Anyone who has planned a vacation in the United States knows the country is huge and diverse. Each region has its own flavor; every state has its own identity, and even within a state, geographic and social diversity can vary drastically.

So when mapmaker and designer Josh Barzon shared the map below and asked people which region they’d choose if they could only live and travel within one of them for the rest of their lives, people were intrigued.

You can only live & travel within one region of the United States for the rest of your life. What are you picking? pic.twitter.com/naT7HrLISk— Josh Barzon (@JoshuaBarzon) October 20, 2026

You can only live & travel within one region of the United States for the rest of your life. What are you picking? pic.twitter.com/naT7HrLISk— Josh Barzon (@JoshuaBarzon) October 20, 2026

(Pay close attention to the fact that Alaska and Hawaii are included on the bottom-left of this map.)

All things considered, which one would you choose?

How well do people really understand the options?

It might be hard to choose from these regions if you’ve never seen them yourself, and most of us haven’t seen them all. According to a 2025 YouGov poll, the average American has visited 16 states outside their home state. People in the Midwest were slightly more likely than people in other regions to have visited more than 20 states, and the older they were, the more states they had visited (which made sense).

So it’s safe to........

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