You say Minnesota is the North? Not so, says study finding most residents identify with the Midwest

Do you think you live in the Midwest? Do you consider yourself a Midwesterner?

Those questions are the crux of a groundbreaking study bent on finding definitive answers about the depth of Midwestern identity across the United States.

Published this week in the Middle West Review, an academic journal at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, the findings challenge the commonly held belief that the American South embodies the strongest regional identity in the country.

Among other things, the study found that Midwestern identity is strongest among Minnesotans and Iowans. About 97% of respondents from those states said they considered themselves to be living in the Midwest.

"We're trying to revive interest in the history of the Midwest," said head researcher Jon Lauck, editor of the Middle West Review and author of the book "The Good Country: A History of the American Midwest."

Midwestern studies are "very weak compared to the studies of the American South and the American West," Lauck said.

In collaboration with Emerson College Polling in Boston, the researchers launched what's described as the "largest-ever study on Midwestern boundaries and identity."

They surveyed people in 22 states — those traditionally considered part of the Midwest, including Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota — as well as those on the periphery, such as Arkansas, West Virginia, Colorado and Oklahoma. The survey was launched in mid-September and collected more than 11,000 responses.

While nearly all respondents said they considered themselves to be living in the Midwest, a slightly lower percentage actually thought of themselves as Midwesterners, according to the study.

For example, 86% of respondents from Minnesota identified as Midwesterners, and 90% of Iowans.

The data debunks efforts in recent years to rebrand Minnesota as being in the North rather than in the Midwest. Such a move, Lauck said, "is not a very good idea because even up in the northern reaches of Minnesota on the Iron Range, it's very high identification with the Midwest."

What's the Midwest, anyway?

What comprises the Midwest has been a constant topic of debate among scholars. Lauck said that some argue the region's western side ends at the 100th meridian, the north-south line that slices through the middle of the Dakotas and divides the more humid East from the arid West.

But data from the study suggests the Midwest extends farther west toward the Rockies and that a few people there identify as "plainsmen," he said.

Lauck and his team are banking on states like Minnesota and Iowa to help reestablish the significance of the Midwest and its culture, which he said has been overlooked by scholars and the media.

The University of Minnesota lacks an instructor focusing on the history of the Midwest, Lauck said. According to the department's website, none of its 40 full-time professors teach Minnesota or regional history.

U spokesman Jake Ricker said Friday that the department does offer classes on Minnesota and Midwestern history, including a course on American Indians in the state.

The study unveiled some surprising findings. For instance, about 91% of Pennsylvania respondents said they don't identify as Midwesterners or consider themselves as living in the Midwest — challenging the view that western Pennsylvania, and Pittsburgh in particular, are at least semi-Midwestern areas.

On the other hand, more than half of Oklahomans surveyed said they identify as Midwesterners, undermining the notion of a distinctly Great Plains identity and showcasing how far south the Midwest may reach.

The study also sheds light on the perception that Missouri is a Midwestern state. Some historians believe the state is more of a mixed borderland. But despite its historical southern orientation, 95% of Missourians consider their state to be part of the Midwest while 87% identify as Midwesterners.

Lauck and his team of researchers plan to spend the next few months crunching the data to uncover further nuances and insights. By next fall, they hope to publish a special issue on the geography of the Midwest that relies partly on the study, he said. They plan to do another survey once they get a better sense of what they may have missed.