Northeastern United States
region of the United States
The Northeastern United States (also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast) form one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. Located on the Atlantic coast of North America, the region borders Canada to its north, the Southern United States to its south, the Midwestern United States to its west, and the Atlantic Ocean to its east.
The Northeast is one of the four regions defined by the U.S. Census Bureau for the collection and analysis of statistics. The Census Bureau defines the region as including the six New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, and three lower Northeast states of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. Some expanded definitions of the region include Mid-Atlantic locations such as Delaware, Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
The region is the base for the Northeast megalopolis, which includes many of the nation's largest metropolitan areas, including New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston. The megalopolis makes up 67% of the region's total population of 57,609,148. The gross domestic product of the region was $5.1 trillion as of 2022 and contains some of the most developed states based on the Human Development Index, with every state above the national average. It is also the most densely populated region in the United States, with 320 people per square mile (120 people/km2). The U.S. Census Bureau defines the Northeast United States as having a total area of 181,324 mi2 (469,630 km2), making it the smallest region of the United States by total area. The coastal waters of the Northeast megalopolis constitute one of the fastest-warming urban ocean shorelines in the world.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Northeastern United States” as region of the United States. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as region of the United States. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q24460. VIAF identifies the subject as 315126826. The Library of Congress control number is sh85092541. Authority coordinates are 42.000, -73.000. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2022.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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- Subject orientation
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Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow Northeastern United States primary sources, Northeastern United States archive and Northeastern research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Northeastern United States” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.