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Sunbelt

 
Dictionary: Sun·belt  Sun Belt (sŭn'bĕlt') pronunciation
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The southern and southwest United States.

 

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Sunbelt
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Region, south and southwestern U.S. It is characterized by a warm climate, rapid population growth since 1970, and relatively conservative voting patterns. Comprising 15 states, it extends from Virginia and Florida in the southeast through Nevada in the southwest, and includes southern California.

For more information on Sunbelt, visit Britannica.com.

Idioms: sun belt
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The southern and southwestern United States, as in Retirees have been moving to the sun belt for years. It is so called for its warm climate. [Mid-1900s]

US History Encyclopedia: Sun Belt
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Sun Belt comprises the states of the South and the Southwest. The term was coined to describe both the warm climate of these regions and the rapid economic and population growth that have been characteristic since the 1960s. The Sun Belt stretches approximately from Virginia south to Florida and west to California but also includes western mountain states, such as Colorado and Utah, that have experienced similar economic growth.

Historically, most of the nation's population and economic power was based in the Northeast and the upper Midwest. The Southeast had a smaller population, a less robust economy, and hot, humid summers that many northerners considered uncomfortable. Much of the Southwest was settled later and remained sparsely populated well into the twentieth century because of its remote location and an inhospitable desert climate that regularly reached triple-digit temperatures in summer. With the advent of air conditioning, however, year-round comfort became possible in both regions.

A shift from northeastern dominance was evident by the early 1970s. The term "New South" came into use to describe economic progress and social changes in the Southeast. California and oil-rich Texas had established themselves as thriving economies, and newer regions of prosperity had begun to emerge throughout the West. This pattern intensified in following decades as many states in the North lost industries, population, and representation in Congress. The Sun Belt attracted domestic and international businesses for many reasons, including lower energy costs and nonunion wages, state policies favorable to business, and, in the West, proximity to the increasingly important Pacific Rim nations. A national emphasis on developing domestic fuel sources in the early 1970s stimulated growth in Texas, Colorado, and other states. The lifestyles and natural beauty of Sun Belt states also attraced many newcomers. As populations grew, southern and western states gained increasing political and economic power. All seven winners of U.S. presidential elections between 1964 and 2000 were from the Sun Belt, reflecting the increased representation in Congress of key states like Texas, Arizona, and Florida, which helped Republicans win majority representation in Congress during the 1990s. Southern culture and values became influential, such as the nationwide popularity of Country and Western Music. Hispanic cultures of the Southwest and Florida gained prominence.

The Sun Belt also faced difficult issues, including social problems that many migrants had hoped to escape. Despite areas of prosperity, the Southeast continued to have many sections of poverty. Texas and other energy-oriented states experienced a steep, if temporary, economic decline in the mid-1980s because of a fall in oil prices. California suffered serious economic recession and social stresses in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which caused a significant migration of businesses and residents to nearby states. The impacts of growth and development became matters of urgent concern as many Sun Belt communities experienced suburban sprawl, congestion, and pollution, along with an erosion of their traditional regional characteristics and identities. These trends provoked many controversies, which continued into the 1990s. Some people opposed the changes, but others saw them as positive signs of progress and prosperity. Nationally, experts predicted that the economic growth and increasing influence of the Sun Belt marked a permanent change in the demographic, economic, and political structure of the nation.

Bibliography

Bogue, Donald J. The Population of the United States: Historical Trends and Future Projections. New York: Free Press, 1985.

De Vita, Carol J. America in the 21st Century: A Demographic Overview. Washington, D.C.: Population Reference Bureau, 1989.

Wilson, Charles Reagan, and William Ferris, eds. Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Sun Belt
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Sun Belt or Sunbelt, southern tier of the United States, focused on Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California, and extending as far north as Virginia. The term gained wide use in the 1970s, when the economic and political impact of the nation's overall shift in population to the south and west became conspicuous. Areas near the Mexican border have received millions of immigrants since the 1960s. Economic growth in many Sun Belt cities since World War II has stimulated interregional migration from the NE United States and the Rust Belt; by 1990, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio were among the ten largest cities in the United States. During the 1990s the fastest growing cities in the United States were in the Sun Belt. The warm climate has attracted large retirement communities, especially in Florida and Arizona. In addition, the birth rate in the Sun Belt is about 10% greater than that in the rest of the country. Attracted by the relative lack of labor unions and the prospect of cheaper labor than was generally available in the north, manufacturers began to locate in the Southeast in significant numbers after World War II; aerospace firms and defense contractors were drawn to the vicinity of military bases in S California and throughout the Southwest. Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma benefited from the oil booms of the 1970s. In addition, the enormous tourist industries of the Sun Belt (especially Florida and S California) have brought the region considerable wealth. Although overall the expansion of the Sun Belt's economy in recent decades has been dramatic, the distribution of the region's prosperity has been uneven; of the 25 metropolitan areas with the lowest per capita income in 1990, 23 were in the Sun Belt. The rapid fall of oil prices in the 1980s hurt the economies of the energy-producing areas of the Sun Belt; Houston was especially hard hit. By the 1980s, the Los Angeles area, beset by problems ranging from air pollution to a growing population of unskilled immigrants, came increasingly to resemble some of the troubled metropolitan areas of the North. Politically, the rise of the Sun Belt has generally been viewed as advantageous to the Republican party, especially in presidential elections. Since 1970, the Sun Belt has gained more than 25 electoral votes, mostly at the expense of the Northeast and Midwest.

