Inland Northwest

Inland Northwest
Region
Left-right from top: Spokane skyline, Grand Coulee Dam and the Columbia River, Palouse Falls, Priest Lake, Palouse farmland, Lake Pend Oreille from Schweitzer Mountain, Cabinet Mountains
Composition	Eastern Washington and North Idaho sometimes: parts of Eastern Oregon and Western Montana
Largest metropolitan areas	Spokane-Coeur d'Alene Tri-Cities Yakima
Dialect	Pacific Northwest English

The Inland Northwest, historically and alternatively known as the Inland Empire, is a region of the American Northwest centered on the Greater Spokane, Washington Area,^[1] encompassing all of Eastern Washington and North Idaho. Under broader definitions, Northeastern Oregon and Western Montana may be included in the Inland Northwest. Alternatively, stricter definitions may exclude Central Washington and Idaho County, Idaho.

As of 2016^[update], the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the combined population of eastern Washington and north Idaho alone to be 2,240,645, comparable to that of New Mexico. Its Canadian counterpart, north of the border, is the British Columbia Interior, which together comprise the inland portion of the broader Pacific Northwest. Significant urban centers include the Spokane–Coeur d'Alene area and the Tri-Cities.

There have been several proposals to politically unite the Inland Northwest. In the mid and late 1860s, there was a proposal centered on Lewiston in northern Idaho for a Columbia Territory to be formed in the region from parts of what is now eastern Washington, northern Idaho and western Montana.^[2] In 1901, another proposal was made, this time to combine the Idaho Panhandle with Eastern Washington to create the State of Lincoln. A third proposal was popularized in the late 1920s to consist of eastern Washington, northern Idaho and western Montana to the Continental Divide.