| 118th | Top regions of the United States |
| Delaware Valley | |
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| Country |  United States |
| State | -  Pennsylvania-  New Jersey-  Delaware-  Maryland |
| Principal cities | Philadelphia, Reading, Camden & Wilmington |
| Area | |
| - Metro | 13,256 km2 (5,118 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 0 - 366 m (0 - 1,2,000 ft) |
| Population (2006 est.)[1] | |
| - Density | 1,138/km2 (439/sq mi) |
| - Urban | 5,149,079(4th) |
| - MSA | 5,826,742 (5th) |
| - CSA | 6,398,896(8th) |
| MSA/CSA = 2008, Urban = 2000 | |
| Time zone | EST (UTC-6) |
| - Summer (DST) | EST (UTC-5) |
The Delaware Valley is a term used to refer to the metropolitan area centered on the city of Philadelphia in the United States. The term is derived from the Delaware River, which flows through the area. The federal Office of Management and Budget officially defines the region as the Philadelphia–Camden–Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area.[2][3]
The Delaware Valley is composed of several counties in southeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey, one county in northern Delaware and one county in northeastern Maryland. The area has a population of 5.83 million (as of the 2006 Census Bureau estimate). Philadelphia, being the region's major commercial, cultural, and industrial center, maintains a rather large sphere of influence that affects those counties that immediately surround it. The majority of the region's populace resides in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
The Philadelphia–Camden–Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the United States[4] and is located towards the southern end of the Northeast megalopolis extending from Boston to Washington, D.C.
Based on commuter flows, the OMB also defines a wider labor market region known as the Philadelphia–Camden–Vineland Combined Statistical Area (CSA). This wider region adds the metropolitan areas of Vineland and Reading and has a total population of 6.38 million.
Philadelphia's media ranks fourth, behind New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, in Nielsen Media Market size rankings.
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The area has extensive suburban sprawl. King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and Cherry Hill, New Jersey, are two of the largest suburban edge cities. Philadelphia's suburbs contain a high concentration of malls, including the King of Prussia Mall, the largest on the East Coast, and the Cherry Hill Mall in Cherry Hill Township, New Jersey, the first enclosed mall on the East Coast. Malls, office complexes, strip shopping plazas, expressways, and tract housing are common sights, and more and more continue to replace rolling countryside, farms, woods, and wetlands. However, due to recent opposition by residents and political officials, many acres of land have been preserved throughout the Delaware Valley. Sprawling forests and farms can still be found throughout the region, providing a haven for pristine nature seekers. Older small towns and large boroughs such as Norristown, Jenkintown and West Chester, retain distinct community identities while engulfed in suburbia. The fastest-growing counties are Chester, Montgomery, Bucks, and Gloucester.
The region also has a large and growing ethnic population, thanks to job growth and proximity to major cities other than Philadelphia, such as New York City (90 miles away and about a 1.5 hour trip) and Washington D.C (140 miles away and about a 2.5 hour trip).
The Delaware Valley is home to extensive populations of African Americans (over 40% of Philadelphia's residents are black); Europeans (the majority of residents are white European) such as of Irish, Italian and Polish descent; Asians such as Chinese, Indian, Korean and Vietnamese; Arabs and Turks; Indians and Pakistanis; Israelis while American Jews form a significant ethnoreligious community; Hispanics with the largest nationalities being Mexican (the area's fastest growing ethnic group in the 1990s and 2000s) and Salvadoran; West Indians and Puerto Ricans; and even a small Native American community known as Lenapehoking for Lenni-Lenape Indians of West Philadelphia.
Along with their immigrant counterparts, the area is seeing revived internal migration. Once sending more people out then receiving, the Valley has now turned that around. This is most notable of the city of Philadelphia, which has been struggling with population decline since the fifties. The city is projected to begin increasing in population shortly before or after 2010. The core suburban counties have never had a difficult time achieving this, with most gaining the bulk of their populations in the last few decades.
Atlantic County, New Jersey and Cape May County, New Jersey are also associated with the Delaware Valley. These counties, while home to Philadelphia commuters, are also home to an extensive tourism industry. The most notable of these tourist towns is Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Ocean County, New Jersey, while officially designated as part of the New York Metropolitan Area, is strongly affiliated with the Delaware Valley. Ocean County is home to many tourist attractions frequently visited by Delaware Valley residents. These attractions include a myriad of beaches such as Long Beach Island and Seaside Heights, along with resorts such as Island Beach State Park and Six Flags Great Adventure. It should also be noted that the Jersey Shore, of which Ocean County is a central part, is a major destination for beach tourism for Delaware Valley residents, as there are no other beaches closer than those of the Jersey Shore.[5] By contrast, New York area residents, especially those who do not live in New Jersey, have alternative options on Long Island or in Connecticut.[6][7]
Mercer County, New Jersey, while part of the New York Metropolitan Area, has traditionally also been affiliated with the Delaware Valley (and had been officially part of the Delaware Valley Metropolitan Area before 2000). Mercer County, a relatively wealthy county located on the northern fringe of the Delaware Valley MSA, is home to both New York and Philadelphia commuters. In recent years, however, growing numbers of New York commuters have migrated into Mercer. The two main towns in Mercer County are Princeton, located in the northern part of the county, and Trenton, located in the southern part of the county. Princeton identifies with New York because it is home to many New York commuters who began migrating into the area after World War II.[8] Furthermore, the commute time from Princeton to New York by train is much shorter than the commute from Princeton to Philadelphia. Trenton, New Jersey's capital, is fittingly considered the meeting point between New York and Philadelphia. For example, the commute times from Trenton to New York and Trenton to Philadelphia by train are roughly the same. Trenton is also its own metropolitan region, called the Trenton-Ewing MSA.[9]
Many residents commute to jobs in Philadelphia, Camden, Wilmington with the help of expressways and trains. Commutes from one suburb to another are also common, as office parks have sprung up in new commercial centers such as King of Prussia, Fort Washington, Cherry Hill, and Plymouth Meeting.
