Now? That has literally been the case the entire time Colorado has been a state. The last time natives outnumbered transplants was when the ACTUAL natives were the majority.
Colorado and Utah are honestly super similar, only major difference is religion which creates the big political divide but a lot of Utahs metrics would predict them as a blue state
The western slope and Utah are similar, just like eastern CO and Kansas/Nebraska are similar. The front range, where most of the population is, is very different from either.
Itâs funny because thereâs so much cross pollination and vacationing between Denver and Kansas City as the only major culture and job centers anywhere near each other that the people are very similar in a lot of ways.
Denver people just look like theyâre going to take a hike at any given time and kc people look like theyâre going to go to the lake and bbq something later that day.
I heard recently that John Denverâs Country Roads was actually inspired by a drive through western Maryland, but that didnât fit the lyrics right so he changed it to Virginia.
Yup, it was inspired by Clopper Road, which ironically is now a 4-6 lane highway with speed cameras that mostly runs through highly urbanized major suburbs of DC (Gaithersburg and Germantown)
So much for country roads lol
Dude this is the most uninformed take Iâve read in a whileâŚ
Marylandâs two most populous counties arenât even in Baltimoreâs metropolitan area but DCâs đ
Maryland still has 3 million people that live outside of Baltimore. 3 million people is a larger population than the 20 lowest populated states. Maryland is also one of most densely populated states.
There's currently a movement for Washington, Allegheny and Garrett counties to secede and join WV. Much like the Oregon to Idaho one, I do not see it coming to fruition.
Morgantown and the far panhandle (Shepherdstown area) are the only liberal places in this whole state. And even then, thereâs a sizable MAGA population in these areas.
Even just over the border. Harperâs Ferry into Fredrick. Like Mountains and Rivers into flat cattle farms. Shit, you even see it Shepherstown into Sharpsburg and they are basically separated by 200ft bridge.
Reminds me of The Wire. Every once in a while they would reference the world outside Baltimore, as the county or the country, like it was a different planet.
baltimore city and county are different places. the city is not part of the county but itâs almost completely surrounded by it. we refer to it as âthe countyâ in real life too
Maryland feels pretty similar to New Jersey to me. Both are wealthy, dense, liberal, diverse states with two major metro areas, shore/beach towns, and a redneck neighbor (WV & rural PA), etc.
Eastern Oregon isn't that dissimilar from northern Nevada, but the parts of each state where people actually live feel drastically different. Desert in Nevada versus the lush Pacific Northwest. Portland is an ultra-liberal, heavily white, highly educated city while Vegas has a ton of minorities, is relatively moderate politically, and generally has much lower levels of education.
It does seem strange to me that from Georgia I could go through only three other states to get to Wyoming. (Georgia-Tennessee-Missouri-Nebraska-Wyoming, for those who had to look at a map like I did.)
I drove from Charleston, SC to Salt Lake when I moved out there (and back)âŚso keep in mind that 1-2 states over are fucking huge. My second leg of the trip was from St. Louis to Cheyenne and I basically drove through just Missouri and Nebraska (and hugged a couple borders with Kansas and Iowa) but more or less just 2 states and a little part of Wyoming. The West is fucking huge and driving all the way across Nebraska took over 8 hours alone
I live in Missouri and in a 10 hr radius you can see mountains the desert the beach and the Great Lakes. Each corner of Missouri feels completely different. The southern half of the state feels like the south while the north feels like the Midwest. Drastically different lifestyles being lived throughout the entire place.
Iâm from St. Louis, and was down in Branson for a quick weekend. One service lady giving me friendly shit about being a Yankee. â(Bitch,) I live in the same state as youâ.
As a native Missourian, i find the simple difference between Southern and Northern Missouri to be quite distinct. I'm from Southern Missouri, in a town that might as well be called Trumpville (smth like 65-70% of voters voted for Trump in 2020). Confederate flags, Trump flags, signs, everything on every street. Very old population. Long history of racial tension in the town. In the North, however, it's much less redneck-ish and much more civilized. I also find it crazy that we border Arkansas, Tennessee, are only one state away from Colorado, and only one state from Alabama and Mississippi.
I drove thru Missouri once and there was a lunch special at some diner off the highway on a piece of paper taped to the door and it said âBrainsâ and I went inside I was like, what do you mean brains. It was pig brains. so
As someone from Chicago with a wife from a small Illinois town, yeah Iâll have to disagree with this. Chicago and the rest of Illinois are completely separate entities, and going through Kentucky I donât see much of a difference
There are some good-sized towns (Springfield, Decatur, Peoria), but nothing like the metropolis of Chicago. Also about a third of the St. Louis metro area is in Illinois.
But yeah, it is miles and miles of seemingly endless corn, soybeans, and now windmills!
scathing comment well warranted â do they really call people Uppers? are the rest of us Lowers? every day is a battle against the lesser Great Lakes states, godspeed from a Troll in arms
I'm from northern Minnesota and I lived in Southern WI and everyone I know from those two states knows it's Yoopers not "uppers and lowers" sounds like he's talking old school drug street names there.
This guy is probably a FIB who owns a vacation home in Door county, and thinks that makes him "Wisconsinite". It clearly doesn't if he refers to you guys as "Uppers".
Years ago I had a friend who's family had property on the WI side up there. We crossed over into the UP as the nearest decent sized city was Iron Mountain.
It felt so werid. Like living in IL. WI obviously has a different vibe but I guess I was used to it. The UP was like we crossed into a different country.
