makingStuffForFunWhat does "upstate" mean in the US?
Taniwha420Yeah! I’ve never heard it in BC, Canada. “I’m going upstate BC.” “Prince George?! Fort Saint John!?!”
Doesn’t sound right.
eezeebeeThat might be due to the fact that Canada does not have states
upstate: situated or occurring in the northern part of a state, especially the northern part of New York State as contrasted with New York City.
“upstate New York”
ShadowYes, the northern part of the state.
In NY it means "north or west, but definitely not east or south of NYC
it’s very common in the greater NYC area to refer to the rest of the state, esp. the more rural parts (even if a lot of the state does not consider itself “upstate”).
purahnaMy understanding is that it means going, loosely, to the opposite side of the state of the major metropolitan area in that state. Upstate NY is the northwest part, upstate MA is the west part, upstate PA is the northeast part. I’m looking around, and it seems to also 1) only be used on a few states, 2) usually is on the north half (but not always), and 3) is somewhat interchangable with “rural”.
I guess you might be hearing it movies set in New York City, which is in the southern tip of the state of New York. All the other notable cities, the Catskill mountains, Niagara Falls, and other attractions are all further north, or upstate. I wouldn’t be totally surprised if the expression got picked up by a wider crowd to mean “north”.
It’s a New York thing to refer to the rural Northern and Western parts of New York State that are not New York City. No one (or at least very very few) outside of New York State uses it to refer to any other place.
AppoxoNew Yprk the state or NYC?
silly goose meekah“The Northern and Western parts of New York Städte that are not new York City” how is there any confusion?
divergingIt’s a New York thing
New York the state or NYC?
tocopherolIn my experience people in the Northeast US pretty much never refer to New York City as just ‘New York’. New York will mean the state, they will say ‘the city’ or ‘NYC’ to differentiate from the state. Or they will say upstate to mean the rest of the state outside of NYC metro area.
GammaI feel like the answer to this lies within the word itself
You’re being downvoted because your question makes no sense. Both NYC and New York State are mentioned, so what are you even asking for clarification on?
𝕱𝖎𝖗𝖊𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖈𝖍Anything north of 34th Street is upstate, fight me
Really? Well, I’m from Utica and I never heard anyone use the term “upstate.”
ThalestrNot in Utica, no; it’s an Albany expression.
Not in Utica, no. It’s all Albany expression.
moosetwinseymour you fucking liar, we use the term upstate all the time
proleDamn the fidelity of that pic is strangely satisfying
kersplooshIt’s a New York thing. That state loosely divides into two regions: New York City to the south, and everything else to the north (“upstate”). I have heard people refer to the New York City area as “downstate” but that term is less common.
Similarly, Manhattan is loosely split into its northern portion (uptown), middle portion (midtown), and southern portion (downtown).
SzethFriendOfNimiAs others have said, going to the northern part. Depending on the state it usually carries with it the idea of a change of scenery abd culture.
For example a New Yorker may say “upstate” referring to the more rural areas.
Similar to how “out west” in early US history meant “wild and untamed country full of potential, opportunities and danger”
While I’ve never heard down state I have heard similar.
“Down south” or “below I10” or “Cajun country” in parts of Louisiana and Mississippi referring to the gulf, more Catholic Cajun areas. And down south in other states referring to the southern states.
Echoing a lot of the people here, I’ve personally only heard it used when in the context of New York state
In Michigan, there is “downstate” it means heading to the southern part of the state.
Where does the line for this lie? I’ve lived in Northern LP most of my life and I’ve never heard it
The bridge
It’d have to be. Didn’t hear it when. I lived in Marquette either tho
I’m also in northern LP. We use it for when we are planning a trip to Detroit, for example.
Now that you say it like that maybe I have heard it in this context. I just avoid that area lol
FuckyWucky [none/use name]Outside main city? For NY it’s any area outside New York.
Like others are saying, it is a new york thing. But in general, upstate means further from the city than where the speaker lives. Until you crouse some imaginary line, then downstate means closer to the city. Comonly, but not always, it is used in a derogatory sense. They city people think the upstaters are rural hicks. And the upstaters think the city people couldn’t survive outside a city.
