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Pennsylvania Counties
 Click Image to Enlarge Pennsylvania CountiesThere are sixty-seven counties of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the United States of America. The city of Philadelphia is coterminous with Philadelphia County, and governmental functions have been consolidated since 1854. |
Berks County, PennsylvaniaBerks County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education
Etymology - Origin of County NameNamed after William Penn's family home of Reading, Berkshire, England, a large town in England, located at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, midway between London and Swindon off the M4 motorway. It is one of the contenders for the title of the largest town in England, and is the largest settlement in the Home Counties in terms of population. Demographics:County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts County HistoryCreated on March 11, 1752, from parts
of Philadelphia, Chester, and Lancaster Counties, and was named for Berkshire in
England. Reading, the county seat, was named for Berkshire's county town. It was
incorporated as a borough on September 12, 1783 and as a city on March 16, 1847. GeographyAccording to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 866 square miles (2,242 kmē). 859 square
miles (2,224 kmē) of it is land and 7 square miles (18 kmē) of it (0.78%) is water. Most of the county is drained by
the Schuylkill River, but an area in the northeast is drained by the Lehigh River via the Little Lehigh Creek and
areas are drained by the Susquehanna River via the Swatara Creek in the northwest and the Conestoga River (which
starts in Berks County between Morgantown and Elverson) in the extreme south. Neighboring Counties:
Cities and Towns:
County Resources:Enter County Resources and Information Here |
County Resources
The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define
the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local.
And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions,
reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"
But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history. Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally." |
