My fellow Americans, I hail from the great state of Minnesota. But not from the Twin Cities, from much further out.
Anywhere outside of the metro area (the Twin Cities metro area) we refer to as Outstate Minnesota. Brainerd? Outstate. Bemidji? Outstate? Maple Grove? Sorry, that's Twin Cities.
So I ask, if you live in a state with one large metro area (Nevada comes to mind) do you refer to your area as outstate? Or is it just MN?
Google seems to support that this is strictly a Minnesota thing.