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Click on a county to see its profile

The Center for Rural Pennsylvania's definition of rural and urban is based on population density. Population density is calculated by dividing the total population of a specific area by the total number of square land miles of that area. According to the 2020 Census, the population of Pennsylvania is 13,002,700 and the number of square miles of land in Pennsylvania is 44,742. Therefore, the population density is 291 people per square mile.
A county or school district is rural when the number of people per square mile within the county or school district is fewer than 291. Counties and school districts that have 291 people or more per square mile are considered urban.
The U.S. Census Bureau has not yet identified 2020 urbanized areas. Therefore, the Center is continuing to use the 2010 municipal definition of rural as follows: a municipality is rural when the population density within the municipality is fewer than the 2010 statewide average density of 284 people per square mile, or the total population is less than 2,500, unless more than 50 percent of the population lives in an urbanized area as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. All other municipalities are considered urban.
According to the Center's definition, there are 48 rural counties and 19 urban counties in Pennsylvania. In 2020, nearly 3.4 million residents called these rural counties home, or 26 percent of the state's 13.0 million residents.
At the school district level, 238 of the state's 500 public school districts are rural. During the 2020-2021 school year, 374,732 public school students attended school in rural districts, or 25 percent of the state's nearly 1.41 million public school students.
At the municipal level, 1,592, or 62 percent, of the state's 2,562 municipalities are rural and 970 municipalities, or 38 percent, are urban.
A-D | E-M | N-Y |
---|---|---|
Adams - 196 Allegheny - 1,676 Armstrong - 106 Beaver - 392 Bedford - 49 Berks - 480 Blair - 242 Bradford - 55 Bucks - 1,035 Butler - 233 Cambria - 209 Cameron - 13 Carbon - 171 Centre - 139 Chester - 665 Clarion - 67 Clearfield - 71 Clinton - 44 Columbia - 139 Crawford - 88 Cumberland - 432 Dauphin - 511 Delaware - 3,041 |
Elk - 39 Erie - 351 Fayette - 173 Forest - 18 Franklin - 194 Fulton - 34 Greene - 67 Huntingdon - 52 Indiana - 107 Jefferson - 69 Juniata - 63 Lackawanna - 467 Lancaster - 550 Lawrence - 254 Lebanon - 369 Lehigh - 1,013 Luzerne - 360 Lycoming - 95 McKean - 44 Mercer - 173 Mifflin - 114 Monroe - 279 Montgomery - 1,656 Montour - 140 |
Northampton - 805 Northumberland - 206 Perry - 83 Philadelphia - 11,379 Pike - 105 Potter - 16 Schuylkill - 190 Snyder - 121 Somerset - 72 Sullivan - 14 Susquehanna - 53 Tioga - 37 Union - 142 Venango - 82 Warren - 47 Washington - 243 Wayne - 73 Westmoreland - 355 Wyoming - 71 York - 481 |