Northampton County is a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

in the Commonwealth of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 312,951. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US ...

is Easton. The county was formed in 1752 from parts of Bucks County. Its namesake was

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It ...

, England. The county seat of Easton was named for the country house

Easton Neston Easton Neston is situated in south Northamptonshire, England. Though the village of Easton Neston which was inhabited until around 1500 is now gone, the parish retains the name. At the 2011 Census the population of the civil parish remained le ...

in that shire. Northampton County and Lehigh County to its west combine to form the eastern Pennsylvania region known as the Lehigh Valley, and both counties are included in the

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

media market, the nation's fourth largest media market. Lehigh County, with a population of 374,557 of the 2020 U.S. census, is the more highly populated of the two counties. Northampton County is industrially oriented, producing

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel (aggregate) together. Cement mixe ...

and other industrial products. It was a center for global cement production with the world's then-largest cement producer

Atlas Portland Cement Company The Atlas Portland Cement Company, based in Northampton, Pennsylvania, was one of the largest cement companies of the world. Founded in Northampton in 1895, Atlas operated there until 1982 when it was bought out. It manufactured Portland cement, ...

operating in the county for nearly a century from 1895 until 1982.

Bethlehem Steel The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For most of the 20th century, it was one of the world's largest steel producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its succ ...

, one of the world's largest manufacturers of

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistan ...

throughout the 20th century, was located in the county prior to its dissolution in 2003. The

Lehigh River The Lehigh River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Delaware River in eastern Pennsylvania. The river flows in a generally southward pat ...

, a tributary of the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, before ...

, flows through Northampton County. The county borders Carbon County and

the Poconos The Pocono Mountains, commonly referred to as the Poconos , are a geographical, geological, and cultural region in Northeastern Pennsylvania. They overlook the Delaware River and Delaware Water Gap to the east, Lake Wallenpaupack to the north, Wy ...

to the north, Lehigh County to the west, Bucks County, and the

Delaware Valley The Delaware Valley is a metropolitan region on the East Coast of the United States that comprises and surrounds Philadelphia, the sixth most populous city in the nation and 68th largest city in the world as of 2020. The toponym Delaware Val ...

to the south, and the Delaware River, which divides Pennsylvania and

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

, to the east.

Geography

According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (2.0%) is water. The climate is humid continental (mostly ''Dfa'' with a little ''Dfb'' in higher northern areas) and the hardiness zones are 6b and 6a. Average monthly temperatures in downtown Bethlehem average from 29.1 °F in January to 74.1 °F in July, while in Wind Gap they average from 27.0 °F in January to 71.7 °F in July.

Adjacent counties

Monroe County Monroe County may refer to seventeen counties in the United States, all named for James Monroe: *Monroe County, Alabama * Monroe County, Arkansas * Monroe County, Florida *Monroe County, Georgia * Monroe County, Illinois * Monroe County, Indi ...

(north) * Warren County, New Jersey (east) * Bucks County (south) * Lehigh County (west) * Carbon County (northwest)

National protected areas

* Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (part) * Middle Delaware National Scenic River (part)

Demographics

As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 312,951, reflecting growth of 5.1% over 2010.As of the 2010 census, the county was 81.0% White Non-Hispanic, 5.0% Black or African American, 0.2% Native American or Alaskan Native, 2.4% Asian, 0.0% Native Hawaiian, 2.2% were two or more races, and 3.8% were some other race. 10.5% of the population were of Hispanic or Latino ancestry.

2020 Census

Government

Northampton is one of the seven counties in Pennsylvania which has adopted a

home rule Home rule is government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governance wi ...

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the re ...

. Voters elect an Executive, a nine-person Council, a Controller, and a District Attorney. The Executive, Controller and District Attorney are elected at large by all voters in the County. Five members of the council are also elected at large. The other four members of the council are elected from

single-member districts A single-member district is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder. It contrasts with a multi-member district, which is represented by multiple officeholders. Single-member districts are also sometimes called single-winner v ...

. This weighted structure of government favors the majority of voters, but it does allow for representation of minority groups, if they live within a compact voting district. The Row Officers are nominated by the county executive and approved by county council.

Elected officials

The following currently serve as elected officials in Northampton County government offices: County Executive *Lamont McClure, Democrat County Council Democrats *Ronald R. Heckman *Lori Vargo Heffner *Kevin Lott *Kerry L. Myers *Tara M. Zrinski Republicans *John Brown *John Cusick *Tom Giovanni *John Goffredo Clerk of Courts *Leigh Ann Fisher, Democrat County Controller *Richard Szulborski, Democrat District Attorney *Terry Houck, Democrat Prothonotary *Holly Ruggiero, Democrat Register of Wills *Gina Gibbs, Democrat

Politics

As of November 7, 2022 there were 225,050 registered voters in Northampton County * Democratic: 99,453 (44.19%) * Republican: 81,711 (36.31%) * No affiliation: 32,461 (14.42%) * Other parties: 11,425 (5.08%) In recent decades, Northampton has been identified as one of Pennsylvania's "swing counties," with statewide winners carrying it in most cases; since 1952, it has gone to the statewide winner in the presidential election. All five statewide winners carried it in November 2004 and all four statewide Democratic candidates carried it in November 2008, with District Attorney John Morganelli doing well there despite losing statewide to incumbent Attorney General Tom Corbett. The Democratic Party has been dominant most of the time in county-level politics in recent decades. In 2014, John Brown bucked that trend when he became the only Republican in the 21st Century to be elected Northampton County executive, a harbinger of Donald Trump winning the county and the state at the presidential level in 2016. Lamont McClure retook the county executive position for the Democrats in 2018; Joe Biden won Northampton County and Pennsylvania in 2020.

