Greater Pittsburgh


Greater Pittsburgh is the metropolitan area surrounding the city of Pittsburgh in Western Pennsylvania, United States. The region includes Allegheny County, Pittsburgh's urban core county and economic hub, and seven adjacent Pennsylvania counties: Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Lawrence, Washington, and Westmoreland in Western Pennsylvania, which constitutes the Pittsburgh, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area MSA as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
As of the 2020 census, the Greater Pittsburgh region had a population of over 2.45 million people. Pittsburgh, the region's core city, has a population of 302,971, the second-largest in the state after Philadelphia. Over half of the region's population resides within Allegheny County, which has a population of 1.24 million and is the state's second-largest county after Philadelphia County.

Definitions

Garrett Nelson and Alasdair Rae's 2016 analysis of American commuter flows, "An Economic Geography of the United States: From Commutes to Megaregions", identified the Pittsburgh megaregion as a region encompassing the entirety or significant portions of 54 counties in Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, Northern West Virginia, and Western Maryland. By this definition, the informal regional boundaries are similar to historical interpretations where the region is defined as the central portion of the Allegheny Plateau to the west and north of the Allegheny Front and south of Lake Erie and Pennsylvania's Northern Tier. The hills and river valleys along the Upper Ohio River and its many eastern tributaries, including the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers have historically been the major centers of population of the region.
According to this research the US can be divided into 'mega regions' based on the most extreme commuting patterns within a geographical area. By this liberal definition, the Pittsburgh mega region consists of twenty-eight Pennsylvania counties, nineteen West Virginia counties, five Ohio counties, and two Maryland counties, and portions of Chautauqua, New York in and around Ripley. The combined population of the megaregion was over 4.9 million in 2016.
There are also several formal definitions of Greater Pittsburgh which are often used in media mentions of the region. These include the Office of Management and Budget's Pittsburgh, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area and Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-OH-WV Combined Statistical Area. The Nielsen Corporation's Pittsburgh Designated Market Area is another commonly used formal definition of the region. There are nineteen counties included in at least one of these definitions and their combined population was over 2.9 million in 2016.

Economy

Historically, Pittsburgh has been grouped in the "Rust Belt"; however, reflective of the rebound of the region within the last generation, the metro area has been included as a part of the "Great Lakes Basin" gaining representation in the Great Lakes Metro Chamber Coalition.
Pittsburgh's association with the Great Lakes region is due in part to its economic, demographic and commuter connections to Great Lakes cities like Cleveland, Erie, Toledo and even Detroit. Christopher Briem, an economist at the University of Pittsburgh's University Center for Social and Urban Research, has argued that southwestern Pennsylvania is "far more interconnected" with northeastern Ohio than it is with the eastern half of Pennsylvania, and that the industries of Pittsburgh are primarily linked to Ohioan cities such as Youngstown, Akron, and Cleveland, not to Pennsylvanian cities such as Allentown, Scranton, or Philadelphia. He notes that, conversely, the population centers of northeastern Ohio are primarily connected with Pittsburgh and only secondarily connected to the state capital of Columbus. Briem argues that "In so many ways the state boundaries we think of as important are no more than lines on a map." In recognizing their economic interdependence, Briem coined the term "Cleveburgh" to refer collectively to the cities of Cleveland and Pittsburgh, along with the smaller towns dotting the corridor of I-76 between the cities. Robert Lang and Arthur Nelson of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech also identify the region between Cleveland and Pittsburgh as being an interconnected "megapolitan area" and refer to it as the "Steel Corridor".

Education

The largest school district in the area is the Pittsburgh Public Schools, with the school districts of Allegheny County also boasting large student bodies. Many private schools also serve the core county of Allegheny. More public districts are found throughout Beaver, Westmoreland, and Washington counties, and private schools in each county.
Several area colleges and universities serve the region. Pittsburgh itself is home to many colleges, universities, and research facilities, the most well-known of which are Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Duquesne University. Also in the city are Carlow University, Chatham University, Point Park University, the Community College of Allegheny County, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science. Within the greater metropolitan area, universities include Clarion University of Pennsylvania, La Roche University, Slippery Rock University, Westminster College and Grove City College north of the city, Robert Morris University and Geneva College west of the city, Washington & Jefferson College, Pennsylvania Western University and Waynesburg University to the south, and Seton Hill University, Saint Vincent College, Westmoreland County Community College and Indiana University of Pennsylvania to the east.

