Michigan is a U.S. state that is located in the Great Lakes region of the Midwestern United States. Its name comes from the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake". It is the eighth most populous of the 50 United States, with the 11th most extensive total area. Its capital is Lansing and its largest city is Detroit. Michigan was admitted into the Union on January 26, 1837, as the 26th state.
Michigan has the longest freshwater coastline of any political subdivision in the world, being bounded by four of the five Great Lakes, plus Lake Saint Clair. It is one of the leading U.S. states for recreational boating. It has 64,980 inland lakes and ponds. A person in the state is never more than six miles (9.7 kilometers) from a natural water source or more than 85 miles (137 kilometers) from a Great Lakes shoreline. It is the largest state by total area east of the Mississippi River.
Michigan is the only state to consist of two peninsulas. The Lower Peninsula, to which its name was originally applied, is often noted to be shaped like a mitten. The Upper Peninsula (often referred to as "the U.P.") is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac, a five-mile (eight-kilometer) channel that joins Lake Huron to Lake Michigan. The two peninsulas are connected by the Mackinac Bridge. While sparsely populated, the Upper Peninsula is economically important due to its status as a tourist destination, as well as its abundance of natural resources.
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