Indiana is a U.S. state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on the 11th of December, 1816. It is situated in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 people, Indiana is ranked 16th in population density and 15th in population. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is the smallest state within the continental US west of the Appalachian Mountains. Its capital and biggest city is Indianapolis, the second biggest amongst any state capital and biggest state capital east of the Mississippi River.
For thousands of years, varying cultures of indigenous peoples and historic Native Americans occupied the state of Indiana long before it became a territory. Angel Mounds State Historic Site, among the best preserved ancient earthwork mound sites in the United States, can be located in Southwestern Indiana near Evansville.
The inhabitants of the state of Indiana are known as "Hoosiers." The origin is hypothesized to come from "Hoosier" originating from a frontier greeting, a corruption of "Who's here?" The state's name means "Land of the Indians," or just "Indian Land." This name dates back to at least the 1760s but was first applied to the area by the United States Congress when the Indiana Territory was incorporated during the year 1800, separating it from the Northwest Territory.
The labor force of the state of Indiana was 3,084,100 during the year 2000, helping to provide a total gross state product of $275.7 billion. A large percentage of this output comes in the form of manufacturing. The northwest area of Indiana known as the Calumet area is the biggest steel producing area within the U.S. Indiana's other manufactures consist of medical devices and pharmaceuticals, automobiles, electrical equipment, transportation equipment, chemical products, petroleum, rubber and coal products, and factory machinery.
Compared to its Rust Belt neighbors, Indiana's and its dependence on manufacturing has not seen the steep declines in manufacturing. Some factors in the present labor market seem to supply the explanation. Firstly, much of the heavy manufacturing, such as steel and industrial machinery, requires highly skilled labor, and companies are often willing to locate where hard-to-train skills exist already. Next, Indiana's work force is located mainly within medium-sized and smaller cities rather than in really expensive and large metropolises. This makes it possible for firms to offer somewhat lower wages for these skills than would usually be paid. Businesses normally see within Indiana an opportunity to obtain higher than average skills at lower than average wages.
Indiana is located in the U.S. Corn Belt and Grain Belt. The state of Indiana has a feedlot-style system raising corn to fatten cattle and hogs. Together with corn, soybeans are also a major cash crop. Its nearness to large urban centers, like for instance Chicago and Indianapolis, assure that egg production, specialty horticulture and dairying occur. Other crops comprise melons, tomatoes, grapes, mint, tobacco and popping corn in the southern counties. The majority of the original land was not prairie and had to be cleared of deciduous trees. Numerous parcels of forest remain and support a furniture-making industry within the southern part of the state.