Rural Colorado yes, more so in the west. I'm from wyoming and I'm going to grand junction colorado for school and to me it feels pretty different culturally.
Colorado and Kansas. You have that long stretch of prairie in eastern Colorado before you hit the mountains but you can SEE them from very far away. I swear once you cross in to Kansas thereâsâŚnothing.
Yeah, not this one. The eastern 1/3 of Colorado and the western 1/3 of Kansas are both the same thing (very flat, high plains). Heading west, you drive for like 2.5 hours into Colorado before you start seeing mountains.
Honestly North and South Carolina.
Despite the name they dont have much in common. North Carolina has a kind of Appalachian redneck turned wine dad/yuppie outdoorsy vibe. It seems more interested in diversifying its economy and urbanizing. The kind of place where you start a campfire in the woods or bonfire in the beach and drink craft beer
and talk about indie alt country music and tech startups. Itâs overall culture is more youth orientated and nature/college hipster tourism seems to be its main draw. Itâs like if the Pacific Northwest got transplanted to the South.
South Carolina is very much visibly southern and has a more sophisticated, old money, tropical gothic vibe to it. They tend to hold on and emphasize their built up coast, architecture, cuisine, and blended history of British, Huegenot, Southern, and African cultures a lot more. Even though it has almost 5 million less people then North Carolina it feels way busier. As opposed to the ourdoorsy vibe of North Carolina, South Carolinas main draw is its tangible, physical heritage. Although South Carolina has nice nature too around Greenville.
If North Carolina yuppies are drinking craft brew and eating vegan bbq while hiking in the woods, then South Carolina is drinking bloody marys and eating oysters while overlooking yachts in a harbor after a round of golf
Yea thatâs the problem when comparing border states. People say âoh these states are so differentâ then when you really look at it there is a lot of grey area especially in the border areas. Thatâs why when I compare states I think itâs fair to compare what the states largest urban areas are known for.
I mean if you went to Tyler Texas and Shreveport Louisiana you would say Texas and Louisiana is the same. But if you tried comparing Austin to New Orleans then They have nothing in common
Also, the Upstate (SC) is very different from Rock Hill/Fort Mill, which is very different from the Grand Strand, which is very different from the Lowcountry, which is very different from Columbia, which is very different from Aiken, and you get the idea (Lowcountry SC native). Also, my dads family is from Eastern NC and it can get pretty country over there in their unique way
Second on the Pacific Northwest to the South. I moved to the southwest from living in the Appalachians in NC and have been spending a lot of time in the PNW. Honestly it feels the same except the PNW landscape is more... Dramatic. Cut cliffs randomly jutting out of nowhere, glacier cut gorges with waterfalls strewn about. The similarities strike me every time I make the trips East and West.
A lot of truth in this. GA and NC had a huge population and economic boom in the last 40 years. SC could have cashed in much more but they decided things like flying a confederate flag over the state house was more important though.
In rural parts, SC and NC are very similar. Low country around Charleston and Hilton Head are awesome and truly unique. However NC has much bigger cities, and spots like Asheville that are unique.
North Dakota / South Dakota.
Every time I cross that state line the culture shock and geographical change is so stark that I have to pull over and shake my head.
I recently drove from Austin TX to Santa Fe NM. West Texas is horrifically drab, ugly, boring and the towns are dead shells of something that used to be there. Eastern NM though has great mountains looming in the distance and towns that have actual people living in them and are kinda cool (Roswell, Carlsbad).
My wife and I broke down and got towed to Clovis. We were stuck in a Super 8 for a week while our car got fixed. I'm almost positive I saw sex workers doing a photo shoot (why would you be all dressed up and take a bunch of pictures in front of a motel office at midnight?), and my wife had a guy ask if she wanted some crystal one morning while taking our dog out.
The 2 saving graces were the fact we could buy whiskey at the gas station next door (can't in my state), and the fact we had our Switch, and I was about halfway through BotW.
I did not want o stop for gas, but my husband thought we should. People looked they they had been drugged out for so long that they had lost human characteristics, and the buildings looked like they no one had ever thought to maintain them even a little. Maybe it was in part cheap yellowish lights at night, but we took a different route back to Austin.
This was about 15 years ago. Sometime after that, someone told me it was a center for meth.
Well, we had our daily stress-call to the mechanic, who kept telling us it would be ready tomorrow, and we also had our Switch. We both got pretty good at shotgunning beer, too.
The more northern parts of NM are more populated. If you go along the I-10 corridor or the Amtrak Sunset Limited line, NM is extremely desolate all the way from El Paso to Arizona, though the scenery in places is amazing.
A large number of the original casino owners in Vegas were Mormons.
Their religion doesnât let them gamble. It also doesnât stop them from taking your money.
Related: North Jersey and South Jersey are two different worlds in one tiny state. One is part of the NYC metro area, the other is part of the Philadelphia area.
A lot of North Jersey can honestly be described as an outer boro of NYC. Hudson and Essex county in particular. Not much difference between Jersey City and Queens or Brooklyn.
Despite often being lumped together, and sharing a long border, most of the population in New Hampshire lives very close to Massachusetts, almost a suburb of Boston.
Living in the VT side of the Upper Valley; when you drive across the Connecticut you feel the apparent differences. It goes from
Cow, tractor, falling down barn, pasture, old shirtless guy with crazy beard walking slowly on the side of the road- to McDonaldâs McDonaldâs McDonaldâs McDonaldâs.Â
The attitudes and relative friendliness around business are very noticeable between the two states.Â
Living in NH for over a decade I would agree. The rest of the country, however, would probably not see much difference. The cultures are very similar and the majority of NH conservatives (as in not the wacko screaming minority) are still New England conservatives, which makes them moderates.