Bibliography

See 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); C. Abbott, The New Urban America (1987); R. M. Miller and G. E. Pozzetta, ed., Shades of the Sunbelt: Essays on Ethnicity, Race, and the Urban South (1988); R. A. Mohl, ed., Searching for the Sunbelt (1990).

Geography: Sunbelt
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States in the South and Southwest marked by warm climate, rapid economic and population growth in the last two decades, and (often) political conservatism.

Wikipedia: Sun Belt
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The Sun Belt, highlighted in red
This article is about the region of the United States. For the American athletic conference, see Sun Belt Conference.

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 main defining feature of the Sun Belt is its warm-temperate climate with extended summers and brief, relatively mild winters. The extreme southern parts of the Sun Belt are properly considered to be subtropical.

The Sun Belt has seen substantial population growth in recent decades, fueled by milder winters; 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 in portions of the region during the summertime. Water shortages are becoming common problems in the region.[1]

Contents

Overview

The Sun Belt is known as the southern tier of the United States and includes the states of Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Colorado, Utah, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Nevada, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina and southern Virginia. The Bible Belt occupies much of the same geography as the Sun Belt, with the exception of the southwest.[2][3]

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.[4]

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 neighboring 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 throughout the region, most famously in 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 (due to more recent industrialization) 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. In more recent decades high tech and new economy industries have been major drivers of growth in California and Texas as well as many other parts of the Sun Belt though hardly the only industries that have expanded in the region. More than a third of all Fortune 500 companies today are based in the belt with Texas and California among the top 3 states in the nation (New York currently has the second highest number).

Since 1970, the Sun Belt states have gained 25 electoral votes, many of which were shifted from northeastern and midwestern states. Since Lyndon B. Johnson's election in 1964, every elected United States President, with the exception of Barack Obama from Illinois, has been from the Sun Belt. (Gerald Ford, who was from Michigan, served as President following Richard Nixon's resignation but was not elected as President, and lost to Georgia's Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election.)

Projections

As of 2005 the U.S. Census Bureau projected that approximately 88% of the U.S. population growth between 2000 and 2030 will occur in the Sun Belt.[5] California, Texas, and Florida are each expected to add more than 12 million people during that time which will make these by far the most populous states in the nation. Arizona and North Carolina are also expected to make major population gains. Nevada, Arizona, Florida, and Texas are expected to be the fastest growing states.

Events leading up to and including the 2008-2009 recession have led many to question whether growth projections for the Sun Belt have been overstated.[6] The economic bubble that led to the recession appears, to many observers, to have been more acute in the Sun Belt than many other parts of the country. Additionally the traditional lure of cheaper labor markets in the belt compared to many of the older industrial centers has been eroded by the overseas outsourcing trend of the recent decade.

One of the greatest threats facing the Sun Belt in the coming decades is water shortages.[7] Communities in California are making plans to build potentially multiple desalination plants to supply fresh water and avert near-term crises.[8] Texas and Florida also face increasingly serious shortages because of their rapidly expanding populations.[9]

Largest metropolitan areas within the Sun Belt

The following are the largest metropolitan areas in the Sun Belt representing the primary economic hubs of the region. Population and gross metropolitan product (GMP)[10] estimates are presented.

Additionally the following major transnational metropolitan areas are partially within the U.S. Sun Belt.

Major cities within the Sun Belt

See also

References

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)

Notes

  1. ^ Woods, Michael (18 January 1981), "Desert-Like Conditions Hurt Sun Belt", The Blade (Toledo, OH) , reprinted by Google News Archive
  2. ^ Sun Belt entry at encyclopedia.com, credited to the Columbia Encyclopedia.
  3. ^ Sun Belt entry at infoplease, credited to the Columbia Encyclopedia.
  4. ^ "How the GOP Became God's Own Party", the Washington Post, April 2, 2006
  5. ^ Sun Belt Growth Shapes Housing's Future, Professional Builder, 1 May 2005
  6. ^ Lewan, Todd: Has economic twilight come to the Sun Belt?, MSNBC, 31 May 2009
  7. ^ Cetron, Marvin J.; O'Toole, Thomas: Encounters with the future: a forecast of life into the 21st century‎, Mcgraw-Hill, April 1982, pg. 34
  8. ^ Shankman, Sabrina: California Gives Desalination Plants a Fresh Look , Wall Street Journal, 10 July 2009
  9. ^ McGovern, Bernie: Florida Almanac 2007-2008, Pelican Publishing Company, March 2007, pg. 53
  10. ^ U.S. Metro Economies: Gross Metropolitan Product with Housing Update, The United States Conference of Mayors, June 2008


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"Belt" regions of the United States
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Coordinates: 32°N 100°W / 32°N 100°W / 32; -100


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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Idioms. The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
US History Encyclopedia. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.  Read more
Geography. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sun Belt".  Read more