Western United States

The western United States consists of the thirteen states west of the Great Plains: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. These states are further grouped into subregions. Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming are sometimes called the Mountain States. Arizona and New Mexico are sometimes included in that group; they may also be considered the Southwest, a subregion sometimes taken to include Texas and Oklahoma. California is generally grouped within the Pacific Coast or West Coast subregion, along with Oregon and Washington. Oregon and Washington can be further categorized in a subregion called the Pacific Northwest. This region also includes the two states not contiguous with the rest of the United States—Alaska and Hawaii.

These thirteen states cover about half of the land area of the United States and include the largest state—Alaska—and third through tenth-largest states—California, Montana, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Wyoming, and Oregon, respectively. The region contained 80 million of the 340.1 million people in the United States in 2024, according to the US Census Bureau. In 2024, California had 39.4 million people, giving it the largest population of any state in the region and in the nation as a whole. The region also has four of the ten largest cities in the nation—Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Diego, and San Jose. The population of the region has been growing more rapidly than the population of the nation as a whole for several decades. Utah grew an average of 1.68 percent per year from 2008 to 2023. Every other state in the region grew at least a little, while some states in other regions saw a decrease in population. Idaho grew an average of 1.66 percent per year from 2008 to 2023. Even the slowest growing state, California, grew an average of 0.42 percent per year from 2008 to 2023. In 1960, when Alaska and Hawaii became states, the western states had 15.9 percent of the 435 seats in the US House of Representatives. By 2024, its share had increased to 23.9 percent, a gain of more than 30 seats.

The western states have abundant natural resources and vast spaces, including some areas of harsh environments and others with fertile land. The push for those resources and that land was a major force in driving national history in the nineteenth century. Anglo-American expansion displaced Native American and Hispanic communities, driving them from lands they had long inhabited. The resources and innovative people of the region have been a major factor in national economic growth in the twentieth century into the early twenty-first century. The West has long occupied a central place in American mythology, populated by figures such as Plains Native Americans, cowhands, self-reliant settler families, and even modern internet entrepreneurs. Yet the popular images of these figures often bear only a partial or distorted relationship to their historical realities. The western states are an important contributor to the US economy. The generated just over $5 trillion in production in 2023—around 18 percent of the US gross domestic product (GDP) that year. California accounted for 14 percent of the US GDP alone.

Historical Perspective

Native American groups of the West adapted their way of life to the environment and resources of the area where they lived. Lifestyles changed dramatically in the sixteenth century, with the arrival of Europeans, who brought the horse, sheep, cattle, and guns.

The Spanish established settlements in what is now New Mexico in the early seventeenth century, and in California about a century later. Rich farmland drew thousands of Anglo-American settlers to Oregon in the 1840s, and in 1848 the United States, having defeated Mexico in the Mexican–American War, acquired a vast territory extending from New Mexico to California and northward to present-day Utah and Nevada.

Mineral strikes in California, Colorado, Nevada, and elsewhere spurred more migration to the region and promoted urban growth. Development of the West was aided by the Homestead Act of 1862, which made land freely available to settlers, and the construction of transcontinental railroad lines, the first of which was completed in 1869. With expanded White settlement, Native Americans were forced onto reservations. While western lands were exploited, a tradition of preserving wilderness also began in this period with the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in 1872.

The West, particularly California, boomed during World War II, when many military facilities were located there and shipyards and aircraft factories turned out ships and planes needed for the war effort. Aircraft manufacturing also became important in the Northwest. In the 1960s and 1970s, innovations in computer science led to the establishment of new commercial centers near San Francisco and Seattle and in other areas as well.

Geography and Climate

The western United States are dominated by several tall mountain ranges: the Rocky Mountains in the east, the Sierra Nevada in eastern California, and the Coast Ranges near the Pacific. Much of the rest of the region is high plateaus. Lowland valleys lie between the Sierra Nevada and coastal mountains. Some of these valleys are very productive in terms of agriculture.

