Most Densely Populated Cities in Pennsylvania: Ranked by People per Square Mile

The densest city in Pennsylvania in our data is Darby, PA, with about 12,706 people per square mile, followed by Philadelphia, PA (11,795) and Dormont, PA (10,891). This list ranks the top 50 places among the 270 Pennsylvania communities with at least 5,000 residents.

What are the top 50 in Pennsylvania?

How dense are the cities in Pennsylvania?

The densest place is about 4 times as dense as the median place in the state, which has about 3,311 people per square mile. At the other end, St. Marys, PA has about 122. Under our scale, 61 places are an urban core (over 5,000 per square mile), 191 are suburban, and the rest are small towns or rural. Delaware County contributes 15 of the top 50.

Which counties do the top 50 belong to?

The 50 places on this list are spread across 18 counties of Pennsylvania. Delaware County has 15 (Darby, Clifton Heights, Collingdale, Lansdowne, Prospect Park, Drexel Hill, Norwood, Media); Montgomery County has 8 (Norristown, Conshohocken, Ambler, Ardmore, Souderton, Glenside, Lansdale, Penn Wynne); Allegheny County has 7 (Dormont, Bellevue, Swissvale, Wilkinsburg, West View, Brentwood, McKees Rocks). Counties with several entries are usually centers of a metropolitan area, where one large city is surrounded by many suburbs that each pass the 5,000-resident threshold.

How does Pennsylvania compare with the rest of the country?

The median Pennsylvania place with a page has about 8,658 residents, compared with about 13,459 nationwide, so the state's typical community is smaller than the national typical place. The state has 1,649 communities in total, of which 270 reach 5,000 residents. See the national ranking of the largest cities for comparison.

Quick answers about Pennsylvania cities

• Which is the densest city in Pennsylvania? Darby (12,706 per square mile).
• How many Pennsylvania cities have more than 100,000 people? 10 in our data.
• How many have 25,000 to 100,000? 30.
• What is the typical size? About 8,658 residents for a place with a page.

How is this ranking made?

The data comes from the SimpleMaps US Cities Database, which gives each place an estimated population and a density in people per square kilometer. We convert density to people per square mile and rank the places with at least 5,000 residents. Boundaries matter: a city that includes large parks or farmland scores lower on density than a compact city of the same size, and population estimates can include areas that share a city's ZIP codes. Read why population figures differ and how density is calculated before you quote a number.

Where to go next

Rankings use dataset estimates, not official counts.