Pennsylvania, USA

Pennsylvania is a state in the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern and Appalachian regions of the United States, bordered by New York to the north, New Jersey to the east, Delaware and Maryland to the southeast and south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west and Lake Erie to the northwest. Harrisburg is the state capital, while Philadelphia is the largest city; Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, Reading, Scranton and Bethlehem are other major population centers. Pennsylvania’s landscape ranges from the Atlantic Coastal Plain around Philadelphia through the rolling Piedmont and Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians to the Allegheny Plateau in the west. The state is traversed by major waterways including the Delaware, Susquehanna, Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers, while Lake Erie provides its only Great Lakes shoreline. Pennsylvania is divided into 67 counties, covers approximately 44,743 square miles of land and had 13,002,700 residents in the 2020 census. One of the original thirteen colonies, Pennsylvania played a central role in the founding of the United States and became the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution in 1787.