Indiana state symbols
The Flag of Indiana
The Seal of Indiana
Living insignia
Bird	Cardinal
Flower	Peony
Insect	Say's Firefly
Tree	Tulip tree
Inanimate insignia
Colors	Blue and gold
Firearm	Grouseland Rifle
Food	Sugar cream pie
Fossil	Mastodon (Mammut americanum)
Poem	"Indiana"
Rock	Salem Limestone
Ship	USS Indianapolis (4), USS Indiana (4)
Slogan	Honest to Goodness Indiana
Soil	Miami
Sport	Basketball
Other	River: Wabash
State route marker

State quarter
Released in 2002
Lists of United States state symbols

Indiana is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 United States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th state on December 11, 1816. It is bordered by Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the south and southeast, and the Wabash River and Illinois to the west.

Various indigenous peoples inhabited Indiana for thousands of years, some of whom the U.S. government expelled between 1800 and 1836. Indiana received its name because the state was largely possessed by native tribes even after it was granted statehood. Since then, settlement patterns in Indiana have reflected regional cultural segmentation present in the Eastern United States; the state's northernmost tier was settled primarily by people from New England and New York, Central Indiana by migrants from the Mid-Atlantic states and adjacent Ohio, and Southern Indiana by settlers from the Upland South, particularly Kentucky and Tennessee.

Indiana has a diverse economy with a gross state product of $377.1 billion in 2019. It has several metropolitan areas with populations greater than 100,000 and a number of smaller cities and towns. Indiana is home to professional sports teams, including the NFL's Indianapolis Colts and the NBA's Indiana Pacers, and hosts several notable competitive events, including the Indianapolis 500.

Etymology

State sign, Interstate 65

The state's name means "Land of the Indians", or simply "Indian Land".

A resident of Indiana is officially known as a Hoosier.

History

Main page: History of Indiana

First inhabitants

The first inhabitants in what is now Indiana were the Paleo-Indians, who arrived about 8000 BC after the melting of the glaciers at the end of the Ice Age.

Divided into small groups, the Paleo-Indians were nomads who hunted large game such as mastodons.

The Hopewell people began developing long-range trade of goods.They developed highly productive cultivation and adaptation of agriculture, growing such crops as corn and squash. This period ended around 1000 AD.

The Mississippian culture emerged, lasting from 1000 until the 15th century, shortly before the arrival of Europeans. During this stage, the people created large urban settlements designed according to their cosmology, with large mounds and plazas defining ceremonial and public spaces. The concentrated settlements depended on the agricultural surpluses. One such complex was the Angel Mounds. They had large public areas such as plazas and platform mounds, where leaders lived or conducted rituals.

Mississippian civilization collapsed in Indiana during the mid-15th century for reasons that remain unclear. The historic Native American tribes in the area at the time of European encounter spoke different languages of the Algonquian family. They included the Shawnee, Miami, and Illini. Later they were joined by refugee tribes from eastern regions including the Delaware who settled in the White and Whitewater River Valleys.

European exploration and sovereignty

Native Americans guide French explorers through Indiana, as depicted by Maurice Thompson in Stories of Indiana.

In 1679 the French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle was the first European to cross into Indiana after reaching present-day South Bend at the Saint Joseph River.

French-Canadian fur traders soon arrived, bringing blankets, jewelry, tools, whiskey and weapons to trade for skins with the Native Americans. By 1702, Sieur Juchereau established the first trading post near Vincennes. In 1715 Sieur de Vincennes built Fort Miami at Kekionga, now Fort Wayne.

In 1717, another Canadian, Picote de Beletre, built Fort Ouiatenon on the Wabash River, to try to control Native American trade routes from Lake Erie to the Mississippi River. In 1732 Sieur de Vincennes built a second fur trading post at Vincennes. French Canadian settlers, who had left the earlier post because of hostilities, returned in larger numbers. In a period of a few years, British colonists arrived from the East and contended against the Canadians for control of the lucrative fur trade. Fighting between the French and British colonists occurred throughout the 1750s as a result.

The Native American tribes of Indiana sided with the French Canadians during the French and Indian War (also known as the Seven Years' War). With British victory in 1763, the French were forced to cede all their lands in North America east of the Mississippi River and north and west of the colonies to the British crown.