Generally, the states of the Southwest have warm summers and cool winters. California’s climate is generally mild, though temperatures are cooler toward the north. The Pacific Northwest has a maritime climate, with plentiful rainfall. The interior north has a dry continental climate with cold winters. Climates are greatly affected by altitude, as seen in sunny California, where the Sierra Nevada contain snow-capped peaks. Landforms also play a major role; for example, mountain chains create rain-shadow effects that produce dry areas to their east. Much of the region has a dry climate, with low amounts of seasonal rainfall. These areas are prone to drought, making the availability of water for agriculture and growing populations a problem.

The two noncontiguous states have distinct geographies. Alaska has mountain ranges along the northern and southern rims, with lowlands between them. The narrow southeastern coast is cut by fjords. The climate is arctic and subarctic, with long, harsh winters. Alaska has abundant reserves of oil. Hawaii is an archipelago of volcanic islands in the midst of the Pacific Ocean with a tropical climate.

The Pacific Coast states lie within a highly active tectonic zone shaped by the interaction of the Pacific and North American plates. Alaska, California, Hawaii, and Washington all contain active volcanoes, and Alaska and California experience frequent and sometimes severe earthquakes. This geologic activity has produced features such as the Cascade Range and the volcanic islands of Hawaii, while also contributing to significant natural hazards across the region.

Economy

The old extractive industries remain important to some degree. Oil is a major industry in California and Alaska, coal is mined in Wyoming, and other minerals are mined in other areas. California is one of the nation’s leading producers of agricultural products, and Oregon is a major farm state as well. Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, and Wyoming produce beef. Fisheries are important in Alaska and among the states along the Pacific coast. Lumbering is still important in the Northwest and mountain states.

However, the region’s economy has grown beyond its nineteenth-century reliance on minerals, farms, cattle, and timber. Areas around San Francisco, Seattle, Albuquerque, Boise, Denver, and Salt Lake City are home to many high-technology and computer companies. Several states have a high share of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) jobs and jobs in information services. Leisure and hospitality is important to areas like Las Vegas, Nevada; the skiing areas of the Rocky Mountains; and parts of California. Manufacturing is strong in some areas, and the region produces about 21 percent of the nation’s exports. Major manufacturing industries include aerospace, computer and electrical equipment, scientific instruments, and telecommunications equipment. Food processing is important in several states with strong agricultural bases, such as California and Oregon, and wood processing is a major industry in the Northwest. Southern California is well known as a center of the entertainment industry. The California ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland and Seattle and Tacoma in Washington are among the busiest in the nation in container shipping tonnage.

Demographics

The western states have great ethnic diversity. They have the highest proportion of Hispanics and Asian Americans in the population. Several states in the region—especially California, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Washington—rank at or near the top nationally in these demographic groups. According to the 2020 US Census, 29 percent of the region’s population was Hispanic, and almost 10 percent claimed at least partial Asian heritage. By 2020, three states in the west—California, Hawaii, and New Mexico—had "majority-minority" populations, meaning that more than half the population were from population groups other than White/European descent.

With its rich ethnic mix, the region has a diverse cultural heritage as well. The foods, languages, music, and traditions of many different groups have integrated with the region’s culture. Chinese American enclaves in San Francisco and Seattle draw tourists; and Los Angeles is known for its ethnic neighborhoods, from Little Tokyo and Koreatown to Tehrangeles, populated by Iranian Americans.

According to the US Census Bureau, the official US poverty rate fell to 10.6 percent in 2024. While the western states generally lie below or near the national average, some continued to record higher-than-average rates in that period—such as New Mexico at 16.4 percent and Nevada at 11.6 percent. The region overall saw a modest decline in poverty in some states; for example, Montana’s rate dropped by about 1.5 percentage points from 2023 to 2024. However, despite strong economic growth in many western states, the persistence of higher poverty rates in particular states highlights economic disparities related to cost of living, rural versus urban dynamics, and demographic factors.

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