Towns and Cities in Pennsylvania, USA

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania officially the Commonwealth (refers to the "common weal" or well-being of the public) of Pennsylvania. It is a state in the Mid-Atlantic, bordered by New York and Lake Erie in the north; New York and New Jersey in the east; Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia in the south; and West Virginia and Ohio in the west. Pennsylvania is the 5th-most populous state with 12,801,989 inhabitants in 2019. Its capital is Harrisburg, but its largest city is Philadelphia. Its governor is Tom Wolf.

Pennsylvania generally has a humid continental climate characterized by wide fluctuations in seasonal temperatures, with prevailing winds from the west. The average temperature in July is about 70 °F (21 °C) and in January about 28 °F (−2 °C). The growing season varies from nearly 200 days in the southeast to only 90 days in the north-central part of the state. About half of the state is wooded, although only small areas are still virgin forest, which has made Pennsylvania a place unique for hunting thanks to its abundant wildlife: rabbits, pheasants, and squirrels, tens of thousands of deer and a few hundred black bears.

In 1681, Englishman William Penn, a member of a Christian group called the Quakers, founded the British colony of Pennsylvania. A wave of German immigrants including Quakers, Mennonites, and Amish moved to the area. These settlers eventually developed their own dialect and their descendants are now called the Pennsylvania Dutch. In 1787, after the Independence War ended, Pennsylvania became the second U.S. state.

The economy of Pennsylvania has evolved through three distinct eras since the time of the first settlement, but since the 1920s service activities have increased drastically and have come to dominate employment. Of the total workforce, only a tiny fraction is now employed in the primary sector (agriculture, mining, and lumbering).

If you want information about your city in Pennsylvania, click on the Pennsylvania city names or Pennsylvania town names below: