July 17, 2006

philly vs. pittsburgh populations

Okay, ask anyone which two cities have the largest populations in Pennsylvania and I'm betting that no one will struggle to blurt out Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Now, I'll preface this by saying that I haven't really stumbled on anything that I found interesting enough to post in the past several weeks (my apologies) but this really surprised me.

The two most populous cities in Pennslyvania, each with at least three major sports franchises (Pittsburgh - baseball, football and hockey; Philadelphia - baseball, football, hockey and basketball) and TONS of history (Pittsburgh being more industrial revolution while Philadelphia is more THE revolution) are no where near each other in population size.

I knew that Pittsburgh was smaller ... and I seem to recall it being quite a bit smaller but not a scant 22% of Philadelphia's population! While Philadelphia boasts a population of 1.45 million people, Pittsburgh is only about 325,000 ... that's only about three times the size of Allentown.

Am I the only one that didn't realize how much smaller Pittsburgh is compared to Philadelphia?

Posted by languorous at July 17, 2006 10:53 AM
Comments

Just don't mention that to anyone from Pittsburgh... They know it and seem to have an inferiority complex.... this comes into play on any given weekend in State College where people from both cities meet on (almost) middle (geographically speaking) middle ground. There is some weird competitive thing that goes on. The only thing that I have to say on the subject is that "pop" will never be a noun meaning a carbonated beverage. The correct term will always be soda.

Posted by: lindsay at July 19, 2006 02:40 PM

Haha, that's funny and I never would have expected a mid-state rivalry between the two east and west powerhouse cities. I will never use "pop" to refer to soda either ... I just don't get where that came from or how it remains acceptable in parts of this country.

Posted by: languorous at July 20, 2006 01:37 PM

hahaha yeah they are ENTIRELY different cities as far as Im concerned, in the small amount of time I have actually spent in either. Id have to give Pittsburgh the edge though, I mean the Steelers have 5 rings, and the Eagles????? :-) Seriously, what weighs in more, the actual revolution or the industrial revolution? Neither city has done a whole lot since. But then again, what can Allentown do for ya?

Posted by: Jon at July 20, 2006 04:38 PM