Voting machine problems

Municipal elections were held across Pennsylvania in November 2019, and results in Northampton County were plagued with problems caused by newly purchased machines, The ExpressVoteXL, sold by the manufacturer Election Systems & Software (ES&S) as a luxury one-stop voting system. According to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and other publications, it was a few minutes after the polls closed on Election Day when panic began to spread through the Northampton county election offices. Vote totals in one judge’s race showed one candidate, Abe Kassis, a Democrat, had just 164 votes out of 55,000 ballots across more than 100 precincts. Some machines reported zero votes for him. The voting system, used in numerous Pennsylvania jurisdictions, combines a touch screen with a paper ballot backup. County officials determined the results by counting the paper ballots, which showed Mr. Kassis had won by 1,054 votes. Unofficial results were announced at 6AM on November 6. The election results were certified following a canvass and audit. No challenges to the election results were filed.

County executives

County Council members

*Lori Vargo Heffner, President, Democrat, at large *John A. Brown, Republican, at large *John P. Goffredo, Republican, at large *Ronald R. Heckman, Democrat, at large *Tara Zrinski, Democrat, at large *Kevin Lott, Democrat, district 1 *Kerry Myers, Vice President, Democrat, district 2 *John Cusick, Republican, district 3 *Tom Giovanni, Republican, district 4

State representatives

* Justin Simmons, Republican, 131st district * Steve Samuelson, Democrat, 135th district * Robert L. Freeman, Democrat, 136th district * Joe Emrick, Republican, 137th district * Ann Flood, Republican, 138th district *

Zach Mako Zach Mako (born December 17, 1988) is an American politician who has served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from the 183rd district since 2017. References 1988 births Living people Republican Party members of the Pennsylva ...

, Republican, 183rd district

State senators

* Lisa Boscola, Democrat, 18th district * Mario M. Scavello, Republican, 40th district

United States House of Representatives

Susan Wild Susan Wild (née Ellis; born June 7, 1957) is an American attorney and politician from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. A Democrat, she is a member of the United States House of Representatives from . The district is in the heart of the Lehig ...

, Democrat, 7th district

United States Senate

* Pat Toomey, Republican * Bob Casey, Democrat

Education

Colleges and universities

* Lafayette College, Easton * Lehigh University,

Bethlehem Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital ...

Moravian University Moravian University is a private university in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The institution traces its founding to 1742 by Moravians, descendants of followers of the Bohemian Reformation under John Amos Comenius. Founded in 1742, Moravian Universi ...

, Bethlehem * Northampton County Area Community College, Bethlehem Township * Respect Graduate School, Bethlehem

Public school districts

Bangor Area School District The Bangor Area School District is a midsized, public school district located in Northampton County, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. It covers approximately , serving the Boroughs of Bangor, East Bangor, Po ...

Bangor Area High School Bangor Area High School is a four-year public high school located in Bangor, Pennsylvania in Northampton County, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. It is the only high school in the Bangor Area School District. ...

, Bangor Bethlehem Area School District * Freedom High School, Bethlehem Township * Liberty High School,

Catasauqua Area School District Catasauqua Area School District is a school district spanning portions of two counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. In Lehigh County, it covers the boroughs of Catasauqua and Hanover Township. In Northampton County ...

Catasauqua High School Catasauqua High School is a public high school serving grades 9 through 12 in Northampton, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. As of 2021-22, the school had 498 students, according to National Center for Education St ...

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England ...

Easton Area School District Easton Area School District is an urban, suburban, and rural public school district located in Northampton County in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. It serves the city of Easton, as well as Forks, Palmer, and portions of L ...

Easton Area High School } Easton Area High School is a four-year public high school located in Easton, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley area of eastern Pennsylvania. It is part of the Easton Area School District. As of the 2020-21 school year, Easton Area High School ...

, Easton

Nazareth Area School District Nazareth Area School District is a public school district located in Northampton County, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. It serves the boroughs of Nazareth, Stockertown, and Tatamy, and the townships of B ...

* Nazareth Area High School, Nazareth

Northampton Area School District Northampton Area School District is a public school district located in Northampton County, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. Students in grades nine through 12 attend Northampton Area High School in Northamp ...

Northampton Area High School Northampton Area High School is a public high school in the Northampton Area School District and located in Northampton, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley metropolitan area of eastern Pennsylvania. As of the 2021–22 school year, the school had ...

Pen Argyl Area School District Pen Argyl Area School District is a public school district located in Northampton County, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. It serves the boroughs of Pen Argyl and Wind Gap and Plainfield Township. As of the ...