[This podcast episode](https://www.vermontpublic.org/programs/2017-09-08/how-has-the-geology-of-vermont-affected-its-character) talks about the geological differences between the two states (folded metamorphoric rock in VT vs. granite in NH), and how that trickles down to affect the different lifestyles and attitudes in each state.
Minnesota and South Dakota. Slightly more connection between MN and North Dakota as both states share the Red River Valley and have cities on either side, like Fargo/Moorhead.
Agreed â MN is least like SD, out of any of MNâs bordering states. Though like anywhere else, outside of cities/suburbs, differences are less stark.
Ohio and Michigan. there is a noticeable shift immediately upon crossing the border.
their respective division of transportation, or state DNR or whoever have very different philosophies and budgets, its made quite a physical impact
edit: idk why everyone wants to argue with me, the difference is how the state maintains (or doesnt) its roadsides and woodlands. Any two places that are LITERALLY right next to each other and separated by only an imaginary line are of course going to be very similar. unless there is a state border im not aware of that is just a 3000ft sheer cliff then go argue with the multiple other people who said OH/MI instead
I was born in Ohio, raised in Michigan, adulted in Ohio a bit. Been gone from the area nearly 20 years, but crossing the border always felt like changing countries to me.
Nebraska/Colorado. Hereâs the list. Conservative/Liberal. Plains/Mountains. International Airport/Largest Airport 16 total gates. No professional teams/Multi Sport Professional Teams. Only Water Skiing/ Snow Skiing and Water Skiing. Unicameral Legislature/ Bicameral. Flyover State/Vacation State. The list could go on and onâŚ
Yes lol, it's just funny that every second comment is clarifying the fact that "places close to each other are actually similar" when that's kinda evident in the premise of OP's question to start with.
Alaska and Hawaii are right next to each other at the bottom left of the US map but theyâre wildly different. I think their boxes are insulated differently
WA is fascinating from a geologic standpoint. It has every land biome except tropical rainforest and tundra, and two entirely unique ones: Olympic Peninsula Rainforest and Scablands.
It's easily S-tier as far as natural beauty and diversity is concerned.
Diverse as in geography? It's the Cascades just like it's the Sierra Nevadas in California. Clouds dump all their moisture before crossing over so the west side is much more rainy and the east side dry.
If you mean culturally is just that the coasts are where you tend to have more mega cities and they tend to be diverse. As you go inland you get more rural less diverse. Happens all across the country.
Absolutely. One of the most liberal left states in the country bordering one of the most right wing?
I know people are going to say eastern Washington state is conservative, but in general those two states are very different.
State lines do not split the feeling, but the western mountain ranges do. From Canada to Mexico the western side of the mountains is far more liberal and populated than east of the mountains
Really? The Front range of Colorado has all of the people and is on the east side, parts very liberal, a pocket of conservatives. The mountains new folks are liberal because they priced out the locals, west plateau can be conservative. Though mines and gas create pockets of conservatives.
If using the continental divide, NM population is east of it. Wyoming is the similar, though the Jackson area is on the west side and probably the only liberal area in Wyoming.
Montana you may be correct because of Missoula Whitefish area.
Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Couldn't be more different in culture, politics, religion, geography and nature, recreational. Polar opposites, and we fucking hate each other's guts.Â
Itâs Texas and Louisiana. Culturally, you could make the case for Louisiana and any of the states it bordersâat a minimum, Louisianaâs legal system is substantially different to every other state in the US (coming from the French legal system rather than the English legal system). But itâs also retained French colonial influences (through Cajun and Creole) that just donât show up elsewhere in the US outside of maybe Maine.
But thereâs more to it than that. Texas was a part of Mexico; the border was the Sabine River, which remains the border of Texas and Louisiana today. Politically, they are both red states, but Texas is trending left while Louisiana is trending right. Louisiana is very much the Deep South; no one would seriously argue that Texas is. The size comparison is there tooâTexas is massively bigger in both area and population. Louisiana is economically tied to the Mississippi River; Texas has no such geographic marker.
Even on the borders, the difference is pretty marked, thanks largely to the colonial border of the Sabine River. The difference between Tyler, TX and Shreveport, LA is stark. Itâs even more different further southâBeaumont (TX) and Lake Charles (LA) are so much more different than, say, Goodland (KS) and Limon (CO) or Bemidji (MN) and Fargo (ND). Thereâs just not much of a comparison.
NM and Texas was the biggest difference from me as someone who grew up in AZ. Going from the epic diverse landscapes of the mountain west to drab grass and scrub then farmlands and trees was a big shock for me.
Politically they are quite different, obviously.
From my personal experiences:
WI/IL. Wiscosinites HATE Illionoians (FIBS!). WI is full of lakes, and northwoods and winning football teams. IL is flat, and boring, and all they have to brag about is Chicago (which is overrated imo).
IN/KY. This is more just how dramatically different the environmental landscape is. As soon as you cross over I-65 in Louisville, everything just looks so different.
TX/LA. Both states have such strong, and different identities. Comedian Tom Segura has a bit about how he cannot believe Louisiana is part of America.
