Philadelphia County is a county in Pennsylvania, United States, on the west bank of the Delaware River about 95 miles southwest of New York City. It had a population of 1,603,797 at the 2020 census, an estimated 1,573,916 by 2024, and covers 134 square miles (347 km2) of land centred near 39°57′N 75°10′W.<\/p>\n
Philadelphia is the county seat and, since the 1854 Act of Consolidation, the only municipality in the county — city and county government merged into one, making it Pennsylvania’s only consolidated city-county. Its postal code is 19107 at Center City. The county holds no incorporated towns, no unincorporated communities and no townships; instead it is divided into roughly 150 traditionally named neighborhoods, and it runs on Eastern Time. Its FIPS code is 42101.<\/p>\n
Because Philadelphia is a consolidated city-county, this table lists neighborhoods, not towns. The city’s roughly 150 informally named neighborhoods are grouped by the Pew Charitable Trusts, using 2020 census-block data, into 46 tracked neighborhood clusters. The 30 largest are below, together holding 1,329,678 residents — 83% of the county’s 2020 population. The other 16, smaller clusters (including most of Center City) are not shown here.<\/p>\n
| Neighborhood Cluster<\/th>\n | Type<\/th>\n | Section<\/th>\n | Pop. (2020)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frankford<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | Lower Northeast<\/td>\n | 69,173<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Fox Chase<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | Lower Northeast<\/td>\n | 66,918<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Olney<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | North Philadelphia<\/td>\n | 66,527<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Kingsessing<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | Southwest Philadelphia<\/td>\n | 65,119<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Mayfair & Oxford Circle<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | Lower Northeast<\/td>\n | 60,552<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Port Richmond<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | River Wards<\/td>\n | 57,875<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| University City<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | West Philadelphia<\/td>\n | 57,039<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| South Philadelphia · East<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | South Philadelphia<\/td>\n | 54,083<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Nicetown<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | North Philadelphia<\/td>\n | 52,620<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| South Philadelphia · West<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | South Philadelphia<\/td>\n | 47,287<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Germantown<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | Northwest Philadelphia<\/td>\n | 44,740<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| West Market<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | West Philadelphia<\/td>\n | 43,626<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Wynnefield & West Park<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | West Philadelphia<\/td>\n | 42,605<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| South Philadelphia · Schuylkill<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | South Philadelphia<\/td>\n | 42,138<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Fairmount North & Brewerytown<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | Lower North Philadelphia<\/td>\n | 42,112<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Queen Village & Bella Vista<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | South Philadelphia<\/td>\n | 41,161<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Holmesburg<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | Lower Northeast<\/td>\n | 39,248<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Roxborough<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | Northwest Philadelphia<\/td>\n | 36,828<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Rhawnhurst<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | Lower Northeast<\/td>\n | 35,950<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Bustleton South<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | Upper Northeast<\/td>\n | 35,944<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Bustleton North & Somerton<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | Upper Northeast<\/td>\n | 35,651<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Tacony<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | Lower Northeast<\/td>\n | 35,562<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Torresdale North<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | Upper Northeast<\/td>\n | 34,728<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| North Philadelphia · West<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | North Philadelphia<\/td>\n | 34,327<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Torresdale South<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | Upper Northeast<\/td>\n | 32,693<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Germantown East<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | Northwest Philadelphia<\/td>\n | 32,031<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Fairmount South<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | Lower North Philadelphia<\/td>\n | 31,534<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Logan<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | North Philadelphia<\/td>\n | 31,256<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Overbrook<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | West Philadelphia<\/td>\n | 30,574<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Paschall & Elmwood<\/td>\n | Neighborhood<\/td>\n | Southwest Philadelphia<\/td>\n | 29,777<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n Several Pew clusters bundle two or more of the informally named neighborhoods residents actually use day to day — Queen Village and Bella Vista are historically distinct South Philadelphia neighborhoods tracked as one cluster, as are Bustleton and Somerton in the far Northeast and Mayfair and Oxford Circle nearer the river. Treat the cluster names in this table as statistical groupings, not single place names.