The Delaware Valley, sometimes referred to as Greater Philadelphia or the Philadelphia metropolitan area, is a metropolitan region in the Northeast United States that centers around Philadelphia, the nation's sixth-most populous city, and spans parts of four U.S. states: southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, northern Delaware, and the northern Eastern Shore of Maryland. With a core metropolitan statistical area population of 6.288 million residents and a combined statistical area population of 7.366 million as of the 2020 census, the Delaware Valley is the eighth-largest metropolitan region in the nation and North America, and the 68th-largest metropolitan region in the world.

Quick Facts Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD CSA, Country ...

Delaware Valley Greater Philadelphia Philadelphia metropolitan area Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD CSA
Metropolitan area
Center City Philadelphia (in background) and the Schuylkill River (on left) as seen from South Street Bridge in July 2016
Map of the Lower Delaware Valley metropolitan area with most of the area highlighted in yellow; other parts of the Delaware Valley include Atlantic and Cape May counties in South Jersey, and Dover in northern Delaware
Country	United States
State(s)	- Pennsylvania  - New Jersey  - Delaware  - Maryland
Principal city	Philadelphia
Satellite cities and towns	Camden Wilmington Atlantic City Reading Trenton[lower-alpha 1] Vineland Conshohocken Dover Chester Upper Darby Media Middletown Township Hammonton Pennsauken Township Norristown Doylestown Cherry Hill West Chester Evesham Washington Township Millville Salem Cape May Court House Lower Township The Wildwoods Brigantine Ventnor City Margate City Ocean City Sea Isle City Haverford Bridgeton Coatesville Lower Merion Gloucester Township Downingtown Phoenixville New Castle Pottstown King of Prussia Bensalem Township Burlington City and Burlington Township Middle Township (Cape May County) Mount Holly Newark Hamilton Township (Mays Landing) Woodbury Elkton Cheltenham Township Abington Township Bristol Township Mount Laurel Northampton Township Winslow Township New Hope Falls Township Middletown Township (Bucks County) Egg Harbor Township Galloway Township Pennsville Maurice River Township
Area
• Urban	1,981.4 sq mi (5,131.7 km2)
• Metro	5,118 sq mi (13,256 km2)
Elevation [1][dubious – discuss][2]	0 - 1,080 ft (0 - 329 m)
Population  (2021 est.)
• Urban	5,441,567 (5th)
• Metro density	1,217.00/sq mi (469.89/km2)
• MSA	6,228,601 (7th)
• CSA	7,366,346 (9th)
	MSA/CSA = 2021, Urban = 2010
GDP [3]
• MSA	$518.5 billion (2022)
Time zone	UTC−05:00 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−04:00 (EST)

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In addition to Philadelphia, other major urban population centers in the Delaware Valley include Reading, Upper Darby Township, and Chester in Pennsylvania; Atlantic City, Camden, Vineland, and Cherry Hill in South Jersey; and Wilmington and Dover in Delaware. The Philadelphia metropolitan area's gross domestic product (GDP) exceeds $518 billion, making it the tenth-largest metropolitan economy in the nation as of 2022.

The Delaware Valley has been influential in the nation's history and economy. The area has been home to many people and sites significant to American culture, history, and politics. Philadelphia is sometimes known as "The Birthplace of America",^[4] since it served as the revolutionary capital during the colonial era, where the Second Continental Congress gathered at Independence Hall to unanimously adopt the Declaration of Independence, authorize the formation of the Continental Army, and appoint George Washington its commander to resist the British. Following the Continental Army's victory, Philadelphia served as the nation's first capital for most of the 18th century until 1800, when construction of Washington, D.C. was completed. In 1789, the U.S. Constitution, the longest-standing body of federal law, was ratified at Independence Hall in Philadelphia in 1789.

The Delaware Valley is one of the nation's leading regions for academia and academic research with a considerable number of globally-known and highly ranked universities, including the University of Pennsylvania, one of eight Ivy League universities in the nation. Other universities and colleges and Philadelphia include Drexel University, Thomas Jefferson University, Rowan University, Villanova University, Saint Joseph's University, Temple University, Rutgers University–Camden, La Salle University, the University of Delaware, Stockton University, and others.^[5] Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley are a biotechnology hub.^[6] As of 2023, metropolitan Philadelphia had entered the ranks of the top five U.S. venture capital centers, facilitated by its relative proximity to the New York metropolitan area and its entrepreneurial and financial ecosystems.^[7] Elsewhere in the Delaware Valley, South Jersey has emerged as an East Coast epicenter for logistics and major warehouses.^[8]

The Delaware Valley is geographically associated and proximate to the Delaware River and its three primary tributaries, the Schuylkill River, Lehigh River, and Brandywine Creek.

U.S. government agencies have reached various definitions of the Delaware Valley and metropolitan Philadelphia. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) defines metropolitan statistical area (MSAs), which are regions with relatively high population densities at their cores and close economic ties throughout their respective areas. MSAs are further combined into combined statistical areas (CSAs), reflecting commuting patterns. Neither is a formal administrative division.

As of the 2020 U.S. census, the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area is the seventh-largest MSA in the nation with 6,245,051 people.^[10] As of 2020, the Philadelphia–Reading–Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD CSA is the nation's ninth-largest combined statistical area with a population of 7,379,700,

The Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area's population of slightly over six million people exceeds the populations of whole nations, including those of Lebanon, Denmark, and Nicaragua.

As of 2021, the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area has a gross domestic product of $477.58 billion, the tenth-largest among the nation's MSAs. The MSA's nominal gross domestic product of $431 billion is comparable to countries, such as Belgium, Iran, and Thailand.^[11] Metropolitan Philadelphia is one of the top five American venture capital hubs, credited to its proximity to the New York metropolitan area and its financial and tech and biotechnology ecosystems.