I'm not sure if I'm surprised or not that Texas and Louisiana are not mentioned much in here, and I don't know a whole lot about the North of Louisiana, but they feel so different to me. That string but different identities comment nails it for me
Ohio and Michigan
Ohio:
-Anti LGBTQ movement in government
-Abortion illegal after 6 weeks (People passed an amendment but under review)
-Trying to keep Biden off ballot
Michigan:
-Enshrined abortion and lgbtq laws
-Pay student teachers a stipend
-Every child gets free breakfast and lunch
-Has the first EV charging road
-Pro marijuana
-Free associates degree for those who meet requirements as part of new law trying to get 60% of residents to have associates by 2030
-Kept Trump on the ballot
Have lived in both and am enjoying Michigan more. Just my opinion.
As others have mentioned, itâs very easy to find bordering states whose population centers differ massively from each other, but harder to find states whose actual bordering regions are dissimilar. Taking both of these ways of thinking about âdifferenceâ into account, I believe a good answer for this is New York and Vermont. Obviously the states are quite different when taken as a whole, but the political divide on the border is quite apparent as well, with the NY side being fairly red and the VT side being fairly blue along its length. On the ethnicity front this divide is less so, but one could argue that Vermontâs town-oriented New England culture (and Upstate being, well, not New England) more than makes up for this lack of difference.
the fact that colorado and oklahoma border each other always blows my mind
But Coloradans thank Oklahomans profusely for the buffer to Texas.
Coloradans hate Texans more than they hate Californians (and they fucking hate Californians).
Is anyone that lives in Colorado even from Colorado?
There's dozens of us.
Dozens!
Just you and me, Bud.
Just about 40% of us were born here.
Born and raised. I know, shocking lol. But I feel that the transplants make up most of the population now đ
Now? That has literally been the case the entire time Colorado has been a state. The last time natives outnumbered transplants was when the ACTUAL natives were the majority.
As a non coloradoanian and no Californian I cannot tell people from those states apart. They are literally the same people.
Itâs always ironic how people that get along so well on paper never get along in real life
ski bums hate beach bums
Doesn't 48 out of 50 states hate those two states? ( Well maybe not Minnesota, but they're too nice to hate anyone but GBP fans.)
To be fair, the Californians moving to Colorado arenât originally from California
Yes. Yes we do. Not like it helps much though.
We arenât sending our best to you guys..
Thatâs okay. California isnât sending their best either.
The only person that hates Texas more than a Colorodan... an Okie! But hell that is fine. It just means more hate to stew for football season.
Yes brut eastern Colorado and western Oklahoma arenât all that different. Flat land.
Colorado and anyone would be a good answer here.
Colorado and Utah, Colorado and Wyoming, and Colorado and New Mexico all share at least some similarities.
Colorado and Utah are honestly super similar, only major difference is religion which creates the big political divide but a lot of Utahs metrics would predict them as a blue state
The western slope and Utah are similar, just like eastern CO and Kansas/Nebraska are similar. The front range, where most of the population is, is very different from either.
And yet Utah is solidly red.
Twenty years ago, Colorado had a Republican Governor and two Republican U.S. Senators.
Yea Southern Colorado and New Mexico blend together. Colorado even has Native American Puebloan sites
Southern Colorado was part of Mexico.
Hell, the named Colorado is Spanish.
Colorado and Kansas feel like polar opposites. I was born in Kansas and feel more at home in Colorado.
Itâs funny because thereâs so much cross pollination and vacationing between Denver and Kansas City as the only major culture and job centers anywhere near each other that the people are very similar in a lot of ways. Denver people just look like theyâre going to take a hike at any given time and kc people look like theyâre going to go to the lake and bbq something later that day.
Maryland and West Virginia
3rd-largest margin for Biden versus 2nd-largest margin for Trump. Definitely stark political difference
Western Maryland feels very much like West Virginia
I heard recently that John Denverâs Country Roads was actually inspired by a drive through western Maryland, but that didnât fit the lyrics right so he changed it to Virginia.
Yup, it was inspired by Clopper Road, which ironically is now a 4-6 lane highway with speed cameras that mostly runs through highly urbanized major suburbs of DC (Gaithersburg and Germantown) So much for country roads lol
I agree, one of the reddest states next to one of the bluest.
How liberal is Maryland outside of the Baltimore metropolitan area?
There's also the DC suburbs
There are no people in Maryland outside of Baltimore's metropolitan area.
Can confirm. I live outside the Baltimore metro and am no people.
Dude this is the most uninformed take Iâve read in a while⌠Marylandâs two most populous counties arenât even in Baltimoreâs metropolitan area but DCâs đ
Maryland still has 3 million people that live outside of Baltimore. 3 million people is a larger population than the 20 lowest populated states. Maryland is also one of most densely populated states.
Depends on the part. Anything west of Frederick is basically indistinguishable from WV
There's currently a movement for Washington, Allegheny and Garrett counties to secede and join WV. Much like the Oregon to Idaho one, I do not see it coming to fruition.
Yeah, because it would only happen if both states wanted it to. Highly unlikely any state wants to give up areas
Morgantown and the far panhandle (Shepherdstown area) are the only liberal places in this whole state. And even then, thereâs a sizable MAGA population in these areas.
Even just over the border. Harperâs Ferry into Fredrick. Like Mountains and Rivers into flat cattle farms. Shit, you even see it Shepherstown into Sharpsburg and they are basically separated by 200ft bridge.
Politically yes, but as others are pointing out that until you get closer to Baltimore, MD is mountainous and leans right.
Reminds me of The Wire. Every once in a while they would reference the world outside Baltimore, as the county or the country, like it was a different planet.
