Southeastern United States

Demographics

There is no official Census Bureau definition of the southeastern United States. However, the Association of American Geographers defines the southeastern United States as Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The OSBO uses the same states, but includes Arkansas and Louisiana.

Most populous states

The most populous state in the region is Florida (19,893,297), followed by Georgia (10,097,343), and North Carolina (9,943,964).

Culture

The predominant culture of the Southeast has its origins with the settlement of the region by British colonists and African slaves in the 17th century, as well as large groups of English, Scots and Ulster-Scots, Germans, French, and Acadians in succeeding centuries.

Climate

The Southeastern part of the United States is dominated by different varieties of the humid subtropical climate, but southern Florida such as the Miami metropolitan area has a tropical monsoon climate due to the significantly warmer winters. Summers are generally very hot throughout the entire region with relatively small temperature differences for July throughout the region, as proven by Miami's July high being 90.9 °F (32.7 °C) with even a coastal area as north as in Virginia Beach recording close to 88 °F (31 °C) on average that time of the year. With tropical air masses influencing the region precipitation is high throughout the year, and unlike more westerly areas on similar latitudes the Southeast is lush with vegetation. The tropical air masses do however cause significant hurricanes such as Hurricane Andrew (1992) and Hurricane Katrina (2005) wreaking havoc and causing significant damage to coastal areas. The winters highly vary depending on latitude and elevation. For example, Jacksonville in Northern Florida has an average low of 41 °F (5 °C) in January, only seeing snow a few times a decade while Richmond, Virginia has an average low of 25 °F (−4 °C) in January seeing snow several times per year.

Economy

The Southeast has changed dramatically in the last two generations. Since 1980, there has been a boom in its service economy, manufacturing base, high technology industries, and the financial sector. Examples of this include the surge in tourism in Florida and along the Gulf Coast; numerous new automobile production plants such as Mercedes-Benz in Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Hyundai in Montgomery, Alabama; Toyota Motors in Blue Springs, Mississippi; Kia in West Point, Georgia; the BMW production plant in Greer, South Carolina; Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tennessee; the GM manufacturing plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee; and the Nissan North American headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee; the two largest research parks in the country: Research Triangle Park in the Triangle area of North Carolina (the world's largest) and the Cummings Research Park in Huntsville, Alabama (the world's fourth largest); and the corporate headquarters of Verso Paper in Memphis, as well as FedEx, which is one of the world's largest shipping companies.

Fortune 500 companies having headquarters in the region included 20 in Virginia, 16 in Florida, 15 in North Carolina, and 14 in Georgia. This economic expansion has enabled parts of the South to have of some of the lowest unemployment rates in the United States. In Alabama, there is a large-scale manufacturing project owned by the German steel megacorporation Thyssen-Krupp, which operates a massive, state-of-the-art facility in Mobile, Alabama.

Research and development

Research Triangle Park, in the Raleigh-Durham urban area of North Carolina, has emerged as a major hub of technology, governmental, and biotechnological research and development, as has the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park in Richmond. The Cummings Research Park in the Huntsville, Alabama area is the second largest research complex in the nation. Located in Huntsville is the Redstone Arsenal, United States Army Missile Command, the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and many other key government, military, and aerospace agencies.

The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida is the largest laboratory in the world devoted to the study of magnetism. The University of South Carolina is currently constructing a research campus in downtown Columbia, and the university is the nation's only National Science Foundation-funded Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Fuel Cells.

Higher education

There are a number of notable universities, with several large research universities which exert influence beyond the region. These include the oldest public universities in the country, the University of Alabama. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, College of William & Mary and University of Georgia, along with the University of Florida, Auburn University, the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), and the University of Virginia.

There are a number of well-known private institutions, including Georgetown University and Howard University (in Washington D.C.), Wake Forest University and Duke University (in North Carolina), Tulane University (in New Orleans, Louisiana), Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Emory University (in Atlanta, Georgia), University of Miami (in Miami, Florida), Tuskegee University (in Tuskegee, Alabama), and Vanderbilt University (in Nashville, Tennessee).

The region is home to the most historically black colleges and universities in the nation. The three largest in the region are North Carolina A&T University, Florida A&M University, and Jackson State University (in Jackson, Mississippi).

Largest cities

These are the largest cities in the Southeastern region of the United States by population, according to the United States Census Bureau:

Metropolitan Statistical Areas

These are the metropolitan areas of the Southeastern region which exceed 1 million in population according to the United States Census Bureau's 2013 estimates:

Combined Statistical Areas

Beyond Megalopolis by Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute, an attempt to update Jean Gottmann's work with current trends, defines two "megapolitan areas" contained within the Southeast, out of a total of ten such areas in the United States:

Two others tie some areas on the margins of the Southeast to urban centers in other regions:

These are the combined statistical areas of the Southeastern region which exceed 1 million in population according to the United States Census Bureau's 2013 estimates. Note that the metropolitan areas of Tampa and Richmond are not included in any CSA's so they are included in the table without constituent areas:

Fauna

There are about two million feral pigs in the Southeast. Around 500,000 are in Florida.

Sports

In professional sports, the Southeast has nine NFL teams: Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints, Miami Dolphins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Carolina Panthers, Washington Redskins, Tennessee Titans and the Baltimore Ravens. The Falcons, Saints, Buccaneers and Panthers play in the NFC South, the Redskins play in the NFC East, the Jaguars and the Titans play in the AFC South, the Dolphins play in the AFC East and the Ravens play in the AFC North.

Five Major League Baseball teams play in the Southeast: Washington Nationals, Miami Marlins, Atlanta Braves, Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles. The Braves, Nationals and Marlins play in the NL East and the Orioles and Rays play in the AL East.

4 Major League Lacrosse teams play in the southeast: Chesapeake Bayhawks, Florida Launch, Charlotte Hounds, and the Atlanta Blaze.

Seven National Basketball Association teams play in the Southeast: Washington Wizards, Charlotte Hornets, Atlanta Hawks, Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic and New Orleans Pelicans. The Wizards, Heat, Hornets, Magic and Hawks are in the Eastern Conference and the Grizzlies and Pelicans are in the Western Conference.

The Southeastern Conference is an NCAA Division 1 conference of Southeastern college teams, including the Alabama Crimson Tide, Auburn Tigers, Kentucky Wildcats, Ole Miss Rebels, Florida Gators, South Carolina Gamecocks, Tennessee Volunteers and Georgia Bulldogs, Mississippi State Bulldogs, and Vanderbilt Commodores. The Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, Peach Bowl, and Citrus Bowl are notable college football bowls held in Southeastern cities. The Atlantic Coast Conference also features Southeastern teams, such as the Florida State Seminoles, Louisville Cardinals, Miami Hurricanes, and Clemson Tigers.

The majority of NASCAR teams are headquartered in the Charlotte area along with the sports operations headquarters and media outlets. Tracks in the region include Daytona International Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Darlington Raceway, Kentucky Speedway, Martinsville Speedway, and Richmond International Speedway.