The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South— is an area in the southeastern and south-central United States. The region is known for its distinct culture and history, having developed its own customs, musical styles and varied cuisines that have helped distinguish itself from the rest of the United States. The South owes its unique heritage to a variety of sources, including Native Americans, early European settlements of Spanish, English, German, French, Scots-Irish and Scottish importation of hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans, historic dependence on slave labor, presence of a large proportion of African Americans in the population, and the aftermath of the Confederacy after the Civil War.

Historically, the South has relied heavily on agriculture but has become more industrialized and urban in the last few decades of the 20th century, attracting national and international migrants. The American South is now among the fastest-growing areas in the United States. Despite rapid economic growth, the South still has persistent poverty, and every Southern state with the exceptions of Maryland, Virginia and Florida has a higher poverty rate than the American average. Poverty is especially prevalent in rural areas. Sociological research has indicated that Southern collective identity stems from political, demographic and cultural distinctiveness. Studies have shown that Southerners are significantly more conservative than non-Southerners in several areas, including religion, morality, international relations and race relations. This is especially evident during presidential elections and in religious attendance figures.

In the 21st century, the South remains demographically distinct with higher percentages of blacks. Demographically, the South has lower percentages of high school graduates, lower housing values, lower household incomes and higher percentages of people in poverty. These factors, combined with the fact that Southerners continue to maintain strong loyalty to family ties, has led some sociologists to label white Southerners a "quasi-ethnic regional group." In previous censuses, the largest ancestry group identified by Southerners was English or mostly English, with 19,618,370 self-reporting "English" as an ancestry on the 1980 census, followed by 12,709,872 listing "Irish" and 11,054,127 "Afro-American".

Apart from its climate, the living experience in the South increasingly resembles the rest of the nation. The arrival of millions of Northerners (especially in the suburbs and coastal areas) and millions of Hispanics means the introduction of cultural values and social norms not rooted in Southern traditions. Observers conclude that collective identity and Southern distinctiveness are thus declining, particularly when defined against "an earlier South that was somehow more authentic, real, more unified and distinct." The process has worked both ways, however, with aspects of Southern culture spreading throughout a greater portion of the rest of the United States in a process termed "Southernization".

Noun

folks

1. Plural form of folk.
2. The members of one's household; especially one's parents and immediate family.

   My folks visit us at Christmas.

3. People in general; everybody or anybody.

   Lots of folks like to travel during the holidays.

• folk

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