High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The US Southeast is the eastern portion of the Southern United States. The Census Bureau does not provide a standard definition of a "Southeast" region of the United States, and organizations that need to subdivide the US are free to define a "Southeast" region to fit their needs. However, Georgia is almost always included, Texas is rarely included, and inclusion of other states varies. Metropolitan Atlanta is the main population center of the Southeast, and the Southeast roughly corresponds to an area with Atlanta centrally located, with Hartsfield-Jackson as the region's airline hub. Atlanta has the third-largest concentration of colleges and universities and also college students, with over 30 institutions and over 280,000 students. Much of Virginia is associated with the Washington, Richmond or Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News metropolitan areas. A portion of the latter extends into North Carolina.