Northeastern Pennsylvania Facts

Geographical Characteristics
A seven county region with a land area of 4,388 square miles that consists of the Scranton – Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area counties of Lackawanna and Luzerne; the Pocono Mountain counties of Carbon, Monroe, Pike and Wayne; and Schuylkill County
Location

  • 2 hours or 118 miles from Philadelphia
  • 2 hours 15 minutes or 129 miles from New York City
  • 3 hours 5 minutes or 193 miles from Baltimore
  • 4 hours or 228 miles from Washington, DC
  • 4 hours 30 minutes or 241 miles from Buffalo
  • 4 hours 30 minutes or 274 miles from Pittsburgh
  • 5 hours 10 minutes or 337 miles from Boston

Five Interstate Highways
This network of Interstate Highways coupled with the proximity to the Eastern Seaboard from Boston to Washington puts us within a day’s drive of 32.1 percent of the nation’s population.

  • Interstate 80 is a major east-west route that starts in the New York City area and ends in San Francisco. Interstate 81 is a major north-south route that starts at the Canadian border north of Watertown, New York and ends near Knoxville, Tennessee.
  • Interstate 84 starts in Scranton and ends in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, where it intersects with Interstate 90, which is used eastbound to Boston.
  • Interstate 380 is a connector between Interstates 81 and 84 in Scranton and Interstate 80 near Long Pond.
  • Interstate 476, which is also the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, originates in the Clarks Summit and ends in the Philadelphia area, near Chester.

Airports

The region is served by the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport and offers service to six hubs, which include Charlotte, Philadelphia, Altlanta, Newark, Chicago and Detroit, as well as over 400 one-stop destinations worldwide.  There are also five publicly-owned airports and seven privately-owned airports that have public facility usage within our region.

Education

  • 18 Colleges and Universities
  • 46 Public School Districts
  • 7 Vocational Technical Schools
  • Many Private Schools

Population from the U.S. Census Bureau for the seven-county region

  • April 1, 2010 counted – 1,028,926
  • July 1, 2013 estimated – 1,021,027

Regional Business Base

  • Dominated by small businesses
  • In 2011, according to “County Business Patterns,” a publication by the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 22,095 businesses in the region and 73.4 percent of these businesses employed between 1 and 9 people.
  • The single largest industry sectors by employment are: 1) Health Care and Social Assistance 2) Retail Trade and 3) Manufacturing. Employment in the manufacturing sector is dominated by computer and electronics, fabricated metal products, plastics and rubber products, food products and chemical products industries.

Recreational and Entertainment Highlights

 
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