This is a list of towns and boroughs in Pennsylvania, a U.S. state. There are currently 956 municipalities classified as boroughs and 1 classified as a town in Pennsylvania. Unlike other forms of municipalities in Pennsylvania, boroughs and towns are not classified according to population.
Boroughs designated in the table below with a dagger (†) are home rule municipalities and are also found in the List of Pennsylvania municipalities and counties with home rule charters, optional charters, or optional plans. The state classifies these as boroughs for certain purposes, even though they do not operate under the Borough Code in Pennsylvania Law and may not contain the word "Borough" in their corporate names. Home rule municipalities that are styled as towns but classified as townships are not included in this list.
In addition, two boroughs, Quakertown and Weatherly, have adopted optional plans, which allow them to change their form of local government but do not significantly change those boroughs' relationships with the state.
| Name | County |
|---|---|
| Bloomsburg | Columbia |
† Home rule municipality
In the United States, a county or county equivalent is an administrative or political subdivision of a state that consists of a geographic region with specific boundaries and usually some level of governmental authority. The term "county" is used in 48 states, while Louisiana and Alaska have functionally equivalent subdivisions called parishes and boroughs, respectively. The specific governmental powers of counties vary widely between the states, with many providing some level of services to civil townships, municipalities, and unincorporated areas. Certain municipalities are in multiple counties; New York City is uniquely partitioned into five counties, referred to at the city government level as boroughs. Some municipalities have consolidated with their county government to form consolidated city-counties, or have been legally separated from counties altogether to form independent cities. Conversely, those counties in Connecticut, Rhode Island, eight of Massachusetts's 14 counties, and Alaska's Unorganized Borough have no government power, existing only as geographic distinctions.
State College is a home rule municipality in Centre County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is a college town, dominated economically, culturally, and demographically by the presence of the University Park campus of Penn State University.
Hermitage is a city in western Mercer County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 16,230 at the 2020 census, making it the largest city in Mercer County. Hermitage is located about 15 miles (24 km) northeast of Youngstown, about 65 miles (105 km) southeast of Cleveland and about 60 miles (97 km) northwest of Pittsburgh. It is part of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan area.
The administrative divisions of New York are the various units of government that provide local services in the U.S. State of New York. The state is divided into boroughs, counties, cities, towns, and villages. They are municipal corporations, chartered (created) by the New York State Legislature, as under the New York State Constitution the only body that can create governmental units is the state. All of them have their own governments, sometimes with no paid employees, that provide local services. Centers of population that are not incorporated and have no government or local services are designated hamlets. Whether a municipality is defined as a borough, city, town, or village is determined not by population or land area, but rather on the form of government selected by the residents and approved by the New York State Legislature. Each type of local government is granted specific home rule powers by the New York State Constitution. There are still occasional changes as a village becomes a city, or a village dissolves, each of which requires legislative action. New York also has various corporate entities that provide local services and have their own administrative structures (governments), such as school and fire districts. These are not found in all counties.
A township in some states of the United States is a small geographic area.
A borough, in the context of local government in the U.S. state of New Jersey, refers to one of five types and one of eleven forms of municipal government.
Most U.S. states and territories have at least two tiers of local government: counties and municipalities. Louisiana uses the term parish and Alaska uses the term borough for what the U.S. Census Bureau terms county equivalents in those states. Civil townships or towns are used as subdivisions of a county in 20 states, mostly in the Northeast and Midwest.
The town is the basic unit of local government and local division of state authority in the six New England states. Most other U.S. states lack a direct counterpart to the New England town. New England towns overlay the entire area of a state, similar to civil townships in other states where they exist, but they are fully functioning municipal corporations, possessing powers similar to cities and counties in other states. New Jersey's system of equally powerful townships, boroughs, towns, and cities is the system which is most similar to that of New England. New England towns are often governed by a town meeting legislative body. The great majority of municipal corporations in New England are based on the town model; there, statutory forms based on the concept of a compact populated place are uncommon, though elsewhere in the U.S. they are prevalent. County government in New England states is typically weak at best, and in some states nonexistent. Connecticut, for example, has no county governments, nor does Rhode Island. Both of those states retain counties only as geographic subdivisions with no governmental authority, while Massachusetts has abolished eight of fourteen county governments so far. Counties serve mostly as dividing lines for the states' judicial systems and some other state services in the southern New England states, while providing varying services in the more sparsely populated three northern New England states.
In the United States Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a borough is a self-governing municipal entity, equivalent to a town in most jurisdictions, usually smaller than a city, but with a similar population density in its residential areas. Sometimes thought of as "junior cities", boroughs generally have fewer powers and responsibilities than full-fledged cities.
A township, under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is the lowest level of municipal incorporation of government. All of Pennsylvania's communities outside of incorporated cities, boroughs, and one town have been incorporated into individual townships that serve as the legal entities providing local self-government functions.
The state of Michigan is largely divided in the same way as many other U.S. states, but is distinct in its usage of charter townships. Michigan ranks 13th among the fifty states in terms of the number of local governmental entities.
In the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a home rule municipality is one incorporated under its own unique charter, created pursuant to the state's home rule and optional plans law and approved by referendum. "Local governments without home rule can only act where specifically authorized by state law; home rule municipalities can act anywhere except where they are specifically limited by state law". Although many such municipalities have retained the word "Township" or "Borough" in their official names, the Pennsylvania Township and Borough Codes no longer apply to them. All three types of municipalities may become a home rule municipality.
Local government in New Jersey is composed of counties and municipalities. Local jurisdictions in New Jersey differ from those in some other states because every square foot of the state is part of exactly one municipality; each of the 564 municipalities is in exactly one county; and each of the 21 counties has more than one municipality. New Jersey has no independent cities, or consolidated city-counties.
Local government in Pennsylvania is government below the state level in Pennsylvania. There are six types of local governments listed in the Pennsylvania Constitution: county, township, borough, town, city, and school district. All of Pennsylvania is included in one of the state's 67 counties, which are in total subdivided into 2,560 municipalities. There are currently no independent cities or unincorporated territories within Pennsylvania. There is only one incorporated town in Pennsylvania, Bloomsburg.
