Cities and UrbanAreas
of Pennsylvania
L E S S O N 1 0
Chapter 3
●
51
Cities and
Urban Areas
W
ehave learned that sevenout of
every 10 Pennsylvanians live in
a
city
or
urban area
. Our
state has many different sizes of cities. A
community can be called a city if it has
10,000 or more residents. With more than
1,500,000 residents, Philadelphia is our
largest city. Many other cities, towns, and
suburbs have grown around Philadelphia.
When many smaller communities grow
near a large city, it is called an urban area.
Today, the Philadelphia urban area has
more than 5,000,000 people living there.
Our state also has several smaller urban
areas. We will locate them when we read
about the cities of each region.
Why domost people choose to live in or
near a city? A large city hasmany things to
offer. One of themost important reasons is
the many kinds of jobs you can find!
There are more industrial and service
kinds of jobs. Remember, with an industrial
job, workers make products or produce
goods for other people. A service job
provides a service to people, such as banks
and education.
Canyou thinkof other things a large city
offers that you would not find in a smaller
community? There are more tourist
attractions in larger cities. You can visit
zoos, museums, and parks. There are larger
theaters to see plays andhear concerts. You
may find professional sports teams there.
Let us tour our five geographic regions
and locate our major cities and urban
areas. Remember, use your map to locate
each city or area.
Key Questions
1. What is the difference
between a city and an urban
area?
2. What are themajor cities of
each geographic region in
Pennsylvania?
3. What do our major cities offer
in trade, culture, and life?
KeyWords
city
urban area
port
imports
refineries
exports
petrochemical
harbor