The tribes in Indiana did not give up; they destroyed Fort Ouiatenon and Fort Miami during Pontiac's Rebellion. The British royal proclamation of 1763 designated the land west of the Appalachians for Indian use, and excluded British colonists from the area, which the Crown called Indian Territory.

In 1775 the American Revolutionary War began as the colonists sought more self-government and independence from the British. At the end of the war, through the Treaty of Paris, the British crown ceded their claims to the land south of the Great Lakes to the newly formed United States, including American Indian lands.

The frontier

Chief Tenskwatawa

In 1787 the US defined present-day Indiana as part of its Northwest Territory.

Starting with the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 and Treaty of Greenville, 1795, Indian titles to Indiana lands were extinguished by usurpation, purchase, or war and treaty. About half the state was acquired in the St. Mary's Purchase from the Miami in 1818. Purchases weren't complete until the Treaty of Mississinwas in 1826 acquired the last of the reserved Indian lands in the northeast

In 1810 the Shawnee chief Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa encouraged other tribes in the territory to resist European settlement. Tensions rose and the US authorized Harrison to launch a preemptive expedition against Tecumseh's Confederacy; the US gained victory at the Battle of Tippecanoe on November 7, 1811. Tecumseh was killed in 1813 during the Battle of Thames. After his death, armed resistance to United States control ended in the region.

Most Native American tribes in the state were later removed to west of the Mississippi River in the 1820s and 1830s after US negotiations and purchase of their lands.

Statehood and settlement

President James Madison approved Indiana's admission into the union as the nineteenth state on December 11, 1816. In 1825, the state capital was moved from Corydon to Indianapolis.

Many European immigrants went west to settle in Indiana in the early 19th century. The largest immigrant group to settle in Indiana were Germans, as well as numerous immigrants from Ireland and England.

Civil War

During the American Civil War, Indiana became politically influential and played an important role in the affairs of the nation. As the first western state to mobilize for the United States in the war, Indiana had soldiers participating in all of the major engagements. The only Civil War conflicts in Indiana were the Newburgh Raid, the capture of Newburgh, Indiana, and the Battle of Corydon, which occurred during Morgan's Raid.

Indiana remained a largely agricultural state; post-war industries included food processing, such as milling grain, distilling it into alcohol, and meatpacking; building of wagons, buggies, farm machinery, and hardware.

Early 20th century

Child laborers in glassworks, by Lewis Hine. Indiana, August 1908.

With the onset of the industrial revolution, Indiana industry began to grow at an accelerated rate across the northern part of the state.

The Indiana Gas Boom led to rapid industrialization during the late 19th century by providing cheap fuel to the region.

In the early 20th century, Indiana developed into a strong manufacturing state with ties to the new auto industry. The construction of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the start of auto-related industries were also related to the auto industry boom.

Modern era

The auto, steel and pharmaceutical industries topped Indiana's major businesses. Indiana's population continued to grow during the years after the war, exceeding five million by the 1970 census.

Geography

Main page: Geography of Indiana

Square quarter sections of farmland cover central Indiana.

Rolling hills in Hoosier National Forest, located in the Indiana Uplands.

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in northwest Indiana.

With a total area (land and water) of 36,418 square miles (94,320 km²), Indiana ranks as the 38th largest state in size. The state has a maximum dimension north to south of 250 miles (400 km) and a maximum east to west dimension of 145 miles (233 km). The state's geographic center (39° 53.7'N, 86° 16.0W) is in Marion County.

Located in the midwestern United States, Indiana is one of eight states that make up the Great Lakes Region. Indiana is bordered on the north by Michigan, on the east by Ohio, and on the west by Illinois, while Lake Michigan borders Indiana on the northwest and the Ohio River separates Indiana from Kentucky on the south.

The average altitude of Indiana is about 760 feet (230 m) above sea level. The highest point in the state is Hoosier Hill in Wayne County at 1,257 feet (383 m) above sea level. The lowest point at 320 feet (98 m) above sea level is located in Posey County, where the Wabash River flows into the Ohio River.

The state includes two natural regions of the United States, the Central Lowlands and the Interior Low Plateaus. The till plains make up the northern and central allotment of Indiana. Much of its appearance is a result of elements left behind by glaciers.

Central Indiana is mainly flat with some low rolling hills (except where rivers cut deep valleys through the plain, like at the Wabash River and Sugar Creek) and soil composed of glacial sands, gravel and clay, which results in exceptional farmland.

