Since the 1970s, the Sunbelt has agglomerated—and represented—disparate centers of population and economic growth, generally in the Southern tiers of the US from Florida to California. Some of these areas were underdeveloped before the Second World War; hence the term also refers to a major shift in communities and power in the US. In contrast, older, declining industrial centers have been labeled the “Rustbelt.” Although cities like Los Angeles, CA and Miami, FL long have been models of recreation, leisure and dreams, the Sunbelt as a new boom region has encompassed both cities and suburbs, including new financial and government nodes—Atlanta, GA, Charlotte (North Carolina) and Houston, TX. Retirement and tourism centers also have blossomed, including Phoenix, AZ and Orlando/Disneyworld (Florida), whose population grew by 50 percent between 1980 and 1990. By analogy, some stretch “Sunbelt” to include other areas of new growth since the 1970s, including Denver, CO and Hawai’i. Rustbelt is used less as a term, since it does little for boosterism or growth, but taints cities such as Buffalo, NY, Cleveland, OH and Philadelphia, PA.

The Sunbelt nonetheless encompasses uneven growth patterns as well as changes over time. Southern California and South Florida, its early centers, already have faced problems of sprawl and racial and ethnic divisions exacerbated during recessions. Smaller cities like Santa Fe, NM and Nashville, TN have challenged other Sunbelt metropoles with their more relaxed lifestyles, while all areas face increasing growth and the insistent franchising of both malls and downtowns. Throughout the Sunbelt, meanwhile, longsettled populations have complained about intruders. Some—African Americans in the South and Latinos and Native Americans in the Southwest and West—have fought their exclusion from new growth. New immigrants from outside the US have also created new diversity exemplified by Asian strip malls forming part of suburban highway sprawl from Atlanta to Los Angeles.

After decades of growth, Sunbelt states have gained a large voice in politics (especially among Republicans), manifest in the mass presidential primaries of “Super Tuesday” (the first Tuesday in March), when eight Southern states vote together. They are centers for industry, services (including tourism) and, increasingly for culture, whether in research centers, new arts and museum complexes, or sports. The Sunbelt also sets national styles, exemplified in fads for Southwest designs. Yet it faces competition from other regions that tempt mobile Americans with economic opportunity and an enhanced “quality of life,” whether the “Ecotopia” of the Pacific Northwest, revivals of New England towns or the diversity of older industrial cities. At the same time, the explosion of Sunbelt urban and rural areas also has created gaps in education, healthcare and social services, while new and old citizens search for civic identities that will build bridges from bucolic pasts into rapidly changing futures.