Michigan (MISH-ig-əə n) is a peninsular state in the Great Lakes region 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 province of Ontario to the east, northeast and north. With a population 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 location, and the biggest by overall location east of the Mississippi River. The state resources is Lansing, while its most populated city is Detroit. The Metro Detroit area in Southeast Michigan is among the nation's most populous and largest municipal economic climates. Various other important metropolitan areas include Grand Rapids, Flint, Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo, the Tri-Cities, and Muskegon. Michigan consists of 2 peninsulas: the greatly forested Upper Peninsula (generally called "the U. P. "), which sticks out eastward from northern Wisconsin, and the more inhabited Reduced Peninsula, extending north from Ohio and Indiana. The peninsulas are divided by the Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, and are connected by the 5-mile-long Mackinac Bridge along Interstate 75. Surrounding four of the five Great Lakes and Lake St. Clair, Michigan has the longest freshwater coast of any type of U. S. political class, measuring 3,288 miles. The state places second behind Alaska in water insurance coverage by square miles and initially in percentage, with approximately 42%, and it also has 64,980 inland lakes and fish ponds. The Great Lakes area has actually mainly been populated for countless years by Native individuals such as the Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi, and Wyandot. Some people compete that the area's name is originated from the Ojibwe word ᒥᓯᑲᒥ á’¥ ᓯ ᑲ á’¥ (mishigami), meaning "large water" or "big lake". Others say that it originates from the Mishiiken People of Mackinac Island, also called Michinemackinawgo by Ottawa chronicler Andrew Blackbird, whose surrounding lands were described as Mishiiken-imakinakom, later reduced to Michilimackinac. In the 17th century, French travelers claimed the area for New France. French settlers and Métis developed forts and settlements. After France's defeat in the French and Indian War in 1762, the location came under British control and later on the U. S. complying with the Treaty of Paris (1783 ), though control continued to be disputed with Aboriginal tribes until treaties between 1795 and 1842. The area became part of the larger Northwest Area; the Michigan Region was arranged in 1805. Michigan was admitted as the 26th state on January 26, 1837, going into as a totally free state and promptly becoming an industrial and trade center that drew in European immigrants, particularly from Finland, Macedonia, and the Netherlands. In the 1930s, migration from Appalachia and the Middle East and the Great Movement of Black Southerners additionally shaped the state, particularly in City Detroit. Michigan has a varied economic climate with a gross state product of $725. 897 billion since Q1 2025, placing 14th among the 50 states. Although the state has actually developed a diverse economic climate, in the early 20th century it came to be widely called the facility of the U. S. automobile industry, which established as a significant national economic pressure. It is home to the country's 3 major vehicle business (whose head offices are all in City Detroit).As soon as manipulated for logging and mining, today the sparsely inhabited Upper Peninsula is necessary for tourism as a result of its wealth of natural deposits. The Lower Peninsula is a facility of production, forestry, agriculture, solutions, and sophisticated sector.
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