Northern Indiana is also very similar except for the presence of higher and hillier terminal moraines and many kettle lakes in some regions. In northwest Indiana there are various sand ridges and dunes, some reaching nearly 200 feet in height. These are located along the Lake Michigan shoreline and also inland to the Kankakee River Valley.

Rivers

The Wabash River converges with the Ohio River.

Major river systems in Indiana include the Whitewater, White, Blue, Wabash, St. Joseph, and Maumee rivers. According to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, in 2007 there were 65 rivers, streams, and creeks of environmental interest or scenic beauty, which included only a portion of an estimated 24,000 total river miles within the state.

The Ohio River forms Indiana's southern border with Kentucky. The major cities of New Albany and Evansville are located on the river.

The Wabash River, which is the longest free-flowing river east of the Mississippi River, is the official river of Indiana. At 475 miles (764 km) in length, the river bisects the state from northeast to southwest before flowing south, mostly along the Indiana-Illinois border. The river has been the subject of several songs, such as On the Banks of the Wabash, The Wabash Cannonball and Back Home Again, In Indiana.

There are about 900 lakes listed by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. To the northwest, Indiana borders Lake Michigan, where the Port of Indiana operates the state's largest shipping port. Tippecanoe Lake, the deepest lake in the state, reaches depths at nearly 120 feet (37 m), while Lake Wawasee is the largest natural lake in Indiana. At 10,750 acres (summer pool level), Lake Monroe is the largest lake in Indiana.

Climate

Autumn in West Point (2010).

A barn after a winter snow in Clinton County (2010).

Indiana has a humid continental climate, with cold winters and hot, wet summers.

While droughts occasionally occur in the state, rainfall totals are distributed relatively equally throughout the year.

In a 2012 report, Indiana was ranked eighth in a list of the top 20 tornado-prone states based on National Weather Service data from 1950 through 2011. A 2011 report ranked South Bend 15th among the top 20 tornado-prone cities in the United States, while another report from 2011 ranked Indianapolis eighth. Despite its vulnerability, Indiana is not a part of tornado alley.

Indiana counties and statistical areas

Indiana is divided into 92 counties. As of 2010, the state includes 16 metropolitan and 25 micropolitan statistical areas, 117 incorporated cities, 450 towns, and several other smaller divisions and statistical areas. Marion County and Indianapolis have a consolidated city-county government.

Major cities

Indianapolis is the capital of Indiana and its largest city. Indiana's four largest metropolitan areas are Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Evansville, and South Bend. Below is the list of the ten largest cities in the state as of 2015.

Indiana's largest cities

Downtown Fort Wayne

Indianapolis - population 853,173

Fort Wayne - population 260,326

Evansville - population 119,943

South Bend - population 101,516

Carmel - population 88,713

Fishers - population 88,658

Bloomington - population 84,067

Hammond - population 77,614

Gary - population 77,156

Lafayette - population 71,111

Demographics

Population

Historical population
Census	Pop.	%±
1800	2,632	—
1810	24,520	831.6%
1820	147,178	500.2%
1830	343,031	133.1%
1840	685,866	99.9%
1850	988,416	44.1%
1860	1,350,428	36.6%
1870	1,680,637	24.5%
1880	1,978,301	17.7%
1890	2,192,404	10.8%
1900	2,516,462	14.8%
1910	2,700,876	7.3%
1920	2,930,390	8.5%
1930	3,238,503	10.5%
1940	3,427,796	5.8%
1950	3,934,224	14.8%
1960	4,662,498	18.5%
1970	5,193,669	11.4%
1980	5,490,224	5.7%
1990	5,544,159	1.0%
2000	6,080,485	9.7%
2010	6,483,802	6.6%
2020	6,785,528	4.7%
Source: 1910–2020

Indiana recorded a population of 6,785,528 in the 2020 United States census, a 4.65% increase since the 2010 United States Census.

The state's population density was 181.0 persons per square mile, the 16th-highest in the United States. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Indiana's population center is northwest of Sheridan, in Hamilton County (+40.149246, −086.259514).

In 2005, 77.7% of Indiana residents lived in metropolitan counties, 16.5% lived in micropolitan counties and 5.9% lived in non-core counties.

