Midwestern United States

The Midwestern United States, also called the Midwest, the Heartland, or the Middle West, is one of four regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, occupying the north central part of the country between the Northeastern and Western United States, with Canada to the north and the Southern United States to the south. The Census Bureau's definition covers twelve states, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, and the region's population reached about 69 million at the 2020 census. Its terrain generally follows the Interior Plain between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains, drained by rivers including the Ohio, the upper Mississippi, and the Missouri. Chicago is the region's largest city and the third largest in the country, and other major metropolitan centers include Detroit, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Saint Louis, and Kansas City, in an economy that combines heavy industry and agriculture, including the Corn Belt, with a growing finance and services sector.