Pennsylvania Facts -- National Geographic

Fast Facts

Population:: 12,365,455
Capital:: Harrisburg; 48,540
Area:: 46,055 square miles (119,283 square kilometers)
Per Capita Income:: U.S. $31,663
Date Statehood Achieved:: December 12, 1787

In 1681 William Penn, an English Quaker, received a royal proprietorship to what became Pennsylvania. Almost a century later, his capital, Philadelphia, witnessed the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the framing of the U.S. Constitution. European immigrants, many of them iron- and steelworkers, founded trade unions that evolved into the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). German, Slav, and Italian neighborhoods enliven Pittsburgh today.

Still heavily industrialized, Pennsylvania produces much of the nation's steel, but retail, manufacturing, and other services employ more workers.

ECONOMY

Industry: Machinery, printing and publishing, forest products, metal products
Agriculture: Dairy products, poultry and eggs, mushrooms, cattle, hogs, grains

—Text From National Geographic Atlas of the World, Eighth Edition

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