Everyone knows that Ohio & OSU is a part of the NW Territories. So we can't count them!
Oh, wait, that was in 1787. Western states are general considered those from Montana going south and west.
from Wiki:
The
Midwestern United States, also referred to as the
American Midwest, Middle West, or simply the
Midwest, is one of four
geographic regions defined by the
United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the
United States of America.
[2] It was officially named the
North Central region by the Census Bureau until 1984.
[3] It is located between the
Northeastern U.S. and the
Western U.S., with
Canada to its north and the
Southern U.S. to its south.
The Census Bureau's definition consists of 12 states in the north central United States:
Illinois,
Indiana,
Iowa,
Kansas,
Michigan,
Minnesota,
Missouri,
Nebraska,
North Dakota,
Ohio,
South Dakota, and
Wisconsin. The region generally lies on the broad
Interior Plain between the states occupying the Appalachian Mountain range and the states occupying the Rocky Mountain range. Major rivers in the region include, from east to west, the
Ohio River, the Upper
Mississippi River, and the
Missouri River.
[4] A 2012 report from the United States Census put the population of the Midwest at 65,377,684. The Midwest is divided by the Census Bureau into two divisions. The
East North Central Division includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, all of which are also part of the
Great Lakes region. The
West North Central Division includes Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, and South Dakota, several of which are located at least partly, within the
Great Plains region.