Ancestry

Ethnic composition as of the 2020 census
Race and Ethnicity	Alone		Total
White (non-Hispanic)	75.5%	75.5	79.1%	79.1
African American (non-Hispanic)	9.4%	9.4	10.8%	10.8
Hispanic or Latino	—		8.2%	8.2
Asian	2.5%	2.5	3.1%	3.1
Native American	0.2%	0.2	1.6%	1.6
Pacific Islander	0.04%	0.04	0.2%	0.2
Other	0.4%	0.4	1.1%	1.1

**Indiana Racial Breakdown of Population**
Racial composition	1990	2000	2010
White	90.6%	87.5%	84.3%
Black	7.8%	8.4%	9.1%
Asian	0.7%	1.0%	1.6%
Native	0.2%	0.3%	0.3%
Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander	–	–	–
Other race	0.7%	1.6%	2.7%
Two or more races	–	1.2%	2.0%

German is the largest ancestry reported in Indiana, with 22.7% of the population reporting that ancestry in the Census. Persons citing American (12.0%) and English ancestry (8.9%) are also numerous, as are Irish (10.8%) and Polish (3.0%). Most of those citing American ancestry are actually of European descent, including many of English descent, but have family that has been in North America for so long, in many cases since the early colonial era, that they identify simply as American. In the 1980 census 1,776,144 people claimed German ancestry, 1,356,135 claimed English ancestry and 1,017,944 claimed Irish ancestry out of a total population of 4,241,975 making the state 42% German, 32% English and 24% Irish.

Population growth

Population growth since 1990 has been concentrated in the counties surrounding Indianapolis, with four of the five fastest-growing counties in that area: Hamilton, Hendricks, Johnson, and Hancock. The other county is Dearborn County, which is near Cincinnati, Ohio. Hamilton County has also grown faster than any county in the states bordering Indiana (Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky), and is the 20th-fastest growing county in the country.

With a population of 829,817, Indianapolis is the largest city in Indiana and the 12th-largest in the United States, according to the 2010 Census. Three other cities in Indiana have a population greater than 100,000: Fort Wayne (253,617), Evansville (117,429) and South Bend (101,168). Since 2000, Fishers has seen the largest population rise amongst the state's twenty largest cities with an increase of 100%. Other cities that have seen extensive growth since 2000 are Greenwood (81%), Noblesville (39.4%), Carmel (21.4%), Columbus (12.8%) and Lawrence (9.3%).

Gary and Hammond have had the largest population declines regarding the 20 largest cities since 2000, with a decrease of 21.0% and 6.8% respectively. Evansville (−4.2%), Anderson (−4.0%) and Muncie (−3.9%) have also had declines.

Indianapolis has the largest population of the state's metropolitan areas and the 33rd-largest in the country. The Indianapolis metropolitan area encompasses Marion County and nine surrounding counties in central Indiana.

Note: Births in table don't add up, because Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving a higher overall number.

Live births by Single Race/Ethnicity of Mother
Race	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
White:	70,166 (84.4%)	70,967 (84.4%)	70,741 (84.1%)	...	...	...	...	...
> non-Hispanic White	63,820 (76.8%)	64,076 (76.2%)	63,472 (75.5%)	62,039 (74.7%)	60,515 (73.6%)	59,520 (72.9%)	58,211 (72.0%)	56,290 (71.6%)
Black	10,445 (12.6%)	10,666 (12.7%)	10,656 (12.7%)	9,768 (11.8%)	9,971 (12.1%)	10,242 (12.5%)	10,249 (12.7%)	9,848 (12.5%)
Asian	2,364 (2.8%)	2,322 (2.8%)	2,523 (3.0%)	2,426 (2.9%)	2,535 (3.1%)	2,382 (2.9%)	2,285 (2.8%)	2,335 (3.0%)
American Indian	127 (0.1%)	125 (0.1%)	120 (0.1%)	85 (0.1%)	124 (0.2%)	132 (0.2%)	117 (0.1%)	56 (>0.1%)
Hispanic (of any race)	6,837 (8.2%)	7,239 (8.6%)	7,634 (9.1%)	7,442 (8.9%)	7,669 (9.3%)	7,867 (9.6%)	8,420 (10.4%)	8,480 (10.8%)
Total Indiana	83,102 (100%)	84,080 (100%)	84,040 (100%)	83,091 (100%)	82,170 (100%)	81,646 (100%)	80,859 (100%)	78,616 (100%)

Since 2016, data for births of White Hispanic origin are not collected, but included in one Hispanic group; persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.

