The Northeastern United States, or simply the Northeast, is a geographical region of the United States bounded to the north by Canada, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Southern United States, and to the west by the Midwestern United States. The Northeast is one of the four regions defined by the Census Bureau for the collection and analysis of statistics. The Census Bureau-defined region has a total area of 181,324 sq mi (469,630 km2) with 162,257 sq mi (420,240 km2) of that being land mass. Though lacking a unified cultural identity, the Northeastern region is the nation's most economically developed, densely populated, and culturally diverse. Of the nation’s four census regions, the Northeast is the second most urban, with 85 percent of its population residing withi