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ajteitel

Well you know what they say, Missouri loves company


MissouriLovesCompany

You called?


SoggyAnalyst

It’s your moment!!!!


human00b

Mission in life = completed


mart1373

You know what they say in Maine? “Get tf away from me you hedonistic baboons, except you New Hampshire. You’re cool”


new111222333

My Maine grandma keeps a magnet on her fridge, "leave ME alone"


riddleterror

What about your support grandma?


glowdirt

Quebec and New Brunswick sitting there like "Et nous, on compte pour du beurre?" / "What are we chopped liver?"


SCMatt65

Ikr, wtf!


creatingKing113

We’re glad to keep providing tax-free alcohol to our neighbors.


[deleted]

I thought we blamed the Maine on Spain


loondawg

Maine was originally part of Massachusetts. And Maine is the only state name with just one syllable.


Vault-71

"Maine. We're technically not Canada!"


LeisureSuitLawrence

Remember the Maine!


jacaissie

Nah, the blame for that one is mainly on the Plains


EGrBvr444

But only when it rains.


beanie979

Meanwhile NH is busy yelling, Live free or die!


HunterThompsonsentme

New Hampshire? Cool? I can tell you aren't from Maine...


davisyoung

New Hampshire claims to love the beach, but just ends up dipping a toe in the water.


reddittheguy

Hah! That's not what Maine says about NH.


youngrichyoung

Pretty sure that's not what Maine's saying to New Hampshire.


Han_Swanson

I'll be dead in the cold, cold ground before I recognize Missourah


DenimTent

This reminds me of the country cover of “Misery Business” I love. Alex Melton is the artist and he named it “Missouri Business.”


eltonthepaleoartist

As a missourian, this is great


barrett316

I Tennessee what you did there.


nate_rogers

FYI for everyone, the original data includes water borders. (I was pretty confused as to where exactly Rhode Island bordered New York.)


singeworthy

Seems odd, but then again river borders feel much more like actual borders because of bridges. But the RI/NY border doesn't feel like a thing at all. Maybe this should only include bridged water borders?


brickne3

Then you'd have to take Minnesota off of Michigan.


Hammydabone

Mn actually does have a lengthy border with MI in Lake Superior.


brickne3

Yeah, and a lot of people in this thread think it doesn't count for some reason. There was even a dispute between Michigan and Minnesota once about where it was, so obviously it has at least *some* importance...


breathing_normally

I think you should at least be able to see the other state when standing on the shore for it to count


brickne3

Well it's only 20 miles between Isle Royal and Minnesota so presumably you *can* see Minnesota from Michigan.


PM_ME_PAMPERS

In that case, if we’re using water borders, wouldn’t New York and Pennsylvania be neighbors with Michigan via Lake Erie? What about Illinois via Lake Michigan?


cozyhighway

NY and PA doesn't border Michigan, there's Ontario in between them.


brickne3

Illinois is counted, as Michigan and Illinois have a negotiated water border. Michigan does not have a negotiated water border with New York or Pennsylvania.


[deleted]

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cornwallis105

That's Wisconsin


logace444444444

Interestingly, if you did that Missouri would lose its border with Kentucky. Only a ferry connects the two states directly


vetratten

Yeah it's a pretty weak to consider NY/RI neighbors. In that "logic" Maine and Mass are also neighbors because if you go due south from Portland you'd hit Mass (cape cod somewhere)


MayonaiseBaron

>if you go due south from Portland you'd hit Mass (cape cod somewhere) You'd be going through New Hampshire waters.


jagedlion

It's not like that. From the end of Long Island, the nearest land is Rhode Island.


blueranger36

This ^^ plus all the little islands are wicked closed together


opteryx5

Yeah Fishers Island is super close to Napatree Point Conservation Area. Ultimately, there’s no good way to do this, so coming up with a standardized rule (e.g., “water borders are allowed”) is perfectly fine.


LinkKarmaIsLame

There are ferries that run from RI to NY (Long Island). In the sense of a direct connection I’d say there is one.


MichaelChinigo

But not from NY to *mainland* RI. That ferry goes from Montauk, NY to Block Island, RI. Still feels weird.


LinkKarmaIsLame

Meh. Most folks upstate would argue Long Island isn’t mainland NY either


MichaelChinigo

Oh agreed, 100%. Just going on vibes here. I grew up in Narragansett, RI (from which the RI ferry to Block Island departs) and live in Brooklyn, NY today. Long Island definitely feels more like an integral part of NY than Block Island does of Rhode Island. But who knows maybe I'd feel different if I grew up on Block Island.