Some believe that the term "Delaware Valley" is not entirely a synonym for "Greater Philadelphia." "Greater Philadelphia" implies that the region is centered on the city in an economic and cultural context, while "Delaware Valley" is a more generic geographic term that doesn't imply that any part is of more consequence than any other. Several organizations, such as KYW Radio and the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, consciously use the term "Greater Philadelphia" to assert that Philadelphia is the center of the region, referring to the less urbanized areas as, "Philadelphia's countryside."[11] Others note that the customary media usage of the term omits the majority of the length of the Delaware River's valley that is not in metropolitan Philadelphia.
WPVI-TV uses the slogan, "The Delaware Valley's leading news program" for their Action News broadcast, since that program has led the ratings for news programs in the Philadelphia market for over 30 years.
The Delaware Valley is also sometimes called "the Tri-State area," referring to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.
There is debate regarding whether the neighboring Lehigh Valley should be considered of part of the Greater Delaware Valley area, as it is part of the same media market. If so, it would increase the size of the Delaware Valley by approximately 790,000 people.[citation needed] A similar debate is starting to grow regarding the metro areas of cities like Lancaster and York that are located only 80 miles (130 km) from Philadelphia, are also regarded as being a part of the same media market and heavily rely on the city's services and utilities.[citation needed]
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The Delaware Valley is in Pennsylvania and also encompasses parts of the surrounding states of Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey.
The Delaware Valley also encompasses the surrounding states of Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey. The following counties in those states are considered part of this region.
The Delaware Valley is home to the "birthplace of America," Philadelphia, PA. Sites throughout the valley hosted battles between the British and colonia Americans during the Revolutionary War and Philadelphia itself saw the writing of the Delcaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America. Philadelphia today is the center of the region with 6.2 million people living within it's boundaries. Neighboring Camden, rated the most dangerous city in America, was once an industrial center and today is revitalizing its downtown and waterfront with attractions like a concert arena and an exotic aquarium. Wilmington, DE to the south is the largest city in Delaware and is one of the most important banking cities in the United States.
Dialect in the Delaware Valley sounds much like its New York City counterpart to the north. Many r's are dropped. In Philadelphia, "water" is pronounced either "wudder" or "wooder." Words like "kawfee" and "hawt" with an exaggerated "o" sound have been borrowed by denizens of the New York City area.
The major airport in the Delaware Valley with schedruled service to most major cities, and certain international destinations is Philadelphia International Aiport (ICAO: PHL) [1]
The Delaware Valley is serviced by several interstates including the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Interstate 95, the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike.
The Delaware Valley is extensively served by both the national rail company Amtrak and the Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. SEPTA commuter rail extends to Marus Hook, DE and Trenton, NJ. Southern New Jersey is also served by the Delaware River Port Authority's PATCO Hi-Speedline which is a hybrid subway and above-ground system.
Taxis can be hailed in the major cities in the Delaware Valley including Philadelphia and Wilmington. For those adventurous enough to drive in these two large, car-congested cities, parking is scarce and roads can be hectic. Defensive driving is one's best bet in Philadelphia and Wilmington, as drivers are known to be both vocal and ruthless.
In Philadelphia, two subway lines and a subway-surface line cover the city. The Broad Street Line runs north-south and the Market-Frankford Line runs east-west. The subway-surface line parallels the MFL and makes stops at smaller stations than the subway of the same direction.
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Categories: Articles needing attention | Outline articles
   | Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission - DVRPC - Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission |
| | Delaware River Basin Commission - Delaware River Basin Commission's Home Page |
| | Delaware Riverkeeper Network - The Delaware Riverkeeper Network |
| | Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation - Philadelphia - Official Visitor Site - Gophila.com: Things To Do, Events, Hotels, Restaurants and more |
| | 2003 American Community Survey: Philadelphia, PA-NJ PMSA - ACS: 2003 ACS Tabular Profile for Philadelphia, PA--NJ PMSA -- Table 1 |
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