Source, I grew up in an area that didn’t consider itself upstate, but all the city people sure did.
Is it due to the fact NYC is in the southern part of NY?
Yes but also when people are telling someone they’re from New York they tend to assume the city, so the follow-up answer is for clarification. The state is big and wildly different from NYC
Yeah, I went sightseeing to Niagara Falls, then to Buffalo. They’re nothing like NYC.
I think it’s elevation as much as north/south.
A lot of people are saying it’s primarily a NY thing, so I’d just chime in to say we use it in PA as well, at least in the Philly area, to refer to the northern parts of the state.
Not much more to it than youre going far enough north to be out of your city’s metro area, but staying in the same state. In PA I’d say upstate probably starts around the Poconos. I think new Yorkers kind of tend to use it to refer to the rest of the state, we wouldn’t tend to do that here, Central and Western PA are different things than Upstate PA, although there is definitely some overlap and there’s not exactly clearly defined borders.
I don’t know how many other states use the same terminology, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s pretty common in other largish states with larger population densities in the southern part of the state and lower densities in the north (I don’t know off the top of my head which other states that would apply to, maybe it’s only PA and NY)
I have never called any part of PA upstate. (Not that it’s wrong that you do) Everyone I know calls the northern half of the eastern third of the state “the Northeast” or NEPA. Western PA is the entire western third of the state, and Central PA is for some reason only the southern half of the middle third of the state. I guess maybe the northern half of the middle third could be upstate, but I think I just don’t have a word for it.
PA really should probably be at least three separate states.
Ricky RigatoniAs long as I don’t have to be associated with Pittsburgers I’ll be happy.
Pittsburgh and Philly with Kentucky in the middle!
This is absolutely reflective of my experience in PA as well. Everything you said and exactly as you said it.
Nothing is “upstate”.
NEPA is anything north of 80 and (roughly) east of where the Susquehanna splits near Selinsgrove.
Western PA is the whole state, north to south, from the Ohio border to approximately 219.
Central PA is south of 80, between 219 in the west, and east up to and including Lancaster county.
The part that’s left over is usually just called “north central PA”, but there’s not much of anything up there, so it’s usually referred to by specific county or town in that region, and most frequently when you do hear that, it’s someone describing where their hunting camp is.
Hmm I never heard anyone say upstate PA but I never had much business up there lol
I lived in the Harrisburg area for 30 years and I’ve never heard it used to refer to any part of PA.
Maine uses “Down East”, which is actually north east of the Portland area. Actually I’m not sure anyone really totally understands exactly what or where down east is there.
Most states I’ve lived in use “up north” when taking about the northern half of rural part of a state.
In Illinois you might hear “downstate” to refer to anything south of Champaign-Urbana
I’m probably wrong, but I think it means somewhere north of the capital city, and maybe it’s only used in New York
The CuuuuubeOnly New York. It means all the parts of New York state that aren’t New York City
TonyTonyChopperLong Island is excluded too
Is Long Island named Long Island because its long?
It appears so, it was called other things by native people but the Dutch seem to be the first to call it Long Island in the 1600s. Many geographic features in the area have similar sort of names, like Short Hill, East River, West River, Indian Hill, Short Beach, Beaver Swamp, the colonists really weren’t very clever with their naming.
yes. 100 miles or so
CorkyskogYou are very wrong. Albany is part of “upstate NY” and Albany is literally the capital city… In NY it means basically anywhere that isn’t NYC.
Oh well, I tried. Thanks for clarifying!
Ok, so upstate means north of the capital or north NYC if in New York?
In NY state it essentially means anywhere north of NYC, the capital city Albany is upstate NY. It doesn’t seem to mean north of the capital in any state unless that capital is at the southern part.
The term upstate has no relation to the capital city, that was a mistaken assertion. It isn’t used very widely at all, it’s just a local term in a couple of states for their northern portions. Most states don’t have an area that is referred to as upstate.
Upstate in NY is literally the entire state other than NYC and Long Island.
Upstate is used in South Carolina as well, used to refer to the western and more mountainous part of the state. The eastern non-mountainous part of the state is called low-country.