Cambria County, Pennsylvania

Cambria County is a county in Pennsylvania, United States, about 60 miles east of Pittsburgh
and 25 miles west of Altoona. It had a population of 133,472 at the 2020 census, an estimated
128,968 by 2025, and covers 694 square miles (1,800 km2) centred near 40°29′N 78°43′W.

Ebensburg is the county seat; its postal code is 15931. The county holds 1 city, 32 boroughs
and 18 census-designated places across 30 townships, and it runs on Eastern Time. Its FIPS code
is 42021.

Towns & Villages in Cambria County

Cambria County has 33 incorporated places on record: Johnstown, its only city, and 32
boroughs. A further 18 census-designated places (CDPs) and about 20 named unincorporated
communities carry no local government of their own. Population figures below are 2020 census
counts for the six largest places; the remaining boroughs list their 2010 count, marked
(2010), since the 2020 borough-level breakdown was not published in the sources checked for
this page.

The county’s 18 census-designated places are unincorporated but large enough for the
Census Bureau to track separately. The biggest is Elim, a Johnstown-area community, followed
by Belmont and the Mundys Corner – Nicktown area.

Beyond the CDPs, the county carries about 20 more named unincorporated communities, mostly
old coal-patch settlements: Belsano, Coupon, Dean, Dysart, Elmora, Elton, Emeigh, Fallentimber,
Garmantown, Glasgow, Hollentown, Marsteller, Mineral Point, New Germany, Nicktown, Parkhill,
Saint Benedict, Saint Boniface, Saint Lawrence and Twin Rocks. None has its own municipal
government; each is administered as part of the township that surrounds it.

Tunnelhill borough straddles the Cambria–Blair county line; most of its land and
population sit on the Cambria side, but part of the borough extends east into Blair County.
Westmont’s 2020 total, 4,982, is a genuine decline from its 2010 count of 5,181 — the
borough is a Johnstown streetcar suburb that has been losing population along with the rest of
the county for decades.

ZIP Codes

• 15901, 15902, 15904, 15905, 15906, 15907, 15909, 15915 — Johnstown (eight ZIPs cover the city and its urban core)
• 15931 — Ebensburg
• 15714 — Northern Cambria
• 15943 — Nanty Glo
• 15946 — Portage
• 16630 and 16699 — Cresson (16699 is a Cresson post office box ZIP)
• 16668 — Patton
• 16641 — Gallitzin
• 15940 — Loretto
• 16646 — Hastings
• 15722 — Carrolltown
• 15938 — Lilly
• 15956 — South Fork
• 16613 — Ashville
• 15962 — Wilmore
• 15958 — Summerhill
• 15961 — Vintondale
• 16624 — Chest Springs
• 15925 — Cassandra
• 15921 Beaverdale, 15927 Colver, 15930 Dunlo, 15948 Revloc, 15951 Saint Michael, 15952 Salix, 15955 Sidman and 16619 Blandburg cover their own named CDPs
• 15737 Elmora, 15738 Emeigh, 15760 Marsteller, 15762 Nicktown, 15773 Saint Benedict, 15775 Spangler, 15922 Belsano, 15934 Elton, 15942 Mineral Point, 15945 Parkhill, 15960 Twin Rocks, 16629 Coupon, 16636 Dysart, 16639 Fallentimber, 16640 Flinton, 16644 Glasgow and 16675 Saint Boniface cover the smaller unincorporated communities

Geistown, Southmont, Ferndale, Dale, East Conemaugh, Scalp Level, Lorain, Brownstown,
Sankertown, Tunnelhill, Daisytown, Franklin, Ehrenfeld, and the CDPs of Elim, Belmont, Mundys
Corner, Oakland, University of Pittsburgh Johnstown, Spring Hill, Riverside and Westwood have no
ZIP code of their own; the county’s 52 codes recognized by the Postal Service already
cover every named place listed above under a neighboring town.

Townships

Pennsylvania townships are independent municipalities, not subdivisions of the boroughs and
cities inside them, so most of the boroughs and CDPs above are geographically surrounded by, but
not governed by, one of the county’s 30 townships. 2020 township-level population was not
published in the sources checked for this page; the county total already includes every
township resident.

Geography

Cambria County sits in the Allegheny Mountains of west-central Pennsylvania, on the
Allegheny Plateau’s eastern edge. Of its 694 square miles, 688 are land and 5.3 are water
— about 0.8 percent, split among the Little Conemaugh River, Stonycreek River and Blacklick
Creek, which drain most of the county toward the Conemaugh River near Johnstown. Ebensburg, the
county seat, sits near the crest of the plateau at roughly 2,152 feet elevation, well above
Johnstown’s river-valley floor.

