Bradford County, Pennsylvania

Bradford County is a county in Pennsylvania, United States, about 20 miles southeast of Elmira, New York, along the Susquehanna River. It had a population of 59,967 at the 2020 census, an estimated 59,858 by 2024, and covers 1,147 square miles (2,970 km2) of land centred near 41°47′N 76°31′W.

Towanda is the county seat; its postal code is 18848. The county holds 14 boroughs, 36 townships and one census-designated place, and it runs on Eastern Time. Bradford is Pennsylvania’s second-largest county by land area.

Towns & Villages in Bradford County

Bradford County has 15 named places with their own census figures: 14 incorporated boroughs and one census-designated place (CDP). Dozens more hamlets sit inside the county’s 36 townships, which are covered in their own section below rather than in this table.

Two names invite confusion. Monroe borough is universally called Monroeton locally, and that name appears on postal addresses and road signs even though the legal name stays Monroe. South Waverly is a separate Pennsylvania borough from Waverly, New York, just across the state line — the two, together with Sayre and Athens, form the built-up Penn-York Valley cluster along the Chemung and Susquehanna rivers.

Townships

Boroughs are self-governing and sit outside Bradford County’s 36 townships, which cover the rest of the county’s land and hold most of its smaller hamlets. Population figures below are the most recent census count located for each; several townships have only a 2010 figure on record.

These ten hold roughly a third of the county’s population. The other 26 townships — among them Warren, Wilmot, Stevens, Herrick, Orwell, Windham, Ridgebury, Standing Stone and Tuscarora — are each home to under 1,000 residents and no reliable current count was found for them in this pass; they are not listed with population figures for that reason.

ZIP Codes

• 18840 — Sayre (also serves South Waverly, which has no ZIP of its own)
• 18848 — Towanda
• 18810 — Athens
• 16947 — Troy
• 17724 — Canton
• 18853 — Wyalusing
• 16925 — Gillett
• 18837 — Rome
• 16914 — Columbia Cross Roads
• 18833 — New Albany
• 18850 — Ulster
• 18832 — Monroeton
• 18854 — Wysox
• 18831 — Milan
• 16926 — Granville Summit
• 18846 — Sugar Run
• 18829 — Le Raysville
• 18851 — Warren Center
• 18845 — Stevensville
• 18814 — Burlington
• 18817 — East Smithfield
• 16910 — Alba
• 17735 — Grover
• 18815 — Camptown
• 16945 — Sylvania

That is 25 ZIP codes for the whole county. Small hamlets such as Rummerfield, Wilawana, Standing Stone and Warrenham have no post office and no ZIP of their own; mail there is delivered under whichever of the codes above serves the nearest post office.

Geography

Bradford County sits in the Endless Mountains section of the Allegheny Plateau, a landscape of steep wooded ridges cut by the Susquehanna River, which crosses the county from northeast to southwest through Athens, Towanda and Wysox. Of the county’s 1,161 square miles, 1,147 are land and 14 are water, about 1.2 percent — most of it the Susquehanna itself plus smaller streams such as Towanda Creek, Wyalusing Creek and Sugar Creek. The county has no large natural lake; Mountain Lake, in Overton Township, is its best-known body of standing water.

Bradford County borders Chemung County, New York, to the northwest and Tioga County, New York, to the northeast — neither has a page on this site. Within Pennsylvania, it borders Tioga County to the west, Lycoming County to the southwest, Sullivan County to the south, Wyoming County to the southeast and Susquehanna County to the east.

Demographics

Bradford County had a population of 59,967 at the 2020 census, and the latest estimate puts the county near 59,858 residents as of 2024, essentially flat over the period. Sayre and Athens, the two boroughs anchoring the Penn-York Valley in the county’s northeast corner, are its largest communities, together with neighboring Athens Township holding roughly a quarter of the county’s people. Population density works out to about 52 people per square mile of land, low even by rural Pennsylvania standards, reflecting the county’s size and its mountainous, sparsely settled interior townships.

Economy & Local Life

Natural gas drilling into the Marcellus Shale has been a major part of the county economy since roughly 2008, alongside longer-standing dairy farming, logging and forest-products work across the rural townships. Major employers include Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, a regional referral hospital and the county’s largest employer; DuPont and Global Tungsten & Powders, both in Towanda; Jeld-Wen, a window and door manufacturer; and Cargill Regional Beef, a large meat-processing plant near Wyalusing employing over 1,200 people. The county’s best-known annual event is the Troy Fair, held each September in Troy since 1875, one of the oldest continuously running county fairs in Pennsylvania.

History

Pennsylvania organized the county on 21 February 1810, carving it from Lycoming and Luzerne counties and originally naming it Ontario County. It was reorganized and renamed in 1812 for William Bradford, a former chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and United States Attorney General. Towanda’s name comes from a Nanticoke word meaning “where we bury the dead.”

In 1765, Moravian missionaries and a group of pacifist Munsee converts founded Friedenshütten, a mission settlement near present-day Wyalusing, on land known to the Lenape as M’chwihilusing. More recently, Tropical Storm Lee flooded the Susquehanna through Athens and Sayre in September 2011, part of a wider flood event that caused roughly $100 million in damage in neighboring Tioga County, New York alone.

Getting There

No interstate highway crosses Bradford County directly, though Interstate 86 clips its northern edge near South Waverly on its way into New York. US 6 and US 220 are the county’s main roads, along with US 15 to the west and Pennsylvania Routes 14, 187 and 706.

• Elmira, New York — about 20 miles north of Sayre
• Scranton — about 65 miles southeast of Towanda
• Williamsport — about 50 miles south of Towanda
• Binghamton, New York — about 40 miles northeast

Elmira Corning Regional Airport, about 20 miles north of Sayre in New York, is the nearest commercial airport. No Amtrak train serves Bradford County; the historic Lehigh Valley Railroad shops that once dominated Sayre’s economy closed in 1976 and now carry freight only.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Bradford County located?
It sits in northeastern Pennsylvania along the New York state line, about 20 miles southeast of Elmira, New York, bordered by Tioga, Lycoming, Sullivan, Wyoming and Susquehanna counties in Pennsylvania and Chemung and Tioga counties in New York.

What is the population of Bradford County?
59,967 at the 2020 census, with a 2024 estimate near 59,858.

How big is Bradford County?
1,161 square miles total (1,147 square miles of land, 2,970 km2), making it Pennsylvania’s second-largest county by land area.

What is the county seat of Bradford County?
Towanda is the county seat.

How many towns are in Bradford County?
14 boroughs — Sayre, Athens, Towanda, Canton, Troy, South Waverly, Wyalusing, Monroe (Monroeton), Rome, Le Raysville, New Albany, Sylvania, Burlington and Alba — plus one CDP, Greens Landing, and 36 townships covering the rest of the county.

What ZIP codes does Bradford County use?
25 in total, led by 18840 (Sayre), 18848 (Towanda), 18810 (Athens), 16947 (Troy) and 17724 (Canton).

What is Bradford County known for?
The 1765 Moravian mission settlement Friedenshütten near Wyalusing, the Marcellus Shale natural gas industry, and the Troy Fair, running annually since 1875.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Pennsylvania.