Michigan (MISH-ig-əə n) is a peninsular state in the Great Lakes area of the Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land limits with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, Indiana and Illinois to the southwest, Ohio to the southeast, and the Canadian province of Ontario to the east, northeast and north. With a populace of 10. 14 million and a location of 96,716 sq mi (250,490 km2), Michigan is the tenth-largest state by populace, the 11th-largest by location, and the largest by complete area east of the Mississippi River. The state funding is Lansing, while its most populated city is Detroit. The City Detroit region in Southeast Michigan is amongst the nation's most populated and biggest urban economies. Various other important metropolitan areas consist of Grand Rapids, Flint, Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo, the Tri-Cities, and Muskegon. Michigan contains two peninsulas: the heavily forested Upper Peninsula (generally called "the U. P. "), which juts eastward from northern Wisconsin, and the more populated Reduced Peninsula, stretching north from Ohio and Indiana. The peninsulas are divided by the Straits of Mackinac, which attaches Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, and are linked by the 5-mile-long Mackinac Bridge along Interstate 75. Surrounding 4 of the five Great Lakes and Lake St. Clair, Michigan has the longest freshwater coast of any U. S. political class, gauging 3,288 miles. The state ranks second behind Alaska in water coverage by square miles and first in percent, with about 42%, and it likewise consists of 64,980 inland lakes and fish ponds. The Great Lakes region has actually mainly been occupied for thousands of years by Aboriginal peoples such as the Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi, and Wyandot. Some individuals compete that the region's name is derived from the Ojibwe word ᒥᓯᑲᒥ ᒥ ᓯ ᑲ ᒥ (mishigami), suggesting "huge water" or "big lake". While others claim that it originates from the Mishiiken Tribe of Mackinac Island, likewise called Michinemackinawgo by Ottawa historian Andrew Blackbird, whose surrounding lands were described as Mishiiken-imakinakom, later shortened to Michilimackinac. In the 17th century, French travelers asserted the area for New France. French inhabitants and Métis established fts and settlements. After France's loss in the French and Indian Battle in 1762, the location came under British control and later the U. S. complying with the Treaty of Paris (1783 ), though control continued to be contested with Aboriginal people up until treaties in between 1795 and 1842. The location became part of the bigger Northwest Territory; the Michigan Region was arranged in 1805. Michigan was admitted as the 26th state on January 26, 1837, entering as a free state and rapidly turning into a commercial and trade center that attracted European immigrants, especially from Finland, Macedonia, and the Netherlands. In the 1930s, migration from Appalachia and the Center East and the Great Movement of Black Southerners additionally shaped the state, specifically in Metro Detroit. Michigan has a diversified economic climate with a gross state product of $725. 897 billion as of Q1 2025, ranking 14th amongst the 50 states. Although the state has actually established a diverse economy, in the very early 20th century it became commonly known as the center of the U. S. auto sector, which established as a significant nationwide financial pressure. It is home to the nation's three major auto business (whose head offices are done in Metro Detroit).As soon as manipulated for logging and mining, today the sparsely booming Upper Peninsula is very important for tourism as a result of its abundance of natural resources. The Lower Peninsula is a center of production, forestry, farming, solutions, and high-tech sector.
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