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. Also, over the past several decades, air conditioning has made it easier for people to deal with the oppressive heat that grips the region during the summertime.

Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, South Carolina, and Texas are commonly thought to belong to the Sun Belt. Some consider parts of Arkansas, Colorado, North Carolina and Tennessee to be in the Sun Belt, although their climates are slightly more "wintery" than the other states in the group. 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". ["How the GOP Became God's Own Party", the Washington Post, April 2, 2006]

The term "Sun Belt" became synonymous with the southern third of the nation in the early 1970's. There was a shift in this period from the previously economically and poltically 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 saidwho 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. Every United States president since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1963, with the exception of Michigan native Gerald Ford, has come from a Sun Belt state.

Major cities within the Sun Belt

* Atlanta
* Albuquerque
* Austin
* Baton Rouge
* Birmingham
* Brownsville
* Charleston
* Charlotte
* Columbia
* Colorado Springs
* Corpus Christi
* Dallas
* Denver
* Durango
* El Paso
* Ft. Worth
* Fresno
* Greenville
* Houston
* Huntsville
* Jacksonville
* Laredo
* Las Vegas
* Long Beach
* Los Angeles
* Memphis
* Miami
* Mobile
* Montgomery
* New Orleans
* Oakland
* Orlando
* Pensacola
* Phoenix
* Pueblo
* Raleigh
* Reno
* Sacramento
* San Antonio
* San Diego
* San Francisco
* San Jose
* Santa Fe
* Sarasota
* Shreveport
* Tallahassee
* Tampa-St. Petersburg
* Tucson
* Tuscaloosa
* West Palm Beach

ee also

*Economy of the United States
*Silicon Valley
*Rust Belt

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