Changing Usage of Four American Regional Labels

Locational and sociological data from a set of warranty cards provide a means for exploring current and future patterns of American affiliation with the regional labels East, West, South, and Midwest. Analysis of detailed preference maps focuses on transition zones where two or three regional labels are in common use. The theory that younger, urban people from the zones bordering East and West would tend to identify with the relatively liberal images of these places is borne out to some degree. Allegiance to the East seems to be expanding in traditionally Midwestern Michigan and Ohio and also in traditionally Southern Virginia, Kentucky, and the Carolinas. No parallel pattern exists for the West.