Which states qualify as culturally Southern?

[muon2]

I like Griff's approach with the shaded areas, and I might quibble on some of the lines (head west a little more into TX and OK, north into the MO Ozarks.) But none of DFW, OKC, or St Louis are truly southern in a cultural sense.

For my tally, I estimate the southernness by the fraction of CDs that are predominantly southern. It seems like the right metric for the Atlas. Here are the states I didn't check.

FL: The Panhandle and Jacksonville make up 4 CDs of 27. I was just in the Daytona Beach CD this summer, and it wasn't very southern - it was more like the touristy areas of central FL, it only got southern as I went west of US-1/I-95 in the areas of low population. It's been about a decade since I was in the Ocala area, and I would concede some southernness there, but the south half of that CD is the stretch from The Villages to Spring Hill and that's back to the central FL retirement lifestyle. At best the south makes up 5 CDs of 27.

TX: There are 5 CDs that are primarily east of the I-45 corridor between Dallas and Houston and I would be happy to classify those as southern. Dallas/Fort Worth is southern Plains, bordering on the southwest, and everything south of Austin is southwestern with its Tejano influence.  I'm not sure where to place Houston and its 7 CDs of population, but even if it's southern that only gives the southern area 12 out of 36 CDs.

OK: The southeastern part is the only part that is genuinely southern and that's 1 CD out of 5. Both OKC and Tusla are cities of the southern Plains, and in this case they even share the same Midland dialect with much of KS. The lack of any large Hispanic population keeps OK out of the southwest, too.

MO: KC is a quintessential Plains city, and St Louis is more like Chicago than any other large city. St Louis even shares a lot of Chicago dialect and terminates the "St Louis corridor" that connects the two dialectically. That leaves the Springfield, Ozark, and Bootheel regions which make up 2-3 CDs out of 8.

IN: Evansville has some of the same feel as Louisville, so I can be generous and call that southern. But Indianapolis is not in that category. At best it has 2 CDs out of 9.

WV: I wouldn't confuse Appalachian for Southern. Beckley is southern, but you could move industrial Charleston to western PA, and I don't know that I could tell the difference. That gives the southern area only 1 CD out of 3.

Borderline in VA: The 3+ NoVa CDs are definitely not southern. It's been about 12 years since I spent time in the Williamsburg/Hampton Roads area, but back then it seemed far more southern than not. I'm not buying that it has changed so much in a decade so I still count 7 of 11 CDs as culturally southern.

[muon2]

makes a lot of sense, Muon.

Are there any parts of KY that would not be Southern? Maybe the area right outside of Cincinnati?

That would be my sense, but it's a close call. Even if that area didn't count, it still leaves 5 out of 6 KY CDs as southern.

[muon2]

Depends on the definition of "Southern", doesn't it?

Yes, Captain Obvious, which is why I asked how you would define the term in the OP.

I've been hoping to see more definitions myself, but most of the comments just state their vote with little or nothing to back it up.

[muon2]

If you're along or south of U.S. 60, you're in the South, period. If you're along or north of U.S. 50, you're NOT in the South, period. Between U.S. 50 and U.S. 60 is where the North and the South blend, with the culture becoming more Southern closer to U.S. 60, and more Northern closer to U.S. 50. This rule applies as far west as the 96th meridian. Nowhere west of the 96th meridian is in the South.

This seems like a pretty solid definition of the South.

I agree, except it needs a southern cutoff in FL. The I-10 corridor is north of the line and the I-4 corridor is south and outside of the line.

[muon2]

All but Missouri and Indiana.  I will admit that "culturally Southern" is going away.  I consider Virginia and Florida culturally Southern, at least for historical reasons.  Texas and Louisiana have similar statuses, but are culturally Southern.

There's a huge difference between LA and TX unless you ignore the vast majority of TX west of the Trinity river.