Delaware Valley
The Delaware Valley is the valley through which the Delaware River flows. By extension, this toponym is commonly used to refer to Greater Philadelphia or the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The region includes a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) and broader combined statistical area (CSA) that are composed of counties located in Southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, Delaware, and the northern Eastern Shore of Maryland. As of the 2010 Census, the MSA has a population of over 6 million, while the CSA has a population of over 7.1 million. 2016 Census Bureau estimates rank the Delaware Valley CSA as the ninth -largest CSA in the United States. Philadelphia is by far the largest municipality in the Delaware Valley and serves as the region's major commercial, cultural, and industrial center. Other municipalities in the MSA include Camden, New Jersey and Wilmington, Delaware, while the larger CSA also includes municipalities such as Reading, Pennsylvania and Atlantic City, New Jersey. The Delaware Valley Metropolitan Area is located in the Northeastern United States and forms part of a larger urbanized area known as the Northeast megalopolis. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Philadelphia metropolitan area has a gross domestic product of $ 431 billion, the ninth-largest among U.S. metropolitan areas. The Delaware Valley has been influential in American history and industry. The area has hosted many people and sites significant to American culture, history, and politics. Philadelphia is sometimes known as "The Birthplace of America", as both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were drafted and signed in Philadelphia. The Delaware Valley was home to many other instrumental moments in the American Revolution, and Philadelphia served as the capital of the United States for much of the 18th century. Today, the area is home to a number of nationally known  universities, such as the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, Villanova University, Saint Joseph's University, Temple University, Rutgers University-Camden, La Salle University and University of Delaware. Geography. In geology and geography, a strict sense of the term would incorporate the Delaware River's main drainage basin, and so encompass major tributaries such as the Schuylkill River and Lehigh River and their valleys or sub-basins. These extensions also apply culturally with decreasing degree gradually decreased by proximal distance because the ease of land travel enables a great deal of daily interaction; for example, the large number of commuters who  travel daily 45–90 minutes creates cultural blends and parallel values. Definitions of the metropolitan area. In the course of their work, U.S. government agencies have reached various definitions of the Delaware Valley and the Greater Philadelphia Area. 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 CSAs (combined statistical areas), reflecting commuting patterns. Neither is a formal administrative division. Metropolitan statistical area (MSA). Philadelphia is located in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical  Area, which includes: Combined statistical area (CSA). The Philadelphia-Reading-Camden Combined Statistical Area includes Counties not in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Some counties to the north of the Philadelphia MSA and CSA, such as Hunterdon County, New Jersey, lie partly in the Delaware Valley as a geographic concept, that is, the drainage basin of the Delaware River. Local businesses and the Delaware Valley Regional High School carry the name. However, Hunterdon County does not belong to the Philadelphia CSA, but rather to the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), part of the larger New  York-Newark Combined Statistical Area (CSA). Regional Planning Commission. The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) serves all the counties of the MSA above, except for the counties in the Wilmington, DE-MD-NJ Metropolitan Division. However the DVRPC does include, additionally, Mercer County, New Jersey, which the OMB classifies as the Trenton-Princeton, NJ MSA, part of the larger New York-Newark CSA. Population and economy. According to 2016 estimates from the United States Census Bureau, the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area ranks as the seventh-largest MSA in the United States with 6,070,500 people. According to the  Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington MSA had a gross domestic product of $431 billion, the ninth-largest among U.S. metropolitan areas. 2016 Census Bureau estimates rank the Philadelphia-Reading-Camden Combined Statistical Area as the ninth-largest CSA in the United States, with 7,179,357 people. The Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area's population of roughly 6 million people is comparable to that of countries such as Lebanon, Denmark, and Nicaragua. The MSA's nominal gross domestic product of $431 billion is comparable to countries such as Belgium, Iran, and Thailand. The MSA also ranks  as the second most populous in the Northeastern United States after the New York metropolitan area, while the CSA is third-largest in the Northeast after the New York and Boston metropolitan areas. The Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area, which is part of Northeast Megalopolis but is considered part of the Southeastern United States under Census Bureau definitions, is also larger than the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Philadelphia itself is the sixth-most populous city in the United States and the third-most populous U.S. city east of the Mississippi River, after New York City and Chicago. Philadelphia's media market ranks  fourth, behind New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, in Nielsen Media Market size rankings. Such educational institutions as Delaware Valley Regional High School in Alexandria Township and Delaware Valley College in Doylestown Township are named after the region. Likewise, Frenchtown's now defunct newspaper "The Delaware Valley News" was another example of the usage. Subregions. Sixteen counties in four states constitute the Philadelphia-Reading-Camden Combined Statistical Area. The five Pennsylvania counties in the MSA are collectively known as Southeastern Pennsylvania, and the four suburban counties from this region are sometimes called the "collar counties." Aside from 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 generally not considered to be part of Southeastern Pennsylvania and is sometimes assigned to South Central Pennsylvania. The seven New Jersey counties in the CSA form South Jersey, although Ocean County, which is part of the New York CSA, is also sometimes considered to be part of South Jersey. Atlantic County, Cape May County, and Cumberland County each form their own respective metropolitan statistical areas. Atlantic City, Cape  May County, 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 from 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. Although Mercer County in Central Jersey is often