The
Southern United States—commonly referred to as the
American South,
Dixie,
Down South, or simply
the&_160;South—constitutes a large distinctive
region in the southeastern and south-central
United States. Because of the region's unique cultural and historic heritage, including Native Americans; early European settlements of English, Scots-Irish, Scottish and German heritage
[3]; importation of hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans; growth of a large proportion of African Americans in the population, reliance on
slave labor, and legacy of the
Confederacy after the
American Civil War, the South developed its own customs, literature, musical styles, and varied
cuisines, that have profoundly shaped traditional American culture.
In the last few decades, the South has become more industrialized and urban, attracting numerous internal and international migrants. The American South is among the fastest-growing areas in the United States.
(See Cultural Variations for more about the complexity of southern states).
As defined by the United States Census Bureau,[4] the Southern region of the United States includes sixteen states and the District of Columbia (with a total 2006 estimated population of 109,083,752.) Thirty-six percent of all U.S. residents lived in the South, the nation's most populous region. The Census Bureau defined three smaller units, or divisions