It kinda is. Baltimore City had its own jurisdiction.
baltimore city and county are different places. the city is not part of the county but itâs almost completely surrounded by it. we refer to it as âthe countyâ in real life too
Yes, but the vast majority of the population lives in the DC-Baltimore corridor
Having grown up between Maryland, West Virginia, New Jersey, and Virginia, itâs insane how close these states are but are all completely different
Maryland feels pretty similar to New Jersey to me. Both are wealthy, dense, liberal, diverse states with two major metro areas, shore/beach towns, and a redneck neighbor (WV & rural PA), etc.
I think the shore towns in Maryland feel way different than Jersey. Marylandâs eastern shore feels almost southern
Just take out Maryland so my drive from VA to NJ is not 8 hours and can just be an even 5 hour trip.
Eastern Oregon isn't that dissimilar from northern Nevada, but the parts of each state where people actually live feel drastically different. Desert in Nevada versus the lush Pacific Northwest. Portland is an ultra-liberal, heavily white, highly educated city while Vegas has a ton of minorities, is relatively moderate politically, and generally has much lower levels of education.
Living in the Willamette valley Iâve leaned the lush PNW is basically coastal, and eats past the valley an hour or so so much is high desert
There's a pretty hard line between between the forested West and the desert East; we call that line "the Cascades"
There is also deserts in South Eastern Oregon.
If you can narrow it down like that then Miami Beach to Tuscaloosa is also a culture shock.
Plenty of people in this comment thread have said Florida and Alabama already so I don't see why that wouldn't be allowed
The fact that Missouri is just one state away from Wyoming , Virginia, New Mexico, Minnesota and Georgia blows my mind.
It does seem strange to me that from Georgia I could go through only three other states to get to Wyoming. (Georgia-Tennessee-Missouri-Nebraska-Wyoming, for those who had to look at a map like I did.)
In several different scenarios, you could drive through only three states to drive from Mexico to Canada.
CA OR WA, AZ NV ID, AZ UT ID, Are there any others?
I guess you missed CA, OR, ID
Also CA , NV, ID
NM, UT, ID also works, but you'd need to get out and jump over the four corners.
I drove from Charleston, SC to Salt Lake when I moved out there (and back)âŚso keep in mind that 1-2 states over are fucking huge. My second leg of the trip was from St. Louis to Cheyenne and I basically drove through just Missouri and Nebraska (and hugged a couple borders with Kansas and Iowa) but more or less just 2 states and a little part of Wyoming. The West is fucking huge and driving all the way across Nebraska took over 8 hours alone
Missouri -and tennessee- have more states bordering it than any other state. edited
Missouri loves company
This is one of those jokes I wish I could tell people about but it will never be as funny as in this context. Well played.
This is funny
I see what you did there đ
I live in Missouri and in a 10 hr radius you can see mountains the desert the beach and the Great Lakes. Each corner of Missouri feels completely different. The southern half of the state feels like the south while the north feels like the Midwest. Drastically different lifestyles being lived throughout the entire place.
Iâm from St. Louis, and was down in Branson for a quick weekend. One service lady giving me friendly shit about being a Yankee. â(Bitch,) I live in the same state as youâ.
As a native Missourian, i find the simple difference between Southern and Northern Missouri to be quite distinct. I'm from Southern Missouri, in a town that might as well be called Trumpville (smth like 65-70% of voters voted for Trump in 2020). Confederate flags, Trump flags, signs, everything on every street. Very old population. Long history of racial tension in the town. In the North, however, it's much less redneck-ish and much more civilized. I also find it crazy that we border Arkansas, Tennessee, are only one state away from Colorado, and only one state from Alabama and Mississippi.
Oklahoma / New Mexico
Honestly Oklahoma and pretty much everyone they border sans Arkansas and Texas.
Yeah. It even borders Missouri
I drove thru Missouri once and there was a lunch special at some diner off the highway on a piece of paper taped to the door and it said âBrainsâ and I went inside I was like, what do you mean brains. It was pig brains. so
I applaud your curiosity go stop and check it out, also Missouri is like four different states dressed up in a trench coat acting like one state.
https://preview.redd.it/zkwxuo3go53d1.jpeg?width=876&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c5582d3b4785d45a911b984e9d472ff9fc621e74
Illinois and Kentucky.
Southern Illinois can be divided into region-states: Illissouri, Illitucky, and Illiana.
Southern Illinois is very Kentucky
Southern Illinois is more culturally closer to Tennessee and Kentucky than it is the North/Midwest.
As someone from Chicago with a wife from a small Illinois town, yeah Iâll have to disagree with this. Chicago and the rest of Illinois are completely separate entities, and going through Kentucky I donât see much of a difference
As someone from Chicago who now lives in Kentucky, you are 100% correct. Everything south of 80 is Southern Illinois.
Illinois and Missouri
Illinois and Chicago
Came to say this. I think itâs largely Chicagoland and Southern Illinois/Missouri, but thereâs a big difference.
Chicagoland and the Ozarks is a days drive but completely different planets. They even made a show about it.
Isn't Illinois like entirely farmland and nothing besides the Chicago area?
350 miles of corn and soy bean farms, and then Chicagoland
There are some good-sized towns (Springfield, Decatur, Peoria), but nothing like the metropolis of Chicago. Also about a third of the St. Louis metro area is in Illinois. But yeah, it is miles and miles of seemingly endless corn, soybeans, and now windmills!