considered part of the Delaware Valley from a cultural perspective, it is classified as part of New York's CSA by the OMB. Mercer County and three counties in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, Carbon County, Lehigh County and Northampton County, are part of the Philadelphia media market. Caroline County, Maryland is also part of the Philadelphia media market, and other counties within the Philadelphia media market include Monroe County, Pennsylvania, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and Ocean County, New Jersey. List of largest  municipalities. These municipalities are all within the Philadelphia-Reading-Camden Combined Statistical Area. Statistical history. When metropolitan areas were originally defined in 1950, most of the area now in the Delaware Valley was split between four metropolitan areas, or "standard metropolitan areas," as they were called. The Philadelphia SMA comprised Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties in Pennsylvania and Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties in New Jersey. The Wilmington SMA comprised New Castle County in Delaware and Salem County in New Jersey, while Berks County was the Reading SMA and Atlantic County was the Atlantic City SMA. In 1960 , Cecil County was added to what was now the Wilmington Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 1980, Cumberland County was defined as the Vineland-Millville-Bridgeton SMSA. In 1990, the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Vineland-Millville-Bridgeton SMSAs were merged with the Trenton SMSA as the Philadelphia-Wilmington-Trenton Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the same time, Cape May County was added to the Atlantic City SMSA. "Philadelphia-Wilmington-Trenton" became obsolete one census later, with Trenton moving to the New York-Newark-Bridgeport CSA, and the Philadelphia-Wilmington-Vineland CSA consisting only of the Philadelphia-Wilmington-Camden MSA and the Vineland -Millville-Bridgeton MSA. Kent County became the Dover MSA in 2000, and it and Atlantic City were added to the Philadelphia CSA in 2010, for a total of six MSA components; as a result of new 2010 definitions based on a threshold of 15% labor interchange between MSAs, two more MSAs were added to the CSA, for a total of six. With Ocean City, NJ, and Reading, PA, the CSA is now known as Philadelphia-Reading-Camden. Characteristics. The Delaware Valley is home to extensive populations of Irish Americans, German Americans, English Americans, Ukrainian Americans, Italian Americans, Swedish-Americans (which  have a museum located at FDR Park in South Philadelphia), Polish Americans, Scottish Americans, Ulster Scot or "Scotch-Irish" Americans, Welsh Americans, Jewish Americans, Greek Americans, African Americans, Chinese Americans, Indian Americans, Russian Americans, Korean Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Armenian Americans, Arab Americans, Turkish Americans, Pakistani Americans, Israeli Americans, various African immigrant groups, particularly from West African; various West Indian American groups, including Jamaican Americans; and Hispanic Americans. Within the Hispanic population, the vast majority are Puerto Ricans, though other significant groups include Dominican Americans and Mexican Americans, as well as significant populations from Central America. There is even a small  Native American community known as "Lenapehoking" for Lenni-Lenape Indians of West Philadelphia. Philadelphia's suburbs contain a high concentration of malls, the two largest of which have at least of office space, and at least of retail. These are the King of Prussia mall in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, which is the largest in the United States (leasable sq. feet of retail space), and the Cherry Hill Mall in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, which was 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 strong opposition by residents and political officials, many acres of land have been preserved throughout the Delaware Valley. Older townships and large boroughs such as Cheltenham, Norristown, Jenkintown, Upper Darby and West Chester retain distinct community identities while engulfed in suburbia. The fastest-growing counties are Chester, Montgomery, Bucks, and Gloucester. Upper Darby, in Delaware County is the largest township in the United States. Sometimes Reading is included in the Delaware Valley Metro Area. Mid-Atlantic American English and its subset, Philadelphia English, are two common dialects  of American English in Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley. Climate. 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".) Snow amounts may  vary widely year-to-year and normally do vary widely within the Delaware Valley. The region has only two ski areas: Bear Creek Ski and Recreation Area in eastern Berks County and Spring Mountain Adventures in central Montgomery County. Global warming endangers skiing at the latter, where the climate narrowly remains "Dfa" and the owners have diversified to year-round activities. Using the -3 °C January isotherm as a boundary, all of the Delaware Valley is humid subtropical except for portions of Berks County and higher areas of northern Chester County. The warm-summer humid continental climate ("Dfb") only  exists in higher areas of Berks where all monthly temperatures average below 22 °C. The hardiness zone in the region ranges from 6a in higher areas of Berks to 8a in parts of 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 areas considered "Cfa" by Köppen are oceanic ("Do") in the Trewartha system. Colonial history. 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. 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. Transportation. 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. Major highways. Pennsylvania New Jersey Delaware Maryland Delaware River Bridges Airports. Major: Secondary: Ferry. The Cape May–Lewes Ferry crosses the mouth of the Delaware Bay between Cape May County, NJ and Sussex County, DE. U.S. Route 9 uses this ferry. Culture. Sports teams. Listing of the professional sports teams in the Delaware Valley Media. The two main newspapers are The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, owned by the Philadelphia Media Network. Local television channels include KYW-TV  3 (CBS), WPVI 6 (ABC), WCAU 10 (NBC), WHYY-TV 12 (PBS), WPHL-TV 17 (MyNetworkTV), WTXF 29 (FOX), WPSG 57 (CW), and WPPX 61 (Ion). Radio stations serving the area include: WRTI, WIOQ, WDAS (AM), and WTEL. Politics. Philadelphia itself 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. 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. 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. 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. Congressional districts. The following congressional districts of the United States House of Representatives are located partly or entirely in the Delaware Valley CSA. "Italicized" counties are not part  of the CSA. Additionally, the Delaware Valley is represented in the United States Senate by the eight Senators from Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.