| Country | USA |
| Capital city | Indianapolis |
| Area | 94,321 km² |
| Population | 6,785,528 people (2020) 71.9 people/km² |
| Governor | Mike Pence (Republican) |
| Time zone | Eastern: UTC-5/-4; Central: UTC-6/-5 (NW and SW) |
| ZIP code | IN |
| ISO 3166-2 | US-IN |
| Official site | www.in.gov |
| Indiana | |
Indiana (English: Indiana) is an American state whose name means “Land of the Indians “. Its capital is called Indianapolis. The state zip code is IN.
The inhabitants of Indiana are called “Hoosiers “.
The battleship USS Indiana is named for the state.
History
The lands on which present-day Indiana is located were originally inhabited between the 2nd and 4th centuries. The main Native American tribes that inhabited Indiana were the Maya and the Shawnee. In the 17th century, France took control of the area. It later came under British control as part of reparations following the French and Indian War, soon after becoming part of the Northeast Territories. On December 11, 1816, Indiana became the 19th state of the United States.
Politics
The state’s fiftieth governor, Republican Mike Pence, has been the vice president of the United States since 2017. The state has two senators, Dan Coats (Republican) and Joe Connolly (Democrat).
Indiana is considered by many to be one of the most conservative states in the Midwest. Since endorsing Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater in 1964, Indiana has not voted for a single Democratic presidential candidate. This tradition of sorts was broken by Barack Obama in 2008, who defeated Republican candidate John McCain 50% to 49%. In terms of governors, however, half of those elected in the 20th century were Democrats.
Former governor and senator Evan Bay is a likely Democratic presidential candidate in 2008. He is well received by voters in the state largely because of the attention he gives them. His father was a three-time senator, famous for being a good liberal, but he was forced to leave his post in 1980 during the so-called “Reagan’s Revolution” by Dan Quayle from the small town of Huntington in the northwest part of the state. Prior to the election of former Gov. Evan Bay, both of Indiana’s senatorial nominees were staunch Republicans. Despite the few state-elected Democrats, Indiana is known for its loyalty to the Republican Party, especially in small towns.
Geography
Map of Indiana
Indiana borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, the state of Illinois to the west, shares the Ohio River as a border with Kentucky to the south, the state of Ohio to the east, and Michigan to the north.
The 764-kilometer Wabash River bisects the state from the northeast to the southwest. The White River, which flows into the Wabash, is located in northern Indiana. It flows through two large cities – Indianapolis and Muncie. Evansville, the third largest city, is located on the banks of the Ohio River, which defines the border between Indiana and Kentucky.
Most of northern Indiana is farmland. However, the Northwest is considered part of the Chicago metropolitan area and is densely populated. Gerry, a city on the shores of Lake Michigan, birthplace of Michael Jackson, is actually a suburb of Chicago. The Kanakee River is considered the boundary between the urbanized and non-urbanized parts of northwestern Indiana.
The southern part of the state is a mixture of arable land and forests. It is also hillier than northern Indiana.
Farming
Northern Indiana
Indiana’s 2003 gross domestic product was $ 214 billion. 28,783 dollars per capita.
Indiana is located in the so-called “Corn Belt”. Soy is also a very common crop. The proximity of the state to a big city like Chicago predetermines the good development of the food industry. Indiana is also a significant producer of tobacco. At the beginning of the state’s settlement, most of the land was not prairie, but forest. Mass logging for logging and the need for arable land have led to the current state. Patches of heavily forested land still exist in the south, supporting the lumber industry.
A large percentage of the gross domestic product falls on industry. The Calumet region in northwest Indiana is the largest steel manufacturing center in the US, requiring very large amounts of electricity. Other industries include automotive, rubber and petroleum products, and engineering. In addition, Indiana is home to the headquarters of the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company and Mead Johnson Nutritionals. North Elkhart also has a strong pharmaceutical business presence, however this has changed somewhat with the closure of Whitehall Laboratories in the 1990s and the planned withdrawal of Bayer, announced in late 2005.
Indianapolis
Despite its reliance on manufacturing, Indiana has been relatively lightly affected by the decline in this type of manufacturing in the US compared to its neighbors. This is explained by the specifics of the labor market. First, much of heavy engineering requires highly skilled labor, and manufacturers prefer to invest where this factor is available. Second, the majority of Indiana’s population lives in small to medium-sized cities rather than large and expensive metropolises. This provides an opportunity for companies to offer lower wages for these positions than normal. In other words, businesses often see Indiana as a chance to get better-than-average skilled labor, paying below-national wages, which often makes the state attractive.
In mining, Indiana is known for the ornamental limestone in the southern, hilly part of the state, especially from Bedford (the hometown of Apollo 1 astronaut Virgil Grissom). One of the many public buildings whose facades are plastered with this limestone is the Pentagon, and after the attacks of September 11, 2001, a special effort was made by the Indiana mining industry to replace the destroyed walls with a material almost identical to the original. There are also coal mines in southern Indiana. Like most of the other Great Lakes states, Indiana has small to medium-sized oil fields in its southernmost reaches.