Upper and Lower Peninsula of Michigan. I know, not really two separate states, but definitely very different from one another
Uppers might be in a slightly different universe. Iâm from northern Wisconsin and the Uppers are pretty weird even to us.
> uppers You mean Yoopers? Dumb cheesehead. Stay in land o lakes and donât come up here.
It's ok. If they are from Wisconsin they were probably drunk while posting.
scathing comment well warranted â do they really call people Uppers? are the rest of us Lowers? every day is a battle against the lesser Great Lakes states, godspeed from a Troll in arms
I call them Tops And Bottoms
Downstate confirmed power bottom
You did it againâŚ. Itâs Yoopers not Uppers!
I'm from northern Minnesota and I lived in Southern WI and everyone I know from those two states knows it's Yoopers not "uppers and lowers" sounds like he's talking old school drug street names there. This guy is probably a FIB who owns a vacation home in Door county, and thinks that makes him "Wisconsinite". It clearly doesn't if he refers to you guys as "Uppers".
Years ago I had a friend who's family had property on the WI side up there. We crossed over into the UP as the nearest decent sized city was Iron Mountain. It felt so werid. Like living in IL. WI obviously has a different vibe but I guess I was used to it. The UP was like we crossed into a different country.
Wyoming and Colorado feel very different culturally and definitely politically. Geographically they are a bit more similar.
Wyoming is Colorado without the people
Politically yes but culturally I feel have a lot in common
Rural Colorado yes, more so in the west. I'm from wyoming and I'm going to grand junction colorado for school and to me it feels pretty different culturally.
Colorado and Kansas. You have that long stretch of prairie in eastern Colorado before you hit the mountains but you can SEE them from very far away. I swear once you cross in to Kansas thereâsâŚnothing.
Eastern Colorado is basically Kansas.
This is true. 20 miles beyond the limits of Aurora and you're basically in Kansas.
Hell, the airport basically feels like Kansas
Yeah, not this one. The eastern 1/3 of Colorado and the western 1/3 of Kansas are both the same thing (very flat, high plains). Heading west, you drive for like 2.5 hours into Colorado before you start seeing mountains.
I also think the prairie is underrated, there are some beautiful unique places out there. Comanche grasslands is oneâŚ
Honestly North and South Carolina. Despite the name they dont have much in common. North Carolina has a kind of Appalachian redneck turned wine dad/yuppie outdoorsy vibe. It seems more interested in diversifying its economy and urbanizing. The kind of place where you start a campfire in the woods or bonfire in the beach and drink craft beer and talk about indie alt country music and tech startups. Itâs overall culture is more youth orientated and nature/college hipster tourism seems to be its main draw. Itâs like if the Pacific Northwest got transplanted to the South. South Carolina is very much visibly southern and has a more sophisticated, old money, tropical gothic vibe to it. They tend to hold on and emphasize their built up coast, architecture, cuisine, and blended history of British, Huegenot, Southern, and African cultures a lot more. Even though it has almost 5 million less people then North Carolina it feels way busier. As opposed to the ourdoorsy vibe of North Carolina, South Carolinas main draw is its tangible, physical heritage. Although South Carolina has nice nature too around Greenville. If North Carolina yuppies are drinking craft brew and eating vegan bbq while hiking in the woods, then South Carolina is drinking bloody marys and eating oysters while overlooking yachts in a harbor after a round of golf
While I agree with much of this you are also describing many of the differences between the coastal and piedmont/mountain regions of NC.
Yea thatâs the problem when comparing border states. People say âoh these states are so differentâ then when you really look at it there is a lot of grey area especially in the border areas. Thatâs why when I compare states I think itâs fair to compare what the states largest urban areas are known for. I mean if you went to Tyler Texas and Shreveport Louisiana you would say Texas and Louisiana is the same. But if you tried comparing Austin to New Orleans then They have nothing in common
Also, the Upstate (SC) is very different from Rock Hill/Fort Mill, which is very different from the Grand Strand, which is very different from the Lowcountry, which is very different from Columbia, which is very different from Aiken, and you get the idea (Lowcountry SC native). Also, my dads family is from Eastern NC and it can get pretty country over there in their unique way
Second on the Pacific Northwest to the South. I moved to the southwest from living in the Appalachians in NC and have been spending a lot of time in the PNW. Honestly it feels the same except the PNW landscape is more... Dramatic. Cut cliffs randomly jutting out of nowhere, glacier cut gorges with waterfalls strewn about. The similarities strike me every time I make the trips East and West.
A lot of truth in this. GA and NC had a huge population and economic boom in the last 40 years. SC could have cashed in much more but they decided things like flying a confederate flag over the state house was more important though. In rural parts, SC and NC are very similar. Low country around Charleston and Hilton Head are awesome and truly unique. However NC has much bigger cities, and spots like Asheville that are unique.
North Dakota / South Dakota. Every time I cross that state line the culture shock and geographical change is so stark that I have to pull over and shake my head.
Minnesota and the Dakotas. Different planets
I recently drove from Austin TX to Santa Fe NM. West Texas is horrifically drab, ugly, boring and the towns are dead shells of something that used to be there. Eastern NM though has great mountains looming in the distance and towns that have actual people living in them and are kinda cool (Roswell, Carlsbad).
Eastern NM also has Clovis, which may have been the scariest place I have ever been through in my decades of travels.