Transportation

Airports

is located to the west of downtown Pittsburgh in Findlay. The smaller but less crowded Arnold Palmer Regional Airport to the east of downtown in Latrobe provides commercial service to the metro area.
Pittsburgh International was the fortress hub of US Airways from 1952 to 2005 with over 500 daily departures to more than 110 destinations in 2000. By 2007, fewer than 70 departures to 21 destinations remained. In 2007, US Airways did select the airport for its new $25 million, 27,000 sq ft, 600-employees-strong Global Flight Operations Center. Since being de-hubbed the airport has seen expanded service from JetBlue, Southwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines' direct trans-Atlantic service to Paris.
Arnold Palmer Regional Airport offers commercial service via Spirit Airlines to Florida and South Carolina. Palmer has had commercially scheduled air service since the 1980s.
Allegheny County Airport in suburban West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, is the area's largest general aviation airport. The historic landmark, art deco terminal was the main passenger airport for the area until 1952. Allegheny opened in 1931 as the nation's third-largest and first with "hard surface" runways.
Smaller suburban airports serve as private plane and corporate jet bases include:
  • North Metro:
  • *Butler County Airport
  • *Zelienople Municipal Airport
  • *Rock Airport
  • *New Castle Municipal Airport
  • *Lakehill Airport
  • *Grove City Airport
  • South Metro:
  • *Allegheny County Airport
  • *Rostraver Airport
  • *Joseph A. Hardy Connellsville Airport
  • *Washington County Airport
  • East Metro:
  • *Pittsburgh-Monroeville Airport
  • *Greensburg Jeannette Regional Airport
  • *Indiana County-Jimmy Stewart Airport
  • *Arnold Palmer Regional Airport
  • West Metro:
  • *Beaver County Airport
  • *Eddie Dew Memorial Airpark
  • *Jefferson County Airpark
  • *Herron Airport
  • *Wheeling Airport

    Interstates

The Pittsburgh area is served by four main-line Interstates including the Pennsylvania Turnpike :
It's also served by several Interstate spur routes:

  • Other expressways

  • serving west area commuters from Steubenville, Ohio, through West Virginia and into the metro area of Washington County, Pennsylvania, and into Allegheny merging into I-376.
  • in the Greensburg area and co-signed with I-376 through the city and western suburbs.
  • along the Ohio River in Jefferson County, Ohio.
  • serving the Allegheny Valley commuters in the Northeast and through suburban Armstrong County.
  • a 70 mile long interstate grade route between the south hills and West Virginia.
  • serving commuters along the Ohio River valley to the northwest of the city.
  • as a partial east hills beltway for traffic from both Interstate 70 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike/Interstate 76.
  • Fort Duquesne Boulevard serving as a downtown expressway between I-279 and I-579.

    Port

The Port of Pittsburgh ranks as the 21st-largest port in the United States with almost 34 million short tons of river cargo in 2011. It is the 9th-largest in the U.S. when measured in domestic trade.

Mass transit

The Pittsburgh Regional Transit agency is the largest mass transit service in the metro area and includes a 26-mile subway/light rail system, all serving the central core. This system is complemented by the Butler Transit Authority and Town & Country Transit to north destinations, Beaver County Transit Authority and New Castle Area Transit Authority to northwest destinations, Westmoreland County Transit Authority and IndiGo to eastern destinations, and Washington City Transit, Mid Mon Valley Transit Authority and Fayette Area Coordinated Transportation serving southern destinations. The University of Pittsburgh Transportation System also provides services in the eastern core of the metropolitan area while Mountain Line Transit serves the city, western suburbs and an express route south to Morgantown, West Virginia.
A metro map of all fixed route transit routes for Pennsylvania counties can be found here.

Rail

serves the region with stops at Penn Station in Downtown Pittsburgh, Connellsville to the southeast and both Greensburg and Latrobe to the east.
Freight rail is a major industry for the area with the Pittsburgh Line and the Conway Yard among other infrastructure serving the region.