Michigan (MISH-ig-əə n) is a peninsular state in the Great Lakes area of the Upper Midwestern USA. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, Indiana and Illinois to the southwest, Ohio to the southeast, and the Canadian district of Ontario to the eastern, northeast and north. With a populace of 10. 14 million and an area of 96,716 sq mi (250,490 km2), Michigan is the tenth-largest state by populace, the 11th-largest by area, and the biggest by overall area east of the Mississippi River. The state funding is Lansing, while its most populated city is Detroit. The Metro Detroit region in Southeast Michigan is amongst the nation's most populous and largest cosmopolitan economies. Various other essential cities consist of Grand Rapids, Flint, Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo, the Tri-Cities, and Muskegon. Michigan consists of 2 peninsulas: the greatly forested Upper Peninsula (commonly called "the U. P. "), which juts eastward from north Wisconsin, and the a lot more populated Lower Peninsula, extending north from Ohio and Indiana. The peninsulas are divided by the Straits of Mackinac, which links Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, and are linked by the 5-mile-long Mackinac Bridge along Interstate 75. Bordering 4 of the five Great Lakes and Lake St. Clair, Michigan has the longest freshwater coast of any kind of U. S. political neighborhood, measuring 3,288 miles. The state rates 2nd behind Alaska in water protection by square miles and initially in portion, with around 42%, and it likewise has 64,980 inland lakes and fish ponds. The Great Lakes area has actually mainly been populated for hundreds of years by Native individuals such as the Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi, and Wyandot. Some people contend that the region's name is stemmed from the Ojibwe word ᒥᓯᑲᒥ ᒥ ᓯ ᑲ ᒥ (mishigami), meaning "large water" or "big lake". While others state that it originates from the Mishiiken Tribe of Mackinac Island, additionally called Michinemackinawgo by Ottawa historian Andrew Blackbird, whose surrounding lands were described as Mishiiken-imakinakom, later on reduced to Michilimackinac. In the 17th century, French travelers declared the location for New France. French settlers and Métis developed forts and negotiations. After France's defeat in the French and Indian War in 1762, the location came under British control and later on the U. S. following the Treaty of Paris (1783 ), though control stayed contested with Native tribes till treaties in between 1795 and 1842. The location became part of the larger Northwest Region; the Michigan Area was organized in 1805. Michigan was admitted as the 26th state on January 26, 1837, entering as a totally free state and promptly becoming a commercial and profession hub that attracted European immigrants, especially from Finland, Macedonia, and the Netherlands. In the 1930s, movement from Appalachia and the Middle East and the Great Migration of Black Southerners further shaped the state, particularly in City Detroit. Michigan has a diversified economy with a gross state item of $725. 897 billion since Q1 2025, ranking 14th among the 50 states. Although the state has actually developed a varied economy, in the early 20th century it ended up being commonly known as the center of the U. S. automotive market, which created as a significant nationwide financial force. It is home to the nation's 3 major automobile firms (whose headquarters are done in City Detroit).Once exploited for logging and extracting, today the sparsely populated Upper Peninsula is very important for tourism due to its wealth of natural deposits. The Lower Peninsula is a facility of manufacturing, forestry, agriculture, services, and modern market.
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