Overview
The counties of Jasper, Lake, LaPorte, Newton and Porter are included in the Chicago-Naperville-Michigan City Combined Statistical Area, the broadest of the census-derived Metropolitan definitions. Unlike the majority of Indiana, which operates on Eastern Standard Time, these counties are among six in Northern Indiana that are in the Central Time Zone (the other being Starke). This reflects their close economic integration in the Chicago metropolitan area. Northwest Indiana, along with the Illinois counties of Cook (southern), Will, Kankakee and Iroquois, are often referred to as Illiana (pronounced "Il-ee-AN-a") by the local media.
Three counties — Lake, Porter and LaPorte — are served by the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission metropolitan planning organization. Northwest Indiana is the home of Marktown, Clayton Mark's planned worker community.
The urban areas of Lake County, and the northwestern and northernmost parts of contiguous Porter County; extending, slightly, into LaPorte County; and also extending down from Lake County into northern Newton County, are sometimes referred to, by some in other parts of the state, as "The Region;" or, colloquially, humorously, or even pejoratively, "Da' Region."
Read more about this topic: Northwest Indiana