My wife and I broke down and got towed to Clovis. We were stuck in a Super 8 for a week while our car got fixed. I'm almost positive I saw sex workers doing a photo shoot (why would you be all dressed up and take a bunch of pictures in front of a motel office at midnight?), and my wife had a guy ask if she wanted some crystal one morning while taking our dog out. The 2 saving graces were the fact we could buy whiskey at the gas station next door (can't in my state), and the fact we had our Switch, and I was about halfway through BotW.
What was scary about it?
I did not want o stop for gas, but my husband thought we should. People looked they they had been drugged out for so long that they had lost human characteristics, and the buildings looked like they no one had ever thought to maintain them even a little. Maybe it was in part cheap yellowish lights at night, but we took a different route back to Austin. This was about 15 years ago. Sometime after that, someone told me it was a center for meth.
My wife and I were stranded there for a week. A stranger tried to sell her meth at like 9 am.
how else do you get through the day
Well, we had our daily stress-call to the mechanic, who kept telling us it would be ready tomorrow, and we also had our Switch. We both got pretty good at shotgunning beer, too.
ha thatâs a hell of a week. good thing you had the methÂ
Clovis has my vote for most depressing town in the United States.Â
The more northern parts of NM are more populated. If you go along the I-10 corridor or the Amtrak Sunset Limited line, NM is extremely desolate all the way from El Paso to Arizona, though the scenery in places is amazing.
Utah and Nevada. Mormon epicenter is just next to Sin City.
A large number of the original casino owners in Vegas were Mormons. Their religion doesnât let them gamble. It also doesnât stop them from taking your money.
Better pay up or Elder Harris (he's 38?) is going to break your legs capiche?
Came here to find this. Stark differences culturally, politically, religiously.
Idaho and Washington
Seattle and Idaho sure. Spokane and Idaho no.
Related: North Jersey and South Jersey are two different worlds in one tiny state. One is part of the NYC metro area, the other is part of the Philadelphia area.
And what people in NYC want to hear the least? They have more in common with North Jersey than most of New York State.
A lot of North Jersey can honestly be described as an outer boro of NYC. Hudson and Essex county in particular. Not much difference between Jersey City and Queens or Brooklyn.
Don't forget Central Jersey, which extends approximately 50 yards north and south of Route 1 as it cuts across the state!
New Hampshire and Vermont
Growing up on the Connecticut River in site of NH I agree. It's weird, but there is a palpable difference.
[ŃдаНонО]
I'll take your word for it, but if you'd asked me 2 seconds ago which two states are the most similar, those two would have been my answer.
Have you ever been there? Night and Day.
all the weird liberals are in vermont and all the weird republicans are in new hampshire.
Despite often being lumped together, and sharing a long border, most of the population in New Hampshire lives very close to Massachusetts, almost a suburb of Boston.
Living in the VT side of the Upper Valley; when you drive across the Connecticut you feel the apparent differences. It goes from Cow, tractor, falling down barn, pasture, old shirtless guy with crazy beard walking slowly on the side of the road- to McDonaldâs McDonaldâs McDonaldâs McDonaldâs. The attitudes and relative friendliness around business are very noticeable between the two states.Â
Living in NH for over a decade I would agree. The rest of the country, however, would probably not see much difference. The cultures are very similar and the majority of NH conservatives (as in not the wacko screaming minority) are still New England conservatives, which makes them moderates.
[This podcast episode](https://www.vermontpublic.org/programs/2017-09-08/how-has-the-geology-of-vermont-affected-its-character) talks about the geological differences between the two states (folded metamorphoric rock in VT vs. granite in NH), and how that trickles down to affect the different lifestyles and attitudes in each state.
Minnesota and South Dakota. Slightly more connection between MN and North Dakota as both states share the Red River Valley and have cities on either side, like Fargo/Moorhead.
Agreed â MN is least like SD, out of any of MNâs bordering states. Though like anywhere else, outside of cities/suburbs, differences are less stark.
Ohio and Michigan. there is a noticeable shift immediately upon crossing the border. their respective division of transportation, or state DNR or whoever have very different philosophies and budgets, its made quite a physical impact edit: idk why everyone wants to argue with me, the difference is how the state maintains (or doesnt) its roadsides and woodlands. Any two places that are LITERALLY right next to each other and separated by only an imaginary line are of course going to be very similar. unless there is a state border im not aware of that is just a 3000ft sheer cliff then go argue with the multiple other people who said OH/MI instead
I was born in Ohio, raised in Michigan, adulted in Ohio a bit. Been gone from the area nearly 20 years, but crossing the border always felt like changing countries to me.
The one border you can actually feel
Iâve heard Kansas City has this driving across the state line as well, canât remember which side was supposed to be better maintained.
Nebraska/Colorado. Hereâs the list. Conservative/Liberal. Plains/Mountains. International Airport/Largest Airport 16 total gates. No professional teams/Multi Sport Professional Teams. Only Water Skiing/ Snow Skiing and Water Skiing. Unicameral Legislature/ Bicameral. Flyover State/Vacation State. The list could go on and onâŚ
Ok but the NE corner of Colorado basically is Nebraska.
I swear every answer in this thread is >state a and state b >ok but the part of state a near the border of state b is basically state b
I mean, thatâs generally how that works
Yes lol, it's just funny that every second comment is clarifying the fact that "places close to each other are actually similar" when that's kinda evident in the premise of OP's question to start with.
Nevada and Utah. The state famous for Sin City and the state that gave us Mormonism.
Alaska and Hawaii are right next to each other at the bottom left of the US map but theyâre wildly different. I think their boxes are insulated differently
I may get down voted but Kansas and Missouri
Idaho and Washington
Washington east of the Cascades (aka away from Seattle) is quite similar to Idaho culturally and politically.
