This report describes public participation in the arts across the four U.S. census regions: the Northeast, the Midwest, the West, and the South. It incorporates data from the 1982, 1992, and 2002 Surveys of Public Participation in the Arts, as well as secondary data on regional demographics, the arts landscape, and consumer spending. In combination, these data provide a useful overview of the "state of arts" in each region. Examining arts participation by census region involves trade-offs. The major strength of this approach, and the primary justification, has to do with the availability and reliability of data. Data on public participation in the arts and the supply of arts exist by census region as far back as 1982. This is not the case for other geographic regions, such as census divisions--which are groupings of states. Moreover, because census regions are large, sample sizes for data also tend to be large. This increases the precision of estimates. The major drawback of choosing census regions as a unit of analysis is the loss of information about the supply and demand for arts at the subregional level. Fortunately, some of the subregional variation is explored in related publications. Overall, the data suggest that only the South and the West stand out as particularly different from the other two regions. The South tends to have lower arts participation rates than other regions and the West tends to have higher rates. While other differences exist among regions, most discrepancies follow this pattern. Comparing pairs of regions does not reveal other striking differences. Appendices include: (1) Description of Data Used in Analysis; (2) Methodologies; (3) SPPA Summary Tables; and (4) SPPA Survey Questions. A bibliography and a list of acronyms are included. (Contains 39 tables, 5 figures and 23 footnotes.) [For the accompanying reports, see "Geography and Public Participation in the Arts: Ten Metropolitan Regions" (ED511709) and "Geography and Public Participation in the Arts: Ten States" (ED511706).]