Some Tennesseans think they live in the Midwest
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Somehow, there are plenty of people in Tennessee who consider themselves Midwesterners.
Driving the news: Emerson College Polling and the Middle West Review recently asked 11,000 people from 22 states whether they think their state is part of the Midwest.
Zoom in: Nearly 10% of Tennesseans surveyed said yes.
Reality check: That's incorrect. The U.S. Census Bureau considers Tennessee part of the South.
Zoom out: The states with the highest percentages of residents saying they live in the Midwest were Iowa (96.7%), Minnesota (96.5%) and Missouri (95.3%).
The intrigue: We're not the only state having an identity crisis. About 9.4% of people surveyed in Pennsylvania and 13% in West Virginia said their state is in the Midwest.
What they're saying: "I think one of the big findings of this study is that American regions are still alive. And people still identify with regions," Middle West Review editor Jon Lauck tells Axios' Linh Ta.
💠Our thought bubble: Nashville has its fair share of transplants, including plenty of people from the Chicago area. Perhaps they're carrying the Midwest moniker here with them.
But no matter how convincing our local iterations of Chicago-style pizza are, we still live in the South.