Based on population estimates for 2011, 6.6% of the state's population is under the age of five, 24.5% is under the age of 18, and 13.2% is 65 years of age or older. From the 2010 U.S. Census demographic data for Indiana, the median age is 37.

Median income

As of the 2010 census, Indiana's median household income was $44,616, ranking it 36th among the United States and the District of Columbia. In 2005, the median household income for Indiana residents was $43,993. Nearly 498,700 Indiana households had incomes between $50,000 and $75,000, accounting for 20% of all households.

Hamilton County's median household income is nearly $35,000 higher than the Indiana average. At $78,932, it ranks seventh in the country among counties with fewer than 250,000 people. The next highest median incomes in Indiana are also found in the Indianapolis suburbs; Hendricks County has a median of $57,538, followed by Johnson County at $56,251.

Religion

Indiana is home to the third largest population of Amish in the U.S.

Although the largest single religious denomination in the state is Catholic (747,706 members), most Hoosiers are members of various Protestant denominations. The largest Protestant denomination by number of adherents in 2010 was the United Methodist Church, with 355,043. A study by the Graduate Center at the City University of New York found 20% are Catholic, 14% belong to Baptist churches, 10% are other Christians, 9% are Methodist, and 6% are Lutheran. The study found 16% are affiliated with no religion.

Indiana is home to the Benedictine St. Meinrad Archabbey, one of two Catholic archabbeys in the United States and 11 in the world. The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod has one of its two seminaries in Fort Wayne. Two conservative denominations, the Free Methodist Church and the Wesleyan Church, are headquartered in Indianapolis, as is the Christian Church.

The Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches maintains offices and publishing work in Winona Lake. Huntington serves as the home to the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. Anderson is home to the headquarters of the Church of God. The headquarters of the Missionary Church is in Fort Wayne.

The Friends United Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, the largest branch of American Quakerism, is based in Richmond, which also houses the oldest Quaker seminary in the United States, the Earlham School of Religion. The Islamic Society of North America is headquartered in Plainfield.

Religious affiliation in Indiana (2014)
Affiliation	% of Indiana population
Christianity	72	72
Protestant	52	52
Evangelical Protestant	31	31
Mainline Protestant	16	16
Black Protestant	5	5
Catholic	18	18
Mormon	1	1
Jehovah's Witnesses	0.5	0.5
Orthodox	0.5	0.5
Other Christianity	0.5	0.5
Judaism	1	1
Buddhism	0.5	0.5
Islam	0.5	0.5
Hinduism	0.5	0.5
Other faiths	1	1
Unaffiliated	26	26
Don't know / No answer	0.5	0.5

Economy and infrastructure

Main page: Economy of Indiana

Lake Michigan's beaches, popular with tourists, are juxtaposed with heavy industry.

Indiana is the fifth largest corn-producing state in the U.S., with over a billion bushels harvested in 2013.

In 2017, Indiana had a civilian labor force of nearly 3.4 million, the 15th largest in the U.S. Indiana has an unemployment rate of 3.4%, lower than the national average. The total gross state product in 2016 was $347.2 billion. A high percentage of Indiana's income is from manufacturing. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 17% of the state's non-farm workforce is employed in manufacturing, the highest of any state in the U.S. The state's five leading exports were motor vehicles and auto parts, pharmaceutical products, industrial machinery, optical and medical equipment, and electric machinery.

Despite its reliance on manufacturing, Indiana has been less affected by declines in traditional Rust Belt manufacturers than many of its neighbors. The explanation appears to be certain factors in the labor market. First, much of the heavy manufacturing, such as industrial machinery and steel, requires highly skilled labor, and firms are often willing to locate where hard-to-train skills already exist. Second, Indiana's labor force is primarily in medium-sized and smaller cities rather than in very large and expensive metropolises. This makes it possible for firms to offer somewhat lower wages for these skills than would normally be paid. Firms often see in Indiana a chance to obtain higher than average skills at lower than average wages.

Business

In 2016, Indiana was home to seven Fortune 500 companies with a combined $142.5 billion in revenue. Columbus-based Cummins, Inc. and Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Company and Simon Property Group were recognized in Fortune publication's "2017 World's Most Admired Companies List", ranking in each of their respective industries.