* Pen Argyl Area High School, Pen Argyl

Saucon Valley School District Saucon Valley School District is a midsized suburban public school district located in Northampton County, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. It serves the borough of Hellertown and Lower Saucon Township. Sau ...

Saucon Valley High School Saucon Valley High School is a four-year public high school in Hellertown, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. It is located at 2100 Polk Valley Road in Hellertown in Northampton County. It is the only high schoo ...

, Hellertown Wilson Area School District *

Wilson Area High School Wilson Area High School is a four-year public high school located in Easton, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. It is the only high school in the Wilson Area School District. The high school supports the residen ...

, Easton

Public charter schools

* Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts, Bethlehem

Private high schools

* Bethlehem Catholic High School, Bethlehem * Moravian Academy, Bethlehem * Notre Dame High School, Easton

Transportation

Air transportation

Air transport to and from Northampton County is available through Lehigh Valley International Airport in Hanover Township, which is locatedapproximately northwest of

and west-southwest of Easton.

Bus transportation

Public bus service in Northampton County is available through the Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority, known as LANta. A shuttle bus service, The Bethlehem Loop, also operates in

. NJ Transit provides service from Easton's Centre Square to the Phillipsburg area.

Major highways

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Telecommunications

Northampton County was once served only by the 215 area code from 1947 (when the

North American Numbering Plan The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is a telephone numbering plan for twenty-five regions in twenty countries, primarily in North America and the Caribbean. This group is historically known as World Zone 1 and has the international calling ...

of the

Bell System The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America for over one hundr ...

went into effect) until 1994. With the county's growing population, however, Northampton County was afforded area code 610 in 1994. Today, Northampton County is covered by 610 except for the Portland exchange which uses

570 __NOTOC__ Year 570 (Roman numerals, DLXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The Denomination (currency), denomination 570 for this year has been used since the early medieval ...

. An overlay area code, 484, was added to the 610 service area in 1999. A plan to introduce area code 835 as an additional overlay was rescinded in 2001.

Recreation

There are two Pennsylvania state parks in Northampton County: * Delaware Canal State Park follows the course of the old Delaware Canal along the

from Easton in Northampton County to

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city, Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Glouces ...

in Bucks County. * Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center

Communities

7th and Main Street intersection in Tatamy PA during sundown

Under Pennsylvania law, there are four types of incorporated municipalities: cities,

boroughs A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle A ...

, townships, and two

towns A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an or ...

. The following cities, boroughs and townships are located in Northampton County:

Cities

(partly in Lehigh County) * Easton (county seat)

Boroughs

* Bangor *

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

Chapman Chapman may refer to: Businesses * Chapman Entertainment, a former British television production company * Chapman Guitars, a guitar company established in 2009 by Rob Chapman * Chapman's, a Canadian ice cream and ice water products manufacture ...

* East Bangor * Freemansburg * Glendon * Hellertown * Nazareth * North Catasauqua *

* Pen Argyl * Portland * Roseto * Stockertown * Tatamy * Walnutport * West Easton *

Wilson Wilson may refer to: People *Wilson (name) ** List of people with given name Wilson ** List of people with surname Wilson * Wilson (footballer, 1927–1998), Brazilian manager and defender * Wilson (footballer, born 1984), full name Wilson R ...

* Wind Gap

Townships

Allen Allen, Allen's or Allens may refer to: Buildings * Allen Arena, an indoor arena at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee * Allen Center, a skyscraper complex in downtown Houston, Texas * Allen Fieldhouse, an indoor sports arena on the Univer ...

* Bethlehem Township * Bushkill * East Allen *

Forks In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from la, furca 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods eit ...

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

* Lehigh * Lower Mount Bethel * Lower Nazareth * Lower Saucon *

Moore Moore may refer to: People * Moore (surname) ** List of people with surname Moore * Moore Crosthwaite (1907–1989), a British diplomat and ambassador * Moore Disney (1765–1846), a senior officer in the British Army * Moore Powell (died c. 1 ...

* Palmer * Plainfield * Upper Mount Bethel *

Upper Nazareth Nof HaGalil ( he, נוֹף הַגָּלִיל, lit. ''View of Galilee''; ar, نوف هچليل) is a city in the Northern District of Israel with a population of . Nof HaGalil was founded in 1957 as Nazareth Illit ( he, נָצְרַת עִלִ� ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

* Williams

Census-designated places

Census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, suc ...

s are unincorporated communities designated by the

for the purposes of compiling demographic data. They are not actual jurisdictions under Pennsylvania law. * Ackermanville *

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

* Cherryville * Chestnut Hill * Eastlawn Gardens * Martins Creek * Middletown * Morgan Hill * Old Orchard * Palmer Heights * Raubsville

Other unincorporated places

* Beersville * Berlinsville * Butztown * Chickentown * Christian Springs * Colesville * Danielsville * Emanuelsville * Flicksville * Franks Corner * Hanoverville * Hollo * Katellen * Klecknersville * Moorestown * Mount Bethel * Newburg * Schoenersville * Seidersville * Slateford * Treichlers * Wassergass * Zucksville

Population ranking

The population ranking of the following table is based