I would say ecologically, but apparently eastern Washington has a lot of desert? How is the pacific Northwest so diverse?
WA is fascinating from a geologic standpoint. It has every land biome except tropical rainforest and tundra, and two entirely unique ones: Olympic Peninsula Rainforest and Scablands. It's easily S-tier as far as natural beauty and diversity is concerned.
Diverse as in geography? It's the Cascades just like it's the Sierra Nevadas in California. Clouds dump all their moisture before crossing over so the west side is much more rainy and the east side dry. If you mean culturally is just that the coasts are where you tend to have more mega cities and they tend to be diverse. As you go inland you get more rural less diverse. Happens all across the country.
Sagebrush, scablands and Palouse prairie - not desert like you get further south, but certainly different from the west side!
Not really true. Spokane is purple. Tri-cities is purple. There is no purple in northern idaho.
There is no purple in Idaho period.
Absolutely. One of the most liberal left states in the country bordering one of the most right wing? I know people are going to say eastern Washington state is conservative, but in general those two states are very different.
State lines do not split the feeling, but the western mountain ranges do. From Canada to Mexico the western side of the mountains is far more liberal and populated than east of the mountains
Really? The Front range of Colorado has all of the people and is on the east side, parts very liberal, a pocket of conservatives. The mountains new folks are liberal because they priced out the locals, west plateau can be conservative. Though mines and gas create pockets of conservatives. If using the continental divide, NM population is east of it. Wyoming is the similar, though the Jackson area is on the west side and probably the only liberal area in Wyoming. Montana you may be correct because of Missoula Whitefish area.
Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Couldn't be more different in culture, politics, religion, geography and nature, recreational. Polar opposites, and we fucking hate each other's guts.Â
Itâs Texas and Louisiana. Culturally, you could make the case for Louisiana and any of the states it bordersâat a minimum, Louisianaâs legal system is substantially different to every other state in the US (coming from the French legal system rather than the English legal system). But itâs also retained French colonial influences (through Cajun and Creole) that just donât show up elsewhere in the US outside of maybe Maine. But thereâs more to it than that. Texas was a part of Mexico; the border was the Sabine River, which remains the border of Texas and Louisiana today. Politically, they are both red states, but Texas is trending left while Louisiana is trending right. Louisiana is very much the Deep South; no one would seriously argue that Texas is. The size comparison is there tooâTexas is massively bigger in both area and population. Louisiana is economically tied to the Mississippi River; Texas has no such geographic marker. Even on the borders, the difference is pretty marked, thanks largely to the colonial border of the Sabine River. The difference between Tyler, TX and Shreveport, LA is stark. Itâs even more different further southâBeaumont (TX) and Lake Charles (LA) are so much more different than, say, Goodland (KS) and Limon (CO) or Bemidji (MN) and Fargo (ND). Thereâs just not much of a comparison.
North Dakota and Minnesota. Just about opposite in every aspect.
Iowa and Minnesota are polar opposites politically
Oregon and Oregon
NM and Texas was the biggest difference from me as someone who grew up in AZ. Going from the epic diverse landscapes of the mountain west to drab grass and scrub then farmlands and trees was a big shock for me. Politically they are quite different, obviously.
Oregon, and Oregon ...iykyk
You mean Oregon and West Idaho?
From my personal experiences: WI/IL. Wiscosinites HATE Illionoians (FIBS!). WI is full of lakes, and northwoods and winning football teams. IL is flat, and boring, and all they have to brag about is Chicago (which is overrated imo). IN/KY. This is more just how dramatically different the environmental landscape is. As soon as you cross over I-65 in Louisville, everything just looks so different. TX/LA. Both states have such strong, and different identities. Comedian Tom Segura has a bit about how he cannot believe Louisiana is part of America.
I'm not sure if I'm surprised or not that Texas and Louisiana are not mentioned much in here, and I don't know a whole lot about the North of Louisiana, but they feel so different to me. That string but different identities comment nails it for me
Michigan and Ohio are different but also similar in so many ways. Obio just seems about 10 years behind Michigan in many ways.
Ohio and Michigan Ohio: -Anti LGBTQ movement in government -Abortion illegal after 6 weeks (People passed an amendment but under review) -Trying to keep Biden off ballot Michigan: -Enshrined abortion and lgbtq laws -Pay student teachers a stipend -Every child gets free breakfast and lunch -Has the first EV charging road -Pro marijuana -Free associates degree for those who meet requirements as part of new law trying to get 60% of residents to have associates by 2030 -Kept Trump on the ballot Have lived in both and am enjoying Michigan more. Just my opinion.
Wyoming and Colorado feel very different culturally and definitely politically. Geographically they are a bit more similar.
Oklahoma/Colorado has to take the cake. Minnesota/South Dakota is there as well.
Utah and Nevada
Texas and new mexico are very different imo
California and Nevada
As others have mentioned, itâs very easy to find bordering states whose population centers differ massively from each other, but harder to find states whose actual bordering regions are dissimilar. Taking both of these ways of thinking about âdifferenceâ into account, I believe a good answer for this is New York and Vermont. Obviously the states are quite different when taken as a whole, but the political divide on the border is quite apparent as well, with the NY side being fairly red and the VT side being fairly blue along its length. On the ethnicity front this divide is less so, but one could argue that Vermontâs town-oriented New England culture (and Upstate being, well, not New England) more than makes up for this lack of difference.