Southern Illinois

Southern Illinois Little Egypt
Region of Illinois
Marion, Illinois Cairo, Illinois Monks Mound Cache River Ferne Clyffe State Park East St. Louis and Gateway Geyser
Counties in red are usually or always included in southern Illinois, while those in pink are sometimes included.
Country	United States
State	Illinois
Largest city	Belleville
Population	1.2 million

Southern Illinois is a region of the U.S. state of Illinois comprising the southern third of the state, principally south of Interstate 70. Part of downstate Illinois, it is bordered by the two most voluminous rivers in the United States: the Mississippi below its connection with the Missouri River to the west and the Ohio River to the east and south, with the Wabash as a tributary. Some areas of Southern Illinois are known historically as Little Egypt.

Southern Illinois' most populated city is Belleville at 44,478. Other principal cities include Alton, Centralia, Collinsville, Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Godfrey, Granite City, O'Fallon, Harrisburg, Herrin, West Frankfort, Mt. Vernon, Marion, and Carbondale, where the main campus of Southern Illinois University is located. Residents may also commute to St. Louis and Cape Girardeau, Missouri; Evansville, Indiana; and Paducah, Kentucky. The region is home to Scott Air Force Base, a major military installation.

The area has a population of 1.2 million people,^[1] who live mostly in rural towns and cities separated by extensive farmland and the Shawnee National Forest. The two higher density areas of population are Metro East (pop. 700,000+), which is the partly industrialized Illinois portion of the St. Louis Metropolitan Area, and the Carbondale–Marion–Herrin, Illinois Combined Statistical Area, centered on Carbondale and Marion, a two-county area that is home to 123,272 residents.

The first European settlers were French colonists in the part of their North American territory called Illinois Country. Later settlers migrated from the Upland South of the United States, traveling by the Ohio River. The region was affiliated with the southern agricultural economy, based on enslaved African Americans as workers on major plantations, and rural culture. Some settlers owned slaves before the territory was organized and slavery was prohibited. Many areas developed an economy based on coal mining.

Although part of the Midwest, certain areas of Southern Illinois more closely align culturally with parts of the Upland South (Western Kentucky, Western Tennessee, and the Missouri Bootheel).^[2] The people speak with similar southern accents throughout this area.^[3]

St. Louis, Missouri metropolitan area extends into Illinois, giving Southern Illinois its most populated region known as Metro East