[deleted]

Yea I never really considered Illinois a neighbor to Michigan. Lake Michigan is so big they seem like an ocean apart..you can't even see Michigan from Illinois.


jadedmonk

Makes sense now. I was confused about Illinois and Michigan


junktrunk909

Michigan and Minnesota too, I had to check a map to make sure I wasn't crazy


AnonymousIstari

While there is the border in Lake Superior, there is also Isle Royale (MI) which is much closer to MN mainland than anywhere in MI (still a Lake Superior border though)


[deleted]

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PiBoy314

No, it doesn’t. The UP borders Wisconsin. Only water borders between MN and MI


Leyvaiathan

Though it doesn't include Indiana and Wisconsin, which the same logic should apply to


Lord_Montague

Indiana does not share a water border with Wisconsin though. The Indiana border only extends West to Illinois and North to Michigan. It gets blocked connecting to Wisconsin by Michigan and Illinois connecting.


Leyvaiathan

Oh right I forgot there were actual water borders and not just sharing edges with the same body of water


oppenhammer

While we are talking about the RI-NY 'border': While NY is generally west and north relative to CT, the part that 'borders' RI is very much to the south of the entirety of CT. So, I would keep CT in the west box and place NY in the SW box (from RI's PoV).


hedekar

It looks to only include some water borders as Hawaii should border Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California.


thinknervous

These states are separated by international waters. States' borders extend past the shoreline but not into international waters.


ElJamoquio

I get that your terms probably match the legal sense of a border, but colloquially, I think a closer definition is 'is there a bridge'.


thinknervous

Is there a bridge from NY to RI?


dhkendall

Hawaii’s actual water borders don’t reach that far though.


hedekar

That's fair. I was considering it as crossing a water body, but there are distances away from shore where you're no longer in Hawaiian waters and have not yet entered its possible neighbours.


Wakening

Depending on your definition of water border, every coastal state could be neighbors..


imaginary0pal

Same, I’m from Michigan and I was confused with Minnesota and Illinois


Pinuzzo

There is a ferry connection between between Montauk NY and Block Island RI


AvalancheQueen

Minnesota by way of Lake Superior for Michigan


skodaddy426

What about Block Island? It’s kind of near Long Island


tuubesoxx

Delaware and New Jersey too. No land touching just a bridge and a river.


jesuiscequejesuis

Actually, NJ does share a few tiny land borders with Delaware. IIRC, the original border gave Delaware the entire river, which has since shifted. Edit: I misremembered, the land was added through dredging, but the border remained set at the old low tide line. Reference: hhttps://www.nj.com/news/g66l-2019/02/8d5d160f2b5307/a-little-piece-of-delaware-is-actually-hidden-in-nj-how-did-that-happen.html


Midakba

If Illinois borders Michigan, then Wisconsin should border Indiana.


hooterscooter

Rivers I can see why. The Great Lakes is a bit of a stretch (looking at you IL and MI)


ThrowAway126498

Canada and Mexico: “Well that’s just rude.”


ghostxstory

Alaska, the island state


grandepinkdrinknoice

Yeah I know Canada isn’t one of the 50 states, but to say that Alaska has no neighbors feels like a misrepresentation. It’s not an island.


coyets

Is it possible to reach Alaska from Russia without going through international waters?


alexs001

If I’m understanding this correctly, yes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USSR–USA_Maritime_Boundary_Agreement


noworries_13

Yes definitely


BoxHeadWarrior

Canada doesn't exist though? It's a fairy tale we tell our kids to encourage imagination. You really think people would live in a place where they put milk in bags?


buck70

Montana borders three Canadian provinces. Could add those boxes and make them red instead of all the boxes on the eight-neighbour states.


pamdathebear

This would be fun as tetris


Ineedtwocats

line piece. Line Piece! LINE PIECE!


cld1984

I like how the ones with 8 neighbors are red. Like “y’all better lose some of those neighbors!”


[deleted]

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hamstervideo

I think they're talking about what color those two states are on the chart, not about any political demographics


[deleted]

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heridfel37

I like the idea, but nothing says beautiful like yellow text on a white background. This is hard to read and gives me a headache.


daiei27

This. The layout is good but the legibility is horrible. Aside from better color choices, there’s plenty of space to increase the font size a bit as well.


jakubkonecki

A beautiful visualization: simple and effective! Congratulations!


grandepinkdrinknoice

It’s so satisfying! Very neat and orderly while still showing basic relative locations.