<\/p>\n ZIP Codes<\/h2>\nPhiladelphia County uses 48 standard delivery ZIP codes running from 19102 to 19154, plus a handful of PO-Box-only or single-entity codes — 19101, 19105, 19109 and 19244 among them — that carry no residential population. Center City takes 19102, 19103, 19106, 19107 and 19123; South Philadelphia runs 19145 through 19148; deep North Philadelphia covers 19132 to 19140; West Philadelphia is largely 19131, 19139, 19143 and 19151; and the Northeast, the county’s largest ZIP cluster by land area, spans 19111 through 19154. Every neighborhood in the table above sits inside one or more of these ZIPs — unlike many rural counties, no tracked section of Philadelphia goes without its own postal coverage.<\/p>\n Geography<\/h2>\nPhiladelphia County occupies flat coastal-plain land along the Delaware River, rising gently to rolling Piedmont hills in the northwest around Chestnut Hill and Manayunk. The Delaware forms the county’s eastern and southern boundary with New Jersey and stays tidal well upstream of the city; the Schuylkill River cuts the county roughly in half before joining the Delaware near the airport in the far south. Smaller streams — the Wissahickon, Pennypack, Cobbs, Frankford and Poquessing creeks — carved the wooded valleys that now hold most of Fairmount Park, the country’s largest connected municipal park system, along the Schuylkill and Wissahickon alone. Water covers 8.6 of the county’s 143 total square miles.<\/p>\n Philadelphia borders six counties. Within Pennsylvania, Bucks County<\/a> lies to the northeast, Montgomery County<\/a> to the northwest and Delaware County<\/a> to the southwest. Across the Delaware River in New Jersey sit Burlington County<\/a> to the northeast, Camden County<\/a> directly east and Gloucester County<\/a> to the southeast.<\/p>\n Philadelphia County had 1,603,797 residents at the 2020 census and an estimated 1,573,916 by 2024, Pennsylvania’s most populous county by a wide margin over second-place Allegheny. Its two largest tracked neighborhood clusters are Frankford (69,173) and Fox Chase (66,918), both in the lower Northeast. Median household income was $61,953 in 2024, well below Pennsylvania’s $77,545 figure and roughly 24% below the national median. Population density runs about 11,969 people per square mile, the highest of any Pennsylvania county and among the densest of America’s large cities.<\/p>\n Education and health care dominate county employment. The University of Pennsylvania is the single largest employer, followed by the City of Philadelphia’s own government, the federal government and the School District of Philadelphia; the Pennsylvania state government also keeps several thousand workers in Center City offices. Penn Medicine and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia lead the hospital systems, alongside Temple University Hospital, Thomas Jefferson University and its hospital, Drexel University and Comcast, whose headquarters towers anchor the Center City skyline. SEPTA, the regional transit authority, is also among the county’s largest employers. The former Philadelphia Navy Yard, in the far south, has become a private research and manufacturing campus. The city’s largest annual event is the Philadelphia Flower Show, held every March at the Pennsylvania Convention Center; the Mummers Parade down Broad Street each New Year’s Day, dating to 1901, is its oldest folk tradition.<\/p>\n Philadelphia County is one of Pennsylvania’s three original counties, created by William Penn in 1682 alongside Bucks and Chester. Its name combines Greek roots for “brotherly love,” reflecting Penn’s Quaker vision of religious tolerance. For its first 170-plus years the county held Philadelphia city as only one of many local governments — thirteen townships, six boroughs including Germantown, Manayunk and Frankford, and nine districts, each running its own police and taxes. The Act of Consolidation, signed February 2, 1854, dissolved every one of those governments into a single City and County of Philadelphia, expanding the city from just over two square miles to nearly the full 130-square-mile county overnight and roughly quadrupling its population. Philadelphia served as the young nation’s capital from 1790 to 1800 and hosted both the First Continental Congress in 1774 and the Constitutional Convention in 1787, both at what is now Independence Hall.<\/p>\n Interstates 95, 76, 676 and 476 all cross the county; I-95 runs the full length of the Delaware riverfront and I-76, the Schuylkill Expressway, follows the Schuylkill River into Center City.<\/p>\n Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), in the county’s far south, is the region’s main commercial airport. Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station is a major Amtrak hub on the Northeast Corridor, with direct service to New York, Washington and Boston.<\/p>\n Where is Philadelphia County located?<\/strong> What is the population of Philadelphia County?<\/strong> How big is Philadelphia County?<\/strong> What is the county seat of Philadelphia County?<\/strong> How many neighborhoods does Philadelphia County have?<\/strong> What ZIP codes does Philadelphia County use?<\/strong> |