What region is the Northeast?

The Northeast is the region of the United States along the northern Atlantic coast, generally including the nine states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The U.S. Census Bureau divides the Northeast into New England (the six northeasternmost states) and the Middle Atlantic states (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania). The total population is about 57.6 million, roughly 17 percent of the U.S. population, but the region is densely settled and economically central.

The Northeast contains the country's two largest metropolitan areas, the New York City area (about 19.7 million people) and the Washington-Baltimore-Philadelphia corridor (about 25 million in the broader Boston-Washington Northeast Megalopolis). The region's history is the deepest in American Anglo settlement. The Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth in 1620, the Puritans founded Massachusetts Bay in 1630, the Dutch established New Amsterdam in 1624 (English from 1664 as New York), William Penn founded Pennsylvania in 1681, and dozens of other colonial settlements followed. The American Revolution began in Massachusetts at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. The Declaration of Independence was adopted at Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. The Constitution was drafted at Philadelphia in 1787.

Major cities include New York City (about 8.3 million city, the largest in the country); Philadelphia (about 1.6 million city, the fourth largest); Boston (about 4.9 million metro); Washington, D.C. (technically just outside the Northeast in the Mid-Atlantic), Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Hartford, Providence, Newark, Albany, Rochester, and Portland (Maine). The economy includes finance (Wall Street and the surrounding financial industry), media (New York City), pharmaceuticals (New Jersey), education (the Ivy League and dozens of other major universities), tourism, and remaining manufacturing.

Geography ranges from the rocky coast of Maine and the White Mountains of New Hampshire to the agricultural valleys of Pennsylvania and the dense urban corridor along the Atlantic. Climate is humid continental with cold snowy winters and warm humid summers. The Northeast contains the Appalachian Mountains in its western reaches, the Hudson and Connecticut river valleys, the coastal plain, and a remarkable network of harbors and bays including Boston Harbor, Long Island Sound, New York Harbor, Delaware Bay, and Chesapeake Bay (the southern edge).

The region was the historical engine of American industrialization in the nineteenth century, with textile mills in Massachusetts, iron and steel in Pennsylvania, and finance in New York. Education and innovation continue to anchor the modern economy. Population is more diverse than is sometimes imagined, with substantial African American, Latino, Asian American, Caribbean, Jewish, Italian, Irish, and other communities.