What are the top 10 largest cities? (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh: 2014, home, college)

[php111]

Hi everyone,

What are the top 10 largest cities. I believe the top 3 are as follow.

Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Allentown

Is that correct? What are the other 7 largest?

[zip95]

http://www.city-data.com/city/Pennsylvania.html

[lititzman2003]

Originally Posted by php111

Hi everyone,

What are the top 10 largest cities. I believe the top 3 are as follow.

Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Allentown

Is that correct? What are the other 7 largest?

I guess you have to include Erie, Harrisburg, Scranton, York, Lancaster, Bethlehem and one town in Bucks County on that list.

[KingMouse]

Philadelphia 1,449,634
Pittsburgh 311,218
Allentown 107,117
Erie 103,650
Reading 80,769
Bethlehem 72,531
Scranton 72,485
Lancaster 54,672
Levittown 53,500
Harrisburg 47,196
Altoona 46,485

[CHIP72]

I'm copying the information below straight from a post I recently made in another thread. In Pennsylvania, the population of the city proper isn't always indicative of how large that urbanized area really is, mainly because Pennsylvania laws make it very difficult for cities to annex areas (and every square inch of Pennsylvania is in an incorporated municipality, even if that municipality is in say Cameron County).

Originally Posted by CHIP72

The most accurate measure for urban area population aren't the MSA or CSA values, it is the urbanized area population value. The urbanized area population actually determines which counties are in an MSA because if a city's urbanized area goes into another county, then that entire county becomes part of the MSA, even if the urbanized area within a county is very small. (The exception to this is if that nearby county has its own urbanized area that has a population of 50,000 people or greater.) A good example of a county being included with a city's urbanized area even though most of the county is not urbanized is Perry County; Marysville is part of Harrisburg's urbanized area, but the rest of the county is not. Nonetheless, all of Perry County is included in the Harrisburg MSA.

Here's a link to tables showing all the urbanized areas in the United States. The same link also includes links to tables showing the populations of all urbanized clusters within the U.S. (sometimes also called micropolitan areas; these are built-up locations that have populations between 2,500 and 50,000). Based on these tables, here are the 2000 U.S. Census populations for all the urbanized areas (above 50,000 people) that are primarily located in Pennsylvania:

1) Philadelphia: 5,149,079 (contains 4 states)
2) Pittsburgh: 1,753,136
3) Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton: 576,408 (contains 2 states)
4) Scranton/Wilkes-Barre: 385,237
5) Harrisburg: 362,782
6) Lancaster: 323,554
7) Reading: 240,264
8) Erie: 194,804
9) York: 192,903
10) Altoona: 82,520
11) Johnstown: 76,113
12) Pottstown: 73,597
13) State College: 71,301
14) Lebanon: 63,681
15) Williamsport: 58,693
16) Uniontown/Connellsville: 58,442
17) Monessen: 56,408
18) Hazleton: 51,746

In the case of Uniontown, it only qualifies because its urbanized area touches Connellsville's urbanized area, which pushes the combined area population over 50,000. In the case of Monessen, it is separate from Pittsburgh because it does not touch Pittsburgh's urbanized area. There are also a number of decent-sized towns near Monessen that push the combined urban area population over 50,000; Monessen is the largest of these towns (actually boroughs and/or cities).

Besides the above cities, other cities that have a portion of urbanized area within Pennsylvania include Youngstown, OH (i.e. the Sharon/Farrell area), Binghamton, NY, Hagerstown, MD, Weirton, WV/Steubenville, OH, and Cumberland, MD.

A few places in Pennsylvania didn't meet the 50,000 population threshold but came close, most notably Hanover (48,696), Bloomsburg/Berwick/Danville (48,245), New Castle (43,222), Pottsville (43,033), Stroudsburg/East Stroudsburg (40,664), Butler (40,622), Chambersburg (37,872), and Carlisle (37,695). Hanover will definitely become an official urbanized area in the 2010 Census, and both the Bloomsburg/Berwick area and the Stroudsburg/East Stroudsburg area both have good chances of also becoming official urbanized areas. If these things happen, Adams County (which borders Hanover and contains part of Hanover's urbanized population) will likely join the York County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), Columbia and Montour Counties (Bloomsburg/Berwick/Danville) will need to form a new MPO, and Monroe County (Stroudsburg/East Stroudsburg) will also need to form a new MPO, though either of the latter locations could join a larger MPO if their urbanized area population spills into a county that already has an MPO (as is the case with the Berwick area and Luzerne County, which contains Wilkes-Barre and has an MPO covering Luzerne and Lackawanna Counties).

Needless to say, the urbanized area populations also allow more accurate comparisons in terms of population for places across the U.S. because they adjust for annexation regulations between states while excluding portions of counties that aren't urbanized or part of the primary city's urbanized area.

[Icy Tea]

State College is third.... on a home game day during Football Season.

[BevoInPA]

I think Harrisburg and York and perhaps Lancaster should be consolidated. Some of York County is within 6 miles of the Harrisburg CBD and clearly the residents of these subdivisions" Green Lane Farms, Timber Ridge, Fairview Park, are not commuting to York.

[zip95]

Originally Posted by BevoInPA

I think Harrisburg and York and perhaps Lancaster should be consolidated. Some of York County is within 6 miles of the Harrisburg CBD and clearly the residents of these subdivisions" Green Lane Farms, Timber Ridge, Fairview Park, are not commuting to York.

The Lehigh Valley and Philly metros overlap...also the Philly, Pottstown, Reading, Lancaster, York, and Harrisburg metros are all "more or less" contiguous..


see these official maps

It looks like, if one takes the correct routes, one can get from Harrisburg to New York City, with out ever getting to rural.

[danwxman]

Originally Posted by zip95

The Lehigh Valley and Philly metros overlap...also the Philly, Pottstown, Reading, Lancaster, York, and Harrisburg metros are all "more or less" contiguous..


see these official maps

It looks like, if one takes the correct routes, one can get from Harrisburg to New York City, with out ever getting to rural.

In theory perhaps, if you go from town to town and stay off of 81 and 78 (which are pretty much all rural). From Harrisburg to about Palmyra you have pretty much a built up area but you still pass by a few farms. Past Palmyra into Lebanon county it's rural until you hit Annville, then a bit rural again until Lebanon.

[zip95]

Originally Posted by danwxman

In theory perhaps, if you go from town to town and stay off of 81 and 78 (which are pretty much all rural). From Harrisburg to about Palmyra you have pretty much a built up area but you still pass by a few farms. Past Palmyra into Lebanon county it's rural until you hit Annville, then a bit rural again until Lebanon.

I've never been there, so I could be wrong, but looking at the map, it looks like Harrisburg and York Urbanized Areas (UA's) connect near the York Haven area... York and Lancaster are (sorta) connected near Wrightsville... Lancaster and Reading connect near Adamstown... Reading -> Pottstown -> Philly -> Trenton -> Hightown -> Newark -> New York... Also, the Lehigh Valley connects to Philly near Quakertown.

Seems reasonably contiguous?... never more than a 2-3 miles separating the urbanized areas...