothing southern about that place whatsoever.

[chris410]

Originally Posted by Pine to Vine

Suggest you look at a map. Never in your life have you crossed the Mason-Dixon Line heading south into Delaware.

touché. for some reason I thought it was below it. although looking at the map it might as well be below it.

Regardless. Delaware is Nothing like the northeast.

[phlinak]

Originally Posted by muppethammer26

Nobody has asked this question yet. But I heard a few people not calling Delaware a northeastern state. Why is that despite Delaware being geographically a northeastern state on the US map? I have always considered Delaware a northeastern state, being that Delaware used to be part of Pennsylvania, an another northeastern state and Delaware has strong connections to Philadelphia and New Jersey.

I think that politically and socially it's a northeastern state but geographically, it's really a mid-Atlantic state, like Maryland and Virginia.

[G. Thomas Rhodes]

In my youth I had the good luck to be a Dupont Brat, a term I had not heard until we moved to Newark for about a year and a half. I had lived in Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, California, Texas, Virginia (twice). Delawares' culinary distinction was certainly not Southern, neither was the accent, but the hospitality outdid some southern states.