Northwest Indiana has been the largest steel producing center in the U.S. since 1975 and accounted for 27% of American-made steel in 2016.

Indiana is home to the international headquarters and research facilities of pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly in Indianapolis, the state's largest corporation, as well as the world headquarters of Mead Johnson Nutritionals in Evansville. Indiana ranks fifth among all U.S. states in total sales and shipments of pharmaceutical products and second in the number of biopharmaceutical related jobs.

Indiana is in the U.S. Corn Belt and Grain Belt. It has a feedlot-style system raising corn to fatten hogs and cattle. Along with corn, soybeans are also a major cash crop. Its proximity to large urban centers, such as Indianapolis and Chicago, assure dairying, egg production, and specialty horticulture occur. Other crops include melons, tomatoes, grapes, mint, popping corn, and tobacco in the southern counties. Most of the original land was not prairie and had to be cleared of deciduous trees. Many parcels of woodland remain and support a furniture-making sector in southern Indiana.

In 2011, CEO magazine ranked Indiana first in the Midwest and sixth in the country for best places to do business.

Taxation

Tax is collected by the Indiana Department of Revenue.

Indiana has a flat state income tax rate of 3.23%. Many of the state's counties also collect income tax. The state sales tax rate is 7% with exemptions for food, prescription medications and over-the-counter medications. In some jurisdictions, an additional Food and Beverage Tax is charged, at a rate of 1% (Marion County's rate is 2%), on sales of prepared meals and beverages.

Property taxes are imposed on both real and personal property in Indiana and are administered by the Department of Local Government Finance. Property is subject to taxation by a variety of taxing units (schools, counties, townships, municipalities, and libraries), making the total tax rate the sum of the tax rates imposed by all taxing units in which a property is located. However, a "circuit breaker" law enacted on March 19, 2008, limits property taxes to 1% of assessed value for homeowners, 2% for rental properties and farmland, and 3% for businesses.

State budget

Indiana does not have a legal requirement to balance the state budget either in law or its constitution. Instead, it has a constitutional ban on assuming debt. The state has a Rainy Day Fund and for healthy reserves proportional to spending. Indiana is one of six U.S. states to not allow a line-item veto.

Since 2010, Indiana has been one of a few states to hold AAA bond credit ratings with the Big Three credit rating agencies, the highest possible rating.

Energy

For more details, see List of Generating Stations in Indiana

Coal-fired electric plants, like Clifty Creek Power Plant in Madison, produced about 85 percent of Indiana's energy supply in 2014.

Indiana's power production chiefly consists of the consumption of fossil fuels, mainly coal. It has 24 coal power plants, including the country's largest coal power plant, Gibson Generating Station, across the Wabash River from Mount Carmel, Illinois. Indiana is also home to the coal-fired plant with the highest sulfur dioxide emissions in the United States, the Gallagher power plant, just west of New Albany.

In 2010, Indiana had estimated coal reserves of 57 billion tons, and state mining operations produced 35 million tons of coal annually. Indiana also has at least 900 million barrels of petroleum reserves in the Trenton Field, though they are not easily recoverable. While Indiana has made commitments to increasing the use of renewable resources such as wind, hydroelectric, biomass, or solar power, progress has been very slow, mainly because of the continued abundance of coal in southern Indiana. Most of the new plants in the state have been coal gasification plants. Another source is hydroelectric power.

Wind power has been growing rapidly.. Estimates in 2006 raised Indiana's wind capacity from 30 MW at 50 m turbine height to 40,000 MW at 70 m, and to 130,000 MW at 100 m, in 2010, the height of newer turbines. By the end of 2011, Indiana had installed 1,340 MW of wind turbines. In 2020, this total had more than doubled to 2,968 MW.

Transportation

Airports

Indianapolis International Airport serves the greater Indianapolis area. It opened in November 2008 and offers a midfield passenger terminal, concourses, air traffic control tower, parking garage, and airfield and apron improvements.

Other major airports include Evansville Regional Airport, Fort Wayne International Airport (which houses the 122d Fighter Wing of the Air National Guard), and South Bend International Airport. A long-standing proposal to turn Gary Chicago International Airport into Chicago's third major airport received a boost in early 2006 with the approval of $48 million in federal funding over the next ten years.

