Rust Belt

The Rust Belt, formerly the Steel Belt or Factory Belt, is an area of the United States that underwent substantial industrial decline in the late 20th century. The region is centered in the Great Lakes and Mid Atlantic regions of the United States. Common definitions of the Rust Belt include Ohio, Indiana, Northern Illinois, southeastern Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Upstate New York. Some broader geographic definitions of the region include parts of Central Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, and West Virginia.

Between the late 19th century and late 20th century, the Rust Belt formed the industrial heartland of the country, and its economies were largely based on iron and steel, automobile production, coal mining, and the processing of raw materials. The term "Rust Belt", derived from the substance rust, refers to the socially corrosive effects of economic decline, population loss, and urban decay attributable to deindustrialization. The term gained popularity in the U.S. beginning in the 1980s,^[1] when it was commonly contrasted with the Sun Belt, whose economy was then thriving.

The Rust Belt experienced industrial decline beginning in the 1950s and 1960s,^[2] with manufacturing peaking as a percentage of U.S. GDP in 1953 and declining incrementally in subsequent years and especially in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Demand for coal declined as industry turned to oil and natural gas, and U.S. steel was undercut by competition from Germany and Japan. High labor costs in the Rust Belt were also a factor in encouraging the region's heavy manufacturing companies to relocate to the Sun Belt or overseas or to discontinue entirely. The U.S. automotive industry also declined as consumers turned to fuel-efficient foreign-manufactured vehicles after the 1973 oil crisis raised the cost of gasoline and foreign auto manufacturers began opening factories in the U.S., which were largely not strongly unionized like the U.S. auto manufacturers in the Rust Belt. Families moved away from Rust Belt communities, leaving cities with falling tax revenues, declining infrastructure, and abandoned buildings. Major Rust Belt cities include Baltimore, Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Rochester, and St. Louis.^[3] New England was also hit hard by industrial decline, but cities closer to the East Coast, including in the metropolitan areas of Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C. were able to adapt by diversifying or transforming their economies, shifting to services, advanced manufacturing, and high-tech industries.^[4]

Since the 1980s, presidential candidates have devoted much of their time to the economic concerns of the Rust Belt region, which includes several populous swing states, including Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. These states were crucial to Republican Donald Trump's victories in the 2016 and 2024 presidential elections and the losses by Democrats Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Kamala Harris in 2024.^[5]