Clearfield County lies to the north, Blair County to the east, Bedford County to the
southeast, Somerset County to the south, Westmoreland County to the southwest and Indiana County
to the west. Clearfield County, Blair County, Bedford County, Somerset County, Westmoreland County and Indiana County all border Cambria directly; Bedford County has no live page on this site to link to.

Demographics

Cambria County had a population of 133,472 at the 2020 census, down from earlier decades, and
the latest estimate puts the county near 128,968 residents by 2025. Johnstown and Westmont are
the two largest communities, together holding well under a fifth of the county’s
population — unlike many counties, Cambria’s population is spread thinly across
dozens of small boroughs rather than concentrated in one city. Median household income runs
$58,418, well below Pennsylvania’s statewide figure of $73,824 (2023 ACS). Population
density works out to 194 people per square mile of land, low for a Pennsylvania county outside
its mountain belt, reflecting decades of population loss since the region’s coal and steel
peak.

Economy & Local Life

Health care and social assistance employs the most workers in the county, about 11,439
people, followed by retail trade at 7,028 and manufacturing at 6,213. Conemaugh Health System,
anchored by Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown, is the county’s largest employer.
Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Concurrent Technologies Corporation and the materials firm
Höganäs AB all run significant operations in the Johnstown area, a legacy of the
region’s defense and metals-testing work after its steel mills closed. The University of
Pittsburgh at Johnstown and a Pennsylvania Highlands Community College campus in Ebensburg are
the county’s main higher-education institutions. The county’s biggest annual events
are the Flood City Music Festival at Peoples Natural Gas Park and, in the fourth week of June,
the Thunder in the Valley motorcycle rally, which has drawn crowds well beyond the
county’s own population.

History

Pennsylvania’s legislature created Cambria County on 26 March 1804, carving it from
parts of Bedford, Huntingdon and Somerset counties, and organized it for local government in
1807. The name comes from Cambria, the Latin name for Wales, honoring the county’s early
Welsh settlers — Ebensburg itself was founded in November 1796 when the Congregational
minister Rees Lloyd led a party of about 20 Welsh settlers to the site.

On 31 May 1889, the South Fork Dam upstream of Johnstown failed after heavy rain, sending a
wall of floodwater down the Little Conemaugh valley into the city. The Johnstown Flood killed
2,208 people, one of the deadliest disasters in United States history, and remains the county’s
defining historical event; the Johnstown Flood National Memorial preserves the dam site today.
Coal mining and the Cambria Iron Company’s steel works drove the county’s growth
through the early 20th century before both industries declined after the Second World War.

Getting There

No interstate highway crosses Cambria County. US Route 22 runs east–west through the
county’s south, US Route 219 runs north–south, and US Route 422 crosses the north.
Pennsylvania Routes 36, 53, 56, 160, 164, 240, 271, 403, 553, 756, 865, 869 and 985 fill in the
rest of the network.

• Pittsburgh — about 60 miles west
• Altoona — about 25 miles east
• State College — about 55 miles east
• Somerset — about 30 miles south

John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport, on the county’s edge near Richland
Township, offers United Express commercial service to Washington Dulles and Chicago
O’Hare. Pittsburgh International Airport, the region’s major hub, is roughly 75 miles
west. Amtrak’s daily Pennsylvanian stops at the Johnstown station, connecting to Pittsburgh
and Philadelphia.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Cambria County located?
It sits in the Allegheny Mountains of west-central Pennsylvania, about 60 miles east of
Pittsburgh and 25 miles west of Altoona.

What is the population of Cambria County?
133,472 at the 2020 census, with a 2025 estimate near 128,968.

How big is Cambria County?
694 square miles (1,800 km2), of which 688 square miles are land.

What is the county seat of Cambria County?
Ebensburg, founded by Welsh settlers in 1796, is the county seat.

How many towns and boroughs are in Cambria County?
One city, Johnstown, and 32 boroughs, plus 18 census-designated places and about 20 more
unincorporated communities.

What ZIP codes does Cambria County use?
52 ZIP codes in all, led by 15901–15909 and 15915 for Johnstown and 15931 for Ebensburg;
the full list is above.

What is Cambria County known for?
The Johnstown Flood of 1889, which killed 2,208 people, and its coal and steel history —
the Cambria Iron Company’s works once made it one of the country’s largest steel
producers.

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