No airlines operate out of Terre Haute Regional Airport but it is used for private planes. Since 1954, the 181st Fighter Wing of the Indiana Air National Guard was stationed there, but the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Proposal of 2005 stated the 181st would lose its fighter mission and F-16 aircraft, leaving the Terre Haute facility a general-aviation-only facility.

Louisville International Airport, across the Ohio River in Louisville, Kentucky, serves southern Indiana, as does Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Hebron, Kentucky. Many residents of Northwest Indiana, which is primarily in the Chicago Metropolitan Area, use Chicago's airports, O'Hare International Airport and Chicago Midway International Airport.

Highways

The Interstate 69 extension project in Monroe County

The major U.S. Interstate highways in Indiana are I-64, I-65, I-265, I-465, I-865, I-69, I-469, I-70, I-74, I-80, I-90, I-94, and I-275. The various highways intersecting in and around Indianapolis, along with its historical status as a major railroad hub, and the canals that once crossed Indiana, are the source of the state's motto, the Crossroads of America. There are also many U.S. routes and state highways maintained by the Indiana Department of Transportation. These are numbered according to the same convention as U.S. Highways. Indiana allows highways of different classifications to have the same number. For example, I-64 and Indiana State Road 64 both exist (rather close to each other) in Indiana, but are two distinct roads with no relation to one another.

A $3 billion project extending I-69 is underway. The project was divided into six sections, with the first five sections (linking Evansville to Martinsville) now complete. The sixth and final phase from Martinsville to Indianapolis is under construction. When complete, I-69 will traverse an additional 142 miles (229 km) through the state.

County roads

Most Indiana counties use a grid-based system to identify county roads; this system replaced the older arbitrary system of road numbers and names, and (among other things) makes it much easier to identify the sources of calls placed to the 9-1-1 system. Such systems are easier to implement in the glacially flattened northern and central portions of the state. Rural counties in the southern third of the state are less likely to have grids and more likely to rely on unsystematic road names (for example, Crawford, Harrison, Perry, Scott, and Washington Counties).

There are also counties in the northern portions of the state that have never implemented a grid or have only partially implemented one. Some counties are also laid out in an almost diamond-like grid system (e.g., Clark, Floyd, Gibson, and Knox Counties). Such a system is also almost useless in those situations as well. Knox County once operated two different grid systems for county roads because the county was laid out using two different survey grids, but has since decided to use road names and combine roads instead.

Notably, the county road grid system of St. Joseph County, whose major city is South Bend, uses perennial (tree) names (i.e. Ash, Hickory, Ironwood, etc.) in alphabetical order for north–south roads and presidential and other noteworthy names (i.e., Adams, Edison, Lincoln Way, etc.) in alphabetical order for east–west roads. There are exceptions to this rule in downtown South Bend and Mishawaka. Hamilton County's east–west roads continue Indianapolis's numbered street system from 96th Street at the Marion County line to 296th street at the Tipton County line.

Rail

A South Shore commuter train in Michigan City

Indiana has more than 4,255 railroad route miles (6,848 km), of which 91% are operated by Class I railroads, principally CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway. Other Class I railroads in Indiana include the Canadian National Railway and Soo Line Railroad, a Canadian Pacific Railway subsidiary, as well as Amtrak. The remaining miles are operated by 37 regional, local, and switching and terminal railroads. The South Shore Line is one of the country's most notable commuter rail systems, extending from Chicago to South Bend. Indiana is implementing an extensive rail plan prepared in 2002 by the Parsons Corporation. Many recreational trails, such as the Monon Trail and Cardinal Greenway, have been created from abandoned rails routes.

Ports

Barges are a common sight along the Ohio River. Ports of Indiana manages three maritime ports in the state, two located on the Ohio.

Indiana annually ships more than 70 million tons of cargo by water each year, which ranks 14th among all U.S. states. More than half of Indiana's border is water, which includes 400 miles (640 km) of direct access to two major freight transportation arteries: the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway (via Lake Michigan) and the Inland Waterway System (via the Ohio River). The Ports of Indiana manages three major ports which include Burns Harbor, Jeffersonville, and Mount Vernon.

In Evansville, three public and several private port facilities receive year-round service from five major barge lines operating on the Ohio River. Evansville has been a U.S. Customs Port of Entry for more than 125 years. Because of this, it is possible to have international cargo shipped to Evansville in bond. The international cargo can then clear Customs in Evansville rather than a coastal port.