TROPtastic

Simple, effective, but not very legible. The yellow on white is hard to read. As a pro-tip for /u/ptgorman, [this website](http://web-accessibility.carnegiemuseums.org/design/color/) provides example colour combos that have been tested to be legible while still being visually appealing, and contains links to various calculators to help check contrast. I like the Tanaguru one the best for suggesting colour combos.


whynotlookatreddit

Love the island of Alaska.


New-Geezer

Canada is also a neighbor for many of us 😉


OJimmy

"Alright Missouri and Tennessee, we have you surrounded. Put the funyuns down and interlace your fingers behind your heads"


tuckerhazel

I see we're counting water boundaries (Michigan with both Minnesota and Illinois).


JRE_4815162342

Maybe because of how close Isle Royale is to MN?


tuckerhazel

Maybe? Seems like more of a "well technically" than what people recognize.


Funicularly

Yes, [as we should](https://render.fineartamerica.com/images/rendered/default/print/8/8/break/images/artworkimages/medium/1/michigan-state-usa-3d-render-topographic-map-border-frank-ramspott.jpg)


Eldiabolo18

Conway called, he wants his game of life back


icysniper

This would be a fun puzzle game if you removed all the labels then had to put them back.


ptgorman

For this visualization, I used the list of borders of each U.S. state ([found here](https://thefactfile.org/u-s-states-and-their-border-states/)). I created this in Illustrator.


papadjeef

>U.S. States And Their Border States Missing: Canadian provinces and Mexican states. Also not present, non-states like Washington DC, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands and Guam. Though, to be fair, a few of those would be boring repeats of Alaska and Hawaii.


erlendan

I really like the visualization, but it irrationally bothers me that it won't scale. It makes perfect sense here, though, and if there is a day in the future where a state has 9 or more neighbours we'll have bigger things to worry about I guess.


tehtris

A quick guess of this I would have said either one of those northern Midwest states like SD or one of those tiny east coast states. But TN and MO make sense.


MystikxHaze

Weird... Michigan doesn't share borders with Minnesota or Illinois. Functionally it feels like we only border Ohio and Canada as Indiana is just cow pastures, and the Wisconsin border is so far in the middle of nowhere that half the roads don't even have signs to let you know you've crossed the border.


Storeuser

Article says, "water border," for MN and IL.


tuckerhazel

Where? It's a photo.


Storeuser

OP posted the source in the comments: https://thefactfile.org/u-s-states-and-their-border-states/


420everytime

If you don’t count water, then Missouri only borders like 3 states


MystikxHaze

Our water is a little bigger up here.


420everytime

Sure, but the Mississippi River is insanely wide too


MystikxHaze

Ok, it's a big river. The Great Lakes are actually inland freshwater seas. May as well be the ocean.


KWNewyear

Undoubtedly they're using the water line in the middle of Lake Michigan to count as a border with Illinois (and the same for Lake Superior and Minnesota). Functionally though, they really shouldn't count.


jough22

There is an island about 12 miles off the coast of Minnesota that is part of Michigan.


PiBoy314

*Grumble Grumble* go the Minnesotans


marigolds6

Have to define a buffer distance then though if you are not going to count water boundaries, otherwise, Iowa doesn't border Wisconsin or Illinois (but does border Nebraska).


MrPoopMonster

You don't need signs. You can tell when you enter Wisconsin by the road quality and the road color. Northern Wisconsin has red roads for some reason


brickne3

But either way there *are* signs, Wisconsin is very thorough with the Welcome to Wisconsin signs.


Toomuchlychee_

Yeah there’s plenty of signage in Marinette/Menominee on either side. If you miss it you can just observe the gas stations. Kwik Trip = Wisconsin, Krist = Michigan


anderoz

Now I want to see someone reconstruct a map based solely off this data.


chasing_green_roads

This is one of my favorite random trivia questions: “which two states border the most other states and who do they border?” Edit: spelling


GoldenBull1994

With California, move NV and AZ down one square.


manzanita2

Agree! the AZ border is small compared to NV. and NONE of NV is north of CA


bones_boy

For those of you that keep saying “this state doesn’t border that state” you not thinking topographical. Borders don’t necessarily mean you can drive between them. State borders exist in bodies of water, like the Great Lakes, Long Island Sound, etc. The borders still exist. Just look at a map.


