Pennsylvania: Always the Land of Municipal Governments

In 2023, Pennsylvania had 2,560 municipalities, according to data from the Governor’s Center for Local Government Services.

Sixty-four percent of these boroughs, townships, and cities are rural, and 36 percent are urban.

In rural Pennsylvania, there is one municipal government for every 1,765 residents, and in urban Pennsylvania, there is one municipality for every 11,079 residents.

During the last 78 years, the number of municipalities in Pennsylvania has been remarkably stable. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, during World War II (1942), there were 2,559 municipalities in the commonwealt...