Rust Belt: Definition, Why It’s Called That, List of States

What Is the Rust Belt?

The Rust Belt is a colloquial term used to describe the geographic region stretching from New York through the Midwest that was once dominated by the coal industry, steel production, and manufacturing. The Rust Belt became an industrial hub due to its proximity to the Great Lakes, canals, and rivers, which allowed companies to access raw materials and ship out finished products. The region received the name in the late 1970s, after a sharp decline in industrial work left many factories abandoned and desolate, causing increased rust from exposure to the elements.

Understanding the Rust Belt

The term Rust Belt is often used in a derogatory sense to describe parts of the country that have seen a typically drastic economic decline. The Rust Belt region represents the deindustrialization of an area, which is often accompanied by fewer high-paying jobs and high poverty rates. The result has been a change in the urban landscape as the local population moves to other areas of the country in search of work.

The Rust Belt is also commonly referred to as the Manufacturing Belt and the Factory Belt. Although there is no definitive boundary, the states that are considered in the Rust Belt—at least partly—are:

• Illinois
• Indiana
• Michigan
• Missouri
• New York (upstate and western regions)
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• West Virginia
• Wisconsin

The region was home to some of America’s most prominent industries, such as steel production and automobile manufacturing. During its boom time, formerly prosperous manufacturing centers in Midwestern and Northeastern cities like Detroit, Toledo (Ohio), Pittsburgh, and Buffalo produced heavy industrial materials and consumer products and developed storage and transportation systems to distribute them to the rest of the country.

The region experienced a sharp downturn in industrial activity from the increased cost of domestic labor, competition from overseas, technology advancements replacing workers, and the capital-intensive nature of manufacturing.

Poverty in the Rust Belt

Blue-collar jobs have increasingly moved overseas, forcing local governments to rethink the type of manufacturing businesses that can succeed in the area. While some cities managed to adopt new technologies, others still struggle with rising poverty levels and declining populations.

Below are poverty rates from the U.S. Census Bureau as of 2022, the most recent data available, for each of the Rust Belt states listed above, calculated as a three-year average from 2020, 2021, and 2022. For comparison, the poverty rate of the entire United States is 9.8%.

History of the Rust Belt

Before being known as the Rust Belt, the area was generally known as the country’s Factory, Steel, or Manufacturing Belt. This area, once a booming hub of economic activity, represented a great portion of U.S. industrial economic growth and development.

The natural resources that were found in the area—namely coal and iron ore—led to its prosperity, along with labor and ready access to transport by available waterways. This led to the rise in coal and steel plants, which later spawned the weapons, automotive, and auto parts industries. People seeking employment began moving to the area, which was dominated by the coal and steel industries. This changed the region's overall landscape.

But that began to change from the 1950s to the 1970s. Many manufacturers used expensive and outdated equipment and machinery. As such, they were saddled with the high costs of domestic labor and materials. To compensate, many of them began looking elsewhere for cheaper steel and labor (namely from foreign sources) which would ultimately lead to the collapse of the region.

Decline of the Rust Belt

Most research suggests that the Rust Belt started to falter in the late 1970s, but the decline may have started earlier, notably in the 1950s, when the region’s dominant industries faced minimal competition.

The area accounted for more than half of all manufacturing jobs in the country in 1950. Powerful labor unions in the automotive and steel manufacturing sectors ensured minimum labor competition. As a result, many established companies had very little incentive to innovate or expand as they operated like monopolies. This came back to haunt the region when the U.S. opened trade overseas, resulting in a flood of imports and shifting production to the South.

From 1950 to 1980, the Rust Belt faced competitive pressure domestically and overseas. This led to lower wages and prices, as well as the shuttering of many manufacturing jobs. As such, almost two-thirds of the region's employment share declined. This shows that competitive pressure in productivity and labor markets is important to incentivize firms to innovate. However, weak incentives can drive resources to more prosperous regions.

The region’s population also showed a rapid decline. What was once a hub for immigrants from the rest of the country and abroad led to an exodus of people out of the area, as jobs were no longer readily available. Thousands of well-paying blue-collar jobs were eliminated, forcing people to move away in search of employment and better living conditions.

Politics and the Rust Belt

The term Rust Belt is generally attributed to Walter Mondale, who referred to this part of the country in that way when he was the Democratic presidential candidate in 1984. Attacking then-President Ronald Reagan, Mondale claimed that his opponent’s policies were ruining what he called the Rust Bowl. He was misquoted by the media as saying the Rust Belt, and the term stuck. Since then, the term has consistently been used to describe the area’s economic decline.

The Rust Belt is still mostly dominated by older, non-college-educated white voters, who traditionally lean toward the Republican Party. However, many Rust Belt states have historically voted Democrat. In an unexpected turn of events in the 2016 election, Donald Trump was able to turn Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin red—states that voted Democrat for a long time, and that Barack Obama won in 2012.

In the 2020 election, Joe Biden was able to flip back Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. However, there continues to be a population shift from the Rust Belt states toward the Sun Belt states, which would leave the Rust Belt states a Republican stronghold, due to the older, non-college-educated white voters.

Rust Belt and COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic hit the Rust Belt hard. White-collar workers throughout the country were able to work from home; however, this was not possible for most blue-collar workers. One study reported on 13 American cities that were particularly vulnerable to the twin crises of the pandemic and declines in mental health. Nine of these 13 cities were in the Rust Belt.

The lack of business during the pandemic shuttered many factories in the Rust Belt, exasperating the already-dire situation. Many of the industries that were hit hard during the pandemic, such as timber, have large operations in Rust Belt states.

For example, job losses due to the shuttering of manufacturing jobs amid the pandemic wiped out all the gains in Wisconsin between March and July of 2020 that the manufacturing sector experienced in the state since 2011.

According to Politico, the “region has been devastated by job losses amid pandemic-induced economic shutdowns, in some cases far outpacing the national average in terms of the proportion of their workforces that have applied for unemployment benefits since mid-March [2020].” In Pennsylvania, only a few months into the pandemic, 29.6% of the workforce filed for unemployment, the report added.

The Bottom Line

The term Rust Belt denotes a region of the U.S. that was once a booming hub of industrial and manufacturing jobs, due to the companies located there, such as automotive and steel companies. After the 1950s, as manufacturing moved overseas and to the South, and as the country opened up to imports, the region lost many jobs.

This resulted in a large-scale exodus of the population to look for employment elsewhere, resulting in urban decay and poverty. In the last decade, however, many of these regions are pivoting away from manufacturing and attracting new service-related jobs. Detroit, for example, has seen a revitalization of its downtown.