At least two educational institutions, Delaware Valley Regional High School in Alexandria Township, New Jersey, and Delaware Valley College in Doylestown Township, Pennsylvania, and a now defunct local newspaper, The Delaware Valley News in Frenchtown, New Jersey, are named for the region.

The Philadelphia-Reading-Camden combined statistical area includes sixteen counties in four states. The five Pennsylvania counties in the metropolitan statistical area are collectively known as Southeastern Pennsylvania.^[12] In addition to Philadelphia, major municipalities in Southeastern Pennsylvania include the inner suburbs of Upper Darby Township and Bensalem Township. Berks County, which forms its own MSA and contains the CSA's second largest city, Reading, is occasionally not considered to be part of Southeastern Pennsylvania and is sometimes assigned to South Central Pennsylvania.

The seven New Jersey counties in the CSA are each located in South Jersey,^[13] and include: Atlantic County, Cape May County, and Cumberland County each form their own respective metropolitan statistical areas. Atlantic City, Cape May County, New Jersey, and the southern Jersey Shore, including Margate City, Ventnor City, the Wildwoods, and Sea Isle City, are major tourist destinations for people from inside and outside of the Delaware Valley. Other major municipalities in South Jersey include Cherry Hill and Camden, which is across the Delaware River, east of Philadelphia.

The two counties of Delaware in the CSA constitute a majority of Delaware's land mass and population. Wilmington is the most populous city in Delaware and the fifth-most populous municipality in the Delaware Valley. The lone Maryland county in the Philadelphia-Reading-Camden Combined Statistical Area is part of the region known as the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

The Delaware Valley and several areas bordering up on it, including the Lehigh Valley, are part of the Philadelphia media market, the fourth-largest media market in the nation as of 2023.^[14]

The following municipalities are all within the Philadelphia-Reading-Camden combined statistical area and part of the Delaware Valley:

The Delaware Valley has four distinct seasons with ample precipitation and is divided by the 0 °C (32 °F) January isotherm. Philadelphia and the New Jersey portion of the area, almost all of the Delaware and Maryland portions, most of Delaware County and lower Bucks County, lowland southern Chester County, and some southern and lowland areas of Montgomery County have a humid subtropical climate (Cfa according to the Köppen climate classification.) The remainder of the Delaware Valley has a hot-summer humid continental climate (Dfa.) PRISM Climate Group at Oregon State University

Snow amounts may vary widely year-to-year and normally do vary widely within the Delaware Valley. The region has two ski resorts, Bear Creek Mountain Resort in Longswamp Township, Berks County and Spring Mountain Adventures in central Montgomery County.

Using the -3 °C January isotherm as a boundary, all of the Delaware Valley is humid subtropical. The hardiness zone in the region ranges from 6b in higher areas of Berks and northern Bucks Counties to 8a in Atlantic City and Cape May.

Using the Trewartha climate classification system, which requires eight months to average at least 50 °F for the climate to be considered subtropical, the region only has seven such months, so the area considered Cfa by Köppen is oceanic (Do) in the Trewartha system.

The valley was the territory of the Susquehannock and Lenape, who are recalled in place names throughout the region. The region became part of the Dutch colony of New Netherland after the exploration of Delaware Bay in 1609. The Dutch called the Delaware River the Zuyd Rivier, or South River, and considered the lands along it banks and those of its bay to be the southern flank of its province of New Netherland. In 1638, it began to be settled by Swedes, Forest Finns, Dutch, and Walloons and became the colony of New Sweden, though this was not officially recognized by the Dutch Empire which re-asserted control in 1655. The area was taken by the English in 1664.^[34] The name Delaware comes from Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, who had arrived at Jamestown, Virginia in 1610, just as original settlers were about to abandon it, and thus maintaining the English foothold on the North American continent. In the early 1700s, Huguenot refugees from France by way of Germany and then England began settling in the Delaware River Valley. Specifically, they left their mark in Hunterdon County, New Jersey (Frenchtown) and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.^[35]

Many residents commute to jobs and travel in Philadelphia, Camden, Wilmington, and the surrounding suburbs with the help of expressways, trains, and buses. There are currently no transit connections to Reading, the second largest municipality in the region.

• 215/267/445: The City of Philadelphia and some of its northern suburbs
• 610/484/835: Southeastern Pennsylvania outside Philadelphia, including the western suburbs, the Lehigh Valley, and most of Berks County
• 856: Southwestern New Jersey, including Camden, Cherry Hill, and Vineland
• 609/640: Central and Southeastern New Jersey, including Trenton, Atlantic City and the southern Jersey Shore
• 302: Delaware
• 410/443/667: Eastern half of Maryland, including Cecil County
• 717/223: South Central Pennsylvania, including Western Berks County

Philadelphia is heavily Democratic, having voted for the Democratic candidate in every presidential election since 1936. The surrounding suburban counties are key political areas in Pennsylvania, which itself is an important swing state in federal politics.^[40] South Jersey has consistently voted Democratic at the presidential level in recent years, although the region is slightly more Republican-leaning than North Jersey and has voted for Republicans at the state and local level.^[41] New Castle County's Democratic lean and large share of Delaware's population has tended to make Delaware as a whole vote for Democrats, while the less populous Kent County is more competitive.^[42] Recent well-known political figures from the Greater Philadelphia area include current U.S. President Joe Biden, former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and late former U.S. Senator Arlen Specter.

• Central Delaware Valley AVA
• Delaware Valley Railway
• Northeast megalopolis
• Mid-Atlantic states