Tri-state area[1][2] is an informal term in the United States which can refer to any of multiple areas that lie across three states. When referring to populated areas, the term implies a shared economy or culture among the area's residents, typically concentrated around a central metropolis.
Tri-state areas may or may not include a state boundary tripoint.
The following is not an exhaustive list. "Tri-state area" may refer to several additional places in locally understood contexts, such as a business name.
Northeast
- The New York tri-state area, which includes parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.[3][4][5][6][7][8] Pennsylvania is sometimes included in the meaning of this usage of the term, since the New York metropolitan statistical area, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, includes a small part of the state of PA.[9]
- The Philadelphia tri-state area, which includes parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. This use of "tri-state" excludes Maryland even though its northeast corner is closely tied to Philadelphia.
- The Pittsburgh tri-state area, covering parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia.
- Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia[10]
- The Erie tri-state area, which includes parts of northwest Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York.
- The Minisink Valley tri-state area, which includes parts of New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
- New York, Vermont and Massachusetts[11]
- The Berkshires, a region usually considered to include only western Massachusetts and northwestern Connecticut; when the Taconic portion of New York is included, the area is sometimes described as the "tri-state" or "tri-corners" area.
Midwest
- The Chicago tri-state area, or "Chicagoland,"[12] which includes northeast Illinois, Northwest Indiana and southeast Wisconsin. The Tri-State Tollway connects Wisconsin's portion with Indiana's. Parts of southwest Michigan in the Michiana region are also culturally tied to Chicago.
- The Illinois–Indiana–Kentucky tri-state area, centered around the confluence of the Wabash and Ohio Rivers.
- The Cincinnati tri-state area, which includes parts of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.
- Kyova, a region named for Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia and home to Tri-State Airport.
- The Dubuque tri-state area, which includes parts of Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin.
- The Fort Madison-Keokuk tri-state area, also known as the Quincy tri-state area, which includes parts of Iowa, Illinois and Missouri.
- The Sioux City metropolitan area region of Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota.
- The La Crosse tri-state area, which includes parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.
- The Tri-State district, a lead and zinc mining region of Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri, known for producing "tri-state" minerals consisting mainly of sphalerite.
South
- The DMV, which includes the city of Washington (coterminous with the District of Columbia) as well as surrounding portions of Maryland and Virginia. Although the District of Columbia is not a state, the region is sometimes referred to as a "tri-state area." Furthermore, the Washington–Arlington–Alexandria metropolitan statistical area, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, includes Jefferson County, West Virginia, making the region a true tri-state area.
- The Delmarva area, which includes Delaware and the eastern shores of Maryland and Virginia.
- Greater Memphis or the Mid-South, which includes west Tennessee, northwest Mississippi, and the Delta region of Arkansas.
- The Wiregrass Region, which includes southeast Alabama, southern Georgia and the Florida Panhandle.
- The Ark-La-Tex, a socioeconomic region that includes thirty-nine counties/parishes in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.