|
|
|
|
Sun Belt
|
| |
|
| |
The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the South and Southwest (the geographic southern United States). Another rough boundary of the region is the area south of the 37th or 38th parallels, north latitude.
The Sun Belt has seen substantial population growth in recent decades, partly fueled by a surge in retiring baby boomers who migrate domestically, as well as the influx of immigrants, both legal and illegal.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Sun Belt' Start a new discussion about 'Sun Belt' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the South and Southwest (the geographic southern United States). Another rough boundary of the region is the area south of the 37th or 38th parallels, north latitude.
The Sun Belt has seen substantial population growth in recent decades, partly fueled by a surge in retiring baby boomers who migrate domestically, as well as the influx of immigrants, both legal and illegal. Also, over the past several decades, air conditioning has made it easier for people to deal with the heat of the region during the summertime.
Overview
The Sunbelt is known as the southern tier of the United States and includes the following states of Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Colorado, Utah, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, reaching as far north as southern Virginia. The Bible Belt occupies much of the same geography as the Sun Belt, with the exception of the southwest.
Author and political analyst Kevin Phillips claims to have coined the term "to describe the oil, military, aerospace and retirement country stretching from Florida to California" in his 1969 book The Emerging Republican Majority.
The term "Sun Belt" became synonymous with the southern third of the nation in the early 1970s. There was a shift in this period from the previously economically and politically important northeast to the south and west. Events such as the huge migration of immigrant workers from neighbouring Mexico, warmer climate, and a boom in the agriculture industry allowed for the southern third of the U.S.A. to grow by leaps and bounds economically. The climate spurred not only agricultural growth but was also a haven for many retirees who set up retirement communities in places such as Florida and Arizona.
Industries such as aerospace, defense and oil boomed in the Sun Belt as companies took advantage of the low involvement of labor unions in the south and enjoyed the proximity to many U.S. military installations who were the major consumers of their products. The oil industry helped propel many southern states such as Texas and Louisiana forward and tourism exploded in Florida and southern California.
The economic emergence of the Sun Belt also had political ramifications. The Republican Party is said to have gained the most from the rise in power. Since 1970, the Sun Belt has gained 25 electoral votes, which were shifted mainly from northern and midwestern states. Politically, the Sun Belt is known as valuable electoral ground. Since Lyndon B. Johnson's election in 1964, every elected United States President has been from the Sun Belt, with the exception of Barack Obama in 2008. (Gerald Ford, who was from Michigan, served as President following Richard Nixon's resignation, but was never elected President or Vice President, and lost to Georgia's Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election.)
Major cities within the Sun Belt
See also
General
B. L. Weinstein and R. E. Firestine, Regional Growth and Decline in the United States: The Rise of the Sunbelt and the Decline of the Northeast (1978)
|
| |
|
|
