Is Missouri In the South or Midwest? Apparently, Both?

It's a question that folks have been arguing about for ages. Just like, what exactly is the correct way to say Missouri?  People have opinions, and even government agencies have opinions. Sometimes those opinions aren't in agreement with each other.

Emerson College Polling and Middle West Review conducted the largest-ever study on Midwestern boundaries and identity in 2023 and found that 95% of Missourians consider themselves to live in the Midwest. Oddly, more Missourians identify as Midwestern than Illnionions.

Not to get off track here, but 93% of Michiganders and 78% of Ohioans also consider themselves in the Midwest. I mention this because I found a very much more East Coast attitude in Mid-Michigan and Detroit in the year I lived there. Additionally, radio programmer John Gorman, in his book talking about WMMS and Cleveland Radio characterized the residents of that part of Ohio as having an East Coast attitude too.

My point in bringing this up is that arbitrary boundaries like state lines, convenient labeling by a government agency, or even a poll won't definitively determine an area's attitudes or characteristics.

Redditor Vim_Dynamo posted, perhaps tongue in cheek, that Missouri is legally in the South because the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Standards and Labeling Policy Book states that "The term 'Southern' is restricted to use only in areas south of the Mason-Dixon Line and east of the Mississippi River as well as Arkansas, Louisiana, and Missouri, where are also considered southern states."

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That was followed by a comment from Redditor Moonsnocket who prefers to let the Census Bureau make the definitive call, and that's the Midwest. He's right they have Missouri in the Midwest.

That said, they have Texas and Oklahoma in the South which is partially correct. Like East Texas, the part near Louisiana, that's the South. The part of Texas I lived in, Lubbock, was Midwest and Southwest.  Oklahoma? South? Maybe near the Arkansas border, but not the parts near Dallas, or much of its shared border with Kansas.

Looking at the various comments Redditors shared weighing in on the issue was good for a chuckle too. Reddit comments ranged from "This was settled when Mizzou was accepted to the SEC" to folks proclaiming Interstate 70 or Highway 50 was the deciding line between Midwest and South attitudes in Missouri.

That said,  Redditor Nocheese22 says, "The average Missourian is more southern than the average Texan." That kind of tracks with my Texas experience, yet Palestine, Texas, which is sort of the Sedalia, Missouri of East Texas was more Southern in its attitude than any part of Missouri I've experienced so far.

So, what do you think, is Missouri more Midwest, more South, or both?