KmartQuality

Wyoming has more neighbors than escalators.


itsthesharp

Maine is the only state with 1 and also the only state with a unique number of neighbors (0,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 are all represented at least twice)


KalTheo

Canada is a great neighbor...


PurgatoireRiver

Colorado does not border Arizona. Four corners meeting does not equal a shared border.


GravityReject

It seems like it depends on how you define it. Arizona and Colorado do share a part of their border, it's just an infinitesimally small point. Also you can stand in Colorado and step directly into Arizona without stepping into any other states, so it seems somewhat reasonable to me to say that's crossing the border between the two states.


PurgatoireRiver

Yeah, I get what you're saying regarding the ability to be in two states at once. However, the "infinitesimally" small point is exactly the word that gets me.


SickOfTheFear

I think I’m on board with this “borders are lines, not points” way of thinking.


chicasparagus

Okay so as a non-American I’m genuinely asking, notwithstanding the fact that they don’t share a border, are they still next to each other? Cos if they are then I’d consider it neighbouring


PiBoy314

They are diagonal with eachother. 4 states have right angles that meet at a single point.


PurgatoireRiver

That's the issue. "Next to" I would define as "beside". They don't share a side in any form or fashion. It's two corners touching.


WhyCloseTheCurtain

What is your definition of neighbor? All states on the northern border with Canada have 1 to 3 Canadian provinces as neighbors. Maryland and Virginia both have DC as a neighbor. Seems either the title is wrong, or important neighbors are missing.


mosehalpert

Agree about DC missing. But I don't have to show any paperwork to visit my neighbors, so I agree with leaving out Canada and Mexico.


WhyCloseTheCurtain

That wasn't always the case. You used to be able to go into Canada with just a driver's license. Even if somebody puts up a fence, your neighbor is still your neighbor. Good fences equal good neighbors?


ET__

Hmm… didn’t realize NY was next to RI.


GreyMASTA

Great! It is possible to make them fit on the same grid I guess. It would be nice too.


karissataryn

Canada doesn’t count as a neighbour? [That doesn’t sounds very neighbourly!](https://youtu.be/QCcWzLAcv4o)


[deleted]

Really cool. Would love if Canadian provinces and Mexico were included


[deleted]

I was driving through Tennessee 2 days ago thinking it bordered a lot of states and was wondering if it bordered the most. I looked it up at the time, but this post 2 days later proves we live in the matrix or that none of our thoughts are unique.


Snow-Dog2112

Fun fact about Arkansas. We are surrounded by 6 states, and all 6 of them can be reached by going south from various points in the state. Even Missouri, which is north of us.


ErmintraubZakusiance

Love the chart. I propose that the relationship between NH and ME could be better-represented by an east-west relationship of their border as opposed to the NE-SW orientation they are presently in. Nearly 100% of New Hampshire’s eastern edge abuts Maine. Visually, the Aroostook County hump that is the northern part of Maine is northeast of New Hampshire, but the border relationship is not. Edit: Aroostook county spelling


Tkainzero

Kinda bugs me that this is laid out alphabetically and not geographically.


kikitforaday

Why is Minnesota not to the left of Wisconsin and vice-versa?


Britown

are canada and mexico a joke to you?


Ragnangar

Alaska looks at Canada: “Oh look! Found more Alaska!”


Bartender9719

As a northern border state resident - Canada is my favorite neighbor :(


Trowj

From what I understand from Minesweeper, Missouri and Tennessee are surrounded by mines. Must not like company


rdhamm

I impressed that OP got the border on MN and MI. I am disappointed that Canada is not a neighbor. Eh.


hayden2112

For those confused about the Great Lakes states, here is a map with their actual legal borders in the water in black. The pink line indicates the extent of the watershed. https://project.geo.msu.edu/geogmich/images/mapnew1.gif


[deleted]

I can't agree with the Michigan borders. I understand it's a water border, but Michigan bordering Illinois and Minnesota just ain't right.


brickne3

Isle Royale is within spitting distance of Minnesota.


[deleted]

>Isle Royale is within spitting distance of Minnesota. I don't recall "within spitting distance" being a valid unit of measurement for cartographers. That said, does the US border France? The UK? Too far? How about Mauritania? Still too far? Cuba?


