Four regions. Fifty states. Start with a place you know.
Alaska and Hawaii are shown as insets. See the state list below for full names.
Start at the Pacific coast. Then move inland through the mountain states. Alaska and Hawaii belong to the West, too.
Use the Great Lakes as your anchor. Then work west across the plains to the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas.
Trace the Atlantic coast down to Florida, then move west along the Gulf toward Texas. Remember that Delaware and Maryland are in the Census South.
Find New York and Pennsylvania first. New England sits to the northeast; New Jersey lies just south of New York.
Study one region, close the guide, then play a quick round. Review the states you missed before trying again. Repeat with another region when the first feels familiar.
The print button prints this labeled map and all four region lists. For a blank practice sheet, cover the labels and list and try writing the names from memory.
We use the Census Bureau’s Northeast, Midwest, South and West regions. Other classroom maps may group states differently. Washington, DC belongs to the Census South but is excluded here because this guide covers the 50 states.
Census region reference map