Central United States

The Central United States is sometimes conceived as between the Eastern United States and Western United States as part of a three-region model, roughly coincident with the Midwestern United States plus the western and central portions of the Southern United States; the term is also sometimes used more or less as a synonym for the Midwest, omitting all or most of the South.

Somewhat misleadingly, the central states are not in the exact center, but a bit towards the East Coast - states such as Colorado, geographically very close to the center of the continental United States, are almost never considered the central US, while Ohio, a relative stone's throw from the East Coast, is.

4 of 9 Census Bureau Divisions have names containing "Central", though they are not grouped as a region. They include 20 states and 39.45% of the US population as of July 1, 2007.

West North Central States East North Central States
West South Central States East South Central States

Almost all of the area of these 20 states is in the Gulf of Mexico drainage basin, and most of that is in the Mississippi Basin. Small areas near the Great Lakes drain into the Great Lakes and eventually the St. Lawrence River; the Red River Basin is centered on the North Dakota-Minnesota border and drains to Hudson Bay.

The Central Time Zone is the same area plus the Florida Panhandle, minus Ohio, Michigan, most of Indiana, westernmost fringes of Great Plains states, eastern and northern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, and El Paso, Texas.

  • Census Bureau Divisions with Central in name.

  • Map of U.S. time zones between April 2, 2006, and March 11, 2007. The current situation is different only in that Pulaski County, Indiana, is now in the Eastern Time Zone and no longer in the Central Time Zone.

  • Continental divides in North America.

Read more about Central United States:  Central Regions Defined By Organizations

Famous quotes containing the words united states, central, united and/or states:

    Places where he might live and die and never hear of the United States, which make such a noise in the world,—never hear of America, so called from the name of a European gentleman.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Parental attitudes have greater correlation with pupil achievement than material home circumstances or variations in school and classroom organization, instructional materials, and particular teaching practices.
    —Children and Their Primary Schools, vol. 1, ch. 3, Central Advisory Council for Education, London (1967)

    In the United States there is more space where nobody is is than where anybody is.
    Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)

    Colonel [John Charles] Fremont. Not a good picture, but will do to indicate my politics this year. For free States and against new slave States.
    Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)