Philadelphia Guide Notes: Facts and Figures

The “City of Brotherly Love” is a place where history meets modern innovation. Philadelphia facts and figures reflect the city’s growth and cultural development. The city is a major center for education, biomedical advancement and technology and was recently named one of the Top 10 Hottest American Cities of the Future by Business Insider. Take a look at the exciting trends in Philadelphia by the numbers:

• Greater Philadelphia, with more than 6 million people in an 11-county area, extends from Wilmington, Del. (south) to Trenton, N.J. (east) to Lancaster County, Pa. (west).
• The city of Philadelphia — 142 square miles — has 1.5 million residents.
• The second-largest city on the East Coast, Philadelphia is at the center of the Northeast Corridor and within a one-day drive of 40 percent of the U.S. population.
• Philadelphia’s growing economy is one of the most diverse in the United States. Health care, education, technology and service industries such as banking and insurance are its main industries.
• Philadelphia is the largest freshwater port in the USA. There are plenty of new Green developments along the Philadelphia waterfronts including the Race Street Pier and Schuylkill Banks Trail.
• The Philadelphia area is a leading center for education with more than 101 colleges and universities that are home to more than 400,000 college students — making it the second-largest university population in the U.S.
• One out of every six doctors in the country was trained in Philadelphia, and 80 percent of America’s pharmaceutical firms, as well as 80 percent of the world’s major biotech companies, are located within a two-hour drive of the city.
• Philadelphia is the home of Pennsylvania’s tallest building, the Comcast Center, which boasts the world’s largest television screen.
• The city also holds the largest ballroom on the east coast in the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The expanded center opened in 2011 and holds more than 1 million square feet of saleable space.
• The Convention Center is also home of the world-famous Philadelphia Flower Show, held every spring.
• Connected to the Convention Center is Pennsylvania’s largest hotel, the Philadelphia Marriott, with 1,408 rooms.
• Philadelphia is home to 13 Fortune 500 companies.