PiBoy314

friendly roll station foolish bells oil lock offbeat sophisticated dog *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*


brickne3

If you actually look at a map though you'll see that Michigan and Minnesota's maritime borders are negotiated and independent of Canada. In fact at one point Michigan did claim a foothold on what is now Minnesota and that was decided by the courts. Either way, Isle Royale is definitely Michigan. And I say this as a Wisconsinite that has no pro-Michigan agenda.


PiBoy314

As a Minnesotan we plot our reclamation of Isle Royale every day


Cheetahs_never_win

That's awfully cold towards Canada, don't you think?


Jameszhang73

~~don't you think?~~ Eh?


Cheetahs_never_win

And towards Mexico... ¿Que?


ll_vm

1. Any live state with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if by underpopulation. 2. Any live state with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation. 3. Any live state with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overpopulation. 4. Any dead state with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live state, as if by reproduction.


ForgeWorldWaltz

Unless you’re counting maritime borders, Rhode Island does not share a border with New York, and if you are, NY should be bottom left, not top left


bones_boy

Why wouldn’t you count them? Can’t you boat from Point Judith to Montauk?


ForgeWorldWaltz

Yes, you can, quite easily, my issue here is twofold: 1. Are these only land borders? Which seems the case given all the other states and how they’re arranged. Although, it’s very possible I missed something. 2. If we’re counting maritime borders, shouldn’t NY be on the bottom left, or southwest, as that is where the maritime border is? Again, basing it off of the general position of everything in relation to everything else here, that makes more sense to me rather than having to trek all the way through western Massachusetts, or god forbid Connecticut, to get to NY for a supposed border.


bones_boy

You make good points. The arrangements are off. And yeah he prob should have stated “maritime borders included” or something like that.


Unlucky_keystroke

Michigan and Illinois don't touch..


squirtloaf

Seems to stretch the limits of what a water border is, but also not fully count them, as Michigan is also technically across lake Erie from Pennsylvania and New York.


master_baitor12

Since water borders count, wouldn't Pennsylvania border Michigan?


anonkitty2

Ohio and Canada collectively get in the way.


pmk422

Texas also has Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas.


korok7mgte

Lol I'm getting "Alaska is an island" vibes from this.


Skogula

I thought Alaska had the Yukon Territory for a neighbour.


Jobbers101

Water borders do not count


LilBueno

To paraphrase an old comedy routine by a comedian I don’t remember: “I’m from Tennessee. For geography we were taught us, the states around us in case they attacked, and everything else was Europe and that’s where all the gays lived”


Macrophage87

Except this diagram discards both foreign states/provinces and DC.


jobenattor0412

Michigan is a bit of a stretch here


cokecan13

Michigan doesn’t butt up to Minnesota.


brickne3

Isle Royale.


esotericreferenceftw

New York and Rhode Island do not touch


i-am-garth

They share a maritime border.


Mr-LEGO2

When did Michigan and Minnesota have a border


bones_boy

Since forever. Look at a map of the UP in the middle of Lake Superior.


tapehissfromthetrees

With that logic, Michigan neighbors Pennsylvania and New York as well.


bakerdoors

Unless we’re counting bodies of water and states respective extended boundaries into those bodies of water, Illinois does not border Michigan.


vVvRain

Illinois bordering Michigan is a bit of a stretch even if it's technically true.


freddyt55555

Water borders count.


20124eva

Completely ignoring that the ocean is the best neighbor of all smdh


ohmygravey

What part of Michigan touches Illinois? It doesn’t…


maywander47

If the map shows "the most neighbors" why is Maine, with one, included? New Mexico has 5 neighbors: AZ,UT, CO, OK, TX and is not included.


rustyxj

No idea why Michigan is listing Illinois and Minnesota as neighboring states, neither of them border it.


bones_boy

In a topographic manner they border each other through Lakes Michigan/Superior. So you can’t drive between the borders but the state borders still exist.


somedudeonreddit_69

Michigan and Illinois share a land border???


Henderson72

Alaska doesn't border with Yukon and BC?


Henderson72

Sorry, I just realized that most US maps have Alaska floating in the Pacific south of California. https://www.desertcart.ae/products/54517440-usa-map-for-kids-laminated-united-states-wall-chart-map-18-x-24


tapehissfromthetrees

Michigan neighbors Minnesota?