Consumer Ecoregions: Geographic Segmentation of the Eastern Conterminous United States of America

Abstract

A new partition of geographic regions in the Eastern US, based on environmental variables rather than political borders, is introduced as an alternative approach to aggregation of consumer demand data. The classification exercise described in this paper led to the definition of twelve distinct geographic regions representing the same area as seventeen corresponding Western States in Holman (2020). The same exercise is repeated here to define twelve distinct regions representing the same area as thirty-one corresponding Eastern States and the District of Columbia. The purpose of this classification exercise in both cases is to create Consumer Ecoregions (CERs) that, in comparison to the partition of states, demonstrate significantly less variability in terms of population, economic output, and land area while better representing unique climates and landscapes. This serves the broader goal of developing a partition for the entire conterminous United States which can be used to analyze business and economic data through a geographic lens that provides a more concise view of distinct regions.