Where is the South?

South Polls Where is the South? BY JOHN SHELTON REED The South has been defined in a great many ways, but two ofthe most interesting characteristics we can use to determine its boundaries have not been gauged until recently: ? . Where do residents consider theircommunity to lie in the South? 2. Where dopeople consider themselves to be southerners? (This question is obviously affected by the presence ofnon-southern migrants.) Since 1992, fourteen twice-yearly Southern Focus Polls conducted by die Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have asked respondents from the eleven former Confederate states, Kentucky, and Oklahoma, "Just for the record, would you say that your community is in the South, or not?" Twelve of these polls asked the same question ofrespondents from West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, the District of Columbia, and Missouri. (All except Missouri were included in the "South" as defined by die Bureau of the Census.) Respondents from the thirteen southern states also were asked, "Do you consider yourself a southerner, or not?" Those from other states were asked, "Do you consider yourself or anyone in your family a southerner?" and if so, whether the respondents considered themselves to be southerners. The numbers below are based on pooled data, which now provide us big enough samples from individual states not only to characterize each state as a whole but also to say, for example, where in Texas the South ends. (A project is now underway to do just that.) It is clear from these data that ifthe point is to isolate southerners for study or to compare them to other Americans, then the definition of the Soudi employed by the Southern Focus Poll (and, incidentally, also by the Gallup Organization) makes sense, while the Bureau of the Census definition does not. We already knew diat, of course, but it's good to be able to document it. 116 PERCENT WHO SAY THEY ARE SOUTHERNERS (Total number of respondents in parentheses) Mississippi90 (432) Louisiana89 (606) Alabama88 (716) Tennessee84 (838) South Carolina82 (553) Arkansas81 (399) Georgia81 (1017) North Carolina80 (1290) Kentucky68 (584) Texas68 (2053) Virginia60 (1012) Oklahoma53 (410) Florida51 (1791) West Virginia25 (84) Maryland19 (192) Missouri15 (197) New Mexico13(68) Delaware12 (25) DC.12 (16) Utah11 (70) Indiana10 (208) Illinois9 (362) Ohio8 (396) Arizona7(117) Michigan6 (336) All others less than 6 percent. South Polls 117 PERCENT WHO SAY THEIR COMMUNITY IS IN THE SOUTH (Total number of respondents in parentheses) Alabama98 (717) South Carolina98 (553) Louisiana97 (606) Mississippi97 (431) Georgia97(1017) Tennessee97 (838) North Carolina93(1292) Arkansas92 (400) Florida90 (1792) Texas84 (2050) Virginia82 (1014) Kentucky79 (582) Oklahoma69(411) West Virginia45 (82) Maryland40 (173) Missouri23 (177) Delaware14 (21) D.C.7 (15) I I 8 JOHN SHELTON REED ...