The West North Central States form one of the nine geographic divisions within the United States that are officially recognized by that country's census bureau.
Where the East North Central States are seen as being synonymous (though not absolutely coterminous) with the Rust Belt by the vast majority of Americans, the West North Central States are regarded as constituting the core of the nation's "Farm Belt." Almost all of the territory contained within the West North Central division falls into what Joel Garreau called The Breadbasket in his 1981 book The Nine Nations of North America, and what James Patterson and Peter Kim labelled the Granary in their similarly-themed work The Day America Told The Truth (the only exception being southern Missouri, placed in Dixie by Garreau and Old Dixie by Patterson and Kim). Another name popularly applied to the division is the "Agricultural Heartland," or simply the "Heartland."
Beginning in the early 1990s, the West North Central division has consistently had the lowest unemployment rate in the United States (especially in its many college towns), and has also been noted for its plentiful supply of affordable housing.
It is one of the two divisions within the larger region the United States Census Bureau (and for that matter, the U.S. population at large) calls the Midwest; the other such division is the WestNorthCentralStates.
The East NorthCentral division is strongly identified with the Rust Belt, although the latter also encompasses upstate New York and western Pennsylvania, along with the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia.
Lawrence Seaway or a combination of the New York State Barge Canal and the Hudson River (indeed, Chicago, the division's largest city, is by far the largest fresh-water port in the United States, and one of the largest such ports in the entire world).
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