The economyof Indiana is considered one of the best for business in the US. This is largely due to a conservative business climate, low taxes, and much of the labor law unchanged since the 19th century emphasizing employer/management supremacy. The “mutual consent” doctrine, where an employer can fire an employee without cause, is unique to Indiana. Unions in Indiana face major organizing difficulties and are among the weakest in the nation. Indiana is said to be a post-industrial state with a pre-industrial mindset when it comes to workers’ rights. This is of course strictly relative. With few exceptions such as the college towns of Lafayette and Bloomington, technologically the state is relatively backward due to the population’s natural reluctance to change.
Military bases
Indiana is the former home of two major military bases, Grissom Air Force Base (with reduced functions) and Fort Benjamin Harrison near Indianapolis (also with reduced functions, although the Department of Defense still receives major funding there).
Major bases currently include Air National Guard units in Fort Wayne, the Crane Naval Weapons Center in the southwestern part of the state, and the Army Chemical Depot in Newport, which is currently handling the neutralization of chemical weapons stored there.
Demographics
South Bend Train Station
| Population over the years | |
| Census year | Population |
| 1800 | 2632 |
| 1810 | 24,520 |
| 1820 | 147 178 |
| 1830 | 343 031 |
| 1840 | 685,866 |
| 1850 | 988 416 |
| 1860 | 1,350,428 |
| 1870 | 1,680,637 |
| 1880 | 1,978,301 |
| 1890 | 2,192,404 |
| 1900 | 2,516,462 |
| 1910 | 2,700,876 |
| 1920 | 2,930,390 |
| 1930 | 3,238,503 |
| 1940 | 3,427,796 |
| 1950 | 3,934,224 |
| 1960 | 4,662,498 |
| 1970 | 5,193,669 |
| 1980 | 5,490,224 |
| 1990 | 5,544,159 |
| 2000 | 6,080,485 |
In 2005, Indiana’s population was 6,271,973, an increase of 45,436 or 0.7% from the previous year and 191,456 or 3.1% from 2000. These figures include a natural increase of 159,488 since at the last census, (451,681 new-borns minus 292,193 deaths) and growth caused by migration of 38,656 people. Immigration from outside the US brought an increase of 55,656 people, and migration within the country – a decrease of 17,000.
In 2004, there were about 229,000 foreign-born people in Indiana (3.7%).
State racial distribution:
- 85.8% white
- 8.4% African American
- 3.5% Hispanic
- 1% Asians
- 0.3% indigenous population
- 1.2% mixed
The five largest communities are: German (22.7%), American (12%), Irish (10.8%), English (8.9%), African American (8.4%).
People of German ancestry are the largest group reported in Indiana, accounting for nearly a quarter of the white census population. People of American and English ancestry are spread throughout the state, especially in its southern and central parts. Gary and the surrounding suburbs of Chicago, as well as Indianapolis, have a large percentage of blacks in their population.
South Bend has a large Polish community, and Mishawaka (a city adjacent to South Bend) has a significant portion of Belgian ancestry. Dingus Day, a Polish holiday celebrated on the Monday after Easter, is very popular in South Bend.
North Goshen, Elkhart County, has a large Hispanic community. Many of the road signs in the area have inscriptions in 2 languages (English and Spanish).
Population growth since 1990 has been concentrated mostly in the areas surrounding Indianapolis, home to 4 of the five fastest-growing counties: Hamilton, Hendricks, Johnson, and Hancock. The other area is Dearborn, near Cincinnati. At the same time, a decline in population was seen in the areas forming a geographic line between Logansport and Richmond. Three counties along the Wabash River are also experiencing declines: Wygo, Knox and Perry.
Religion
Religiously, Indiana is predominantly Protestant, although a significant portion of the population is Catholic. The influence of the Catholics is palpable, thanks to one of the great renowned universities in the USA – the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, which is Catholic. Indiana has a significant Mennonite and Amish presence, most notably in Elkhart and LaGrange in the north and Park County in the west.
In the cities, the Catholic and Protestant churches dominate, and outside them, the evangelical and fundamentalist churches. Indianapolis is the seat of two conservative currents – the Free Methodist Church and the Wesleyan Church.
The headquarters of the Islamic Community of North America is located off Interstate 70 in Plainfield, west of Indianapolis.
There are significant Jewish communities in Indianapolis, South Bend, Fort Wayne, and Terre Haute.
Distribution of Religions in Indiana:
- Christians – 82%
- Protestants – 62%
- Baptists – 15%
- Methodists – 10%
- Lutherans – 6%
- Church of Christ – 5%
- Pentecostals – 3%
- Mennonites / Pietists – 1%
- Other Protestants – 23%
- Catholics – 19%
- Other Christians – 1%
- Protestants – 62%
- Other religions – 1%
- Atheists – 17%
Important cities
With a population of over 1,000,000
- Indianapolis, the capital of Indiana, is located almost in its geographic center
With a population of over 100,000
- Fort Wayne, NW
- Evansville, in the southwest, on the Ohio River, home to the University of Evansville and the University of Southern Indiana
- South Bend, near the Michigan border, home to the University of Notre Dame
- Gerry, Northwest, birthplace of Michael, Janet Jackson and Joseph Stiglitz
With a population of over 50,000
- Bloomington
- Lafayette
Counties
According to Countryaah, Indiana is divided into 92 counties:
- Adams
- Alan
- Bartholomew
- Benton
- Blackford
- Brown
- Bun
- Vanderburgh
- Washington
- Viggo
- Vermilion
- Gibson
- Grant
- Green
- Davis
- Delaware
- Jackson
- Jasper
- Jay
- Jennings
- Jefferson
- Johnson
- Dikalb
- Decatur
- Dearborn
- Dubois
- Elkhart
- Cas
- Carol
- Clark
- Clay
- Clinton
- Kosciusko
- Crawford
- Lagrange
- Laporte
- Lake
- Lawrence
- Madison
- Marion
- Martin
- Marshall
- Miami
- Monroe
- Montgomery
- Morgan
- Noble
- Knox
- Newton
- Orange
- Owen
- Ohio
- Pike
- Park
- Perry
- Porter
- Posey
- Pulaski
- Putnam
- Randolph
- Ripley
- Rush
- Saint Joseph
- Scott
- Spencer
- Stark
- Stuben
- Switzerland
- Sullivan
- Tipicanu
- Tipton
- White
- Wayne
- Wales
- Wheatley
- Wobash
- Warwick
- Warren
- Fayette
- Fountain
- Floyd
- Franklin
- Fulton
- Hamilton
- Hancock
- Harrison
- Howard
- Hendrix
- Henry
- Huntington
- Shelby
- Union
Time zones
Map of US time zones
Most of Indiana has never had daylight saving time. Some counties, notably Floyd, Clark, Harrison, which are near Louisville, and Ohio and Dearborn counties near Cincinnati, Ohio, have daylight saving time unofficially and illegally, but by local custom.
In addition, Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Newton and Jasper counties in the northwest and Gibson, Posey, Vedderburg, Warrick and Spencer counties in the southwest are in the Central Time Zone and subject to daylight saving time.
The history of this allocation is rather confusing. From 1918 to 1961, when jurisdiction over the issuance of time standard ordinances was transferred to the Interstate Commerce Commission, the dividing line between Eastern and Central Standard Time was roughly the eastern border of Indiana. In 1961, after hearings, the Interstate Commerce Commission moved the boundary between the two time zones so that it de facto split Indiana down the middle. In 1961, the governor of Indiana petitioned the US Department of Transportation to move the entire state to Central Time. Instead, the line is placed so that all but 10 counties in western Indiana are placed in the Eastern time zone. The state is allowed to exclude almost all areas from daylight saving time. Technically this means
Because of the resulting confusion, in 2005 the state pushed a bill to implement daylight saving time starting in April 2006. The counties would remain in their current time zones, but the bill asked the federal Department of Transportation, which has jurisdiction over time zones, to reconsider if most areas may be to central time.
Indianapolis
| Country | USA |
| State | Indiana |
| District | Marion |
| Area | 936.1 km² |
| Highness height | 218 m |
| Population | 867,125 people (2018) 926 people/km² |
| Founding | 1821 |
| ZIP code | 46201 – 46298 |
| Telephone code | 317, 486 |
| Official site | www.indygov.org |
| Indianapolis | |
Indianapolis (in English: Indianapolis) is the capital of the state of Indiana, United States of America.
According to the 2015 United States Census, the city’s population was 853,173, making it the largest city in Indiana and the 13th largest city in the country.
It was founded as the state capital in 1821 on the site of the trapper settlement of Fall Creek. The state government chose Alexander Ralston, who had helped design Washington, D.C., to build the new city. A serious impetus for the development of Indianapolis was given by the arrival of the railroad in 1847. The favorable location of the city turned it into a major transportation center, and today the city is called the Crossroads of America.
Geography
The city is located in the center of the state, on the banks of the White River. The terrain is flat and hilly, with a maximum altitude of up to 257 m.
The climate is temperate-continental with hot and humid summers and very cold winters. In the months of January and February, the snowfall is particularly heavy. The average annual thickness of the snow cover is 58 cm.
Population
Indianapolis is the state’s largest city and is home to 12.8% of Indiana’s entire population. The racial makeup of the population is divided into white (61.8%), African American (27.5%), Hispanic (9.4%), and Asian (2.1%). The average age is 33.7 years (2010), with 93 men for every 100 women.
Crime is a serious problem, especially in the city’s predominantly African-American inner-city areas. The homicide rate (27.3 per 100,000 in 2005) is five times the national average.
Personalities
Born in Indianapolis
- Adam Lambert (b. 1982), glam rock artist
- Andre Owens (b. 1980), basketball player
Died in Indianapolis
- Benjamin Harrison (1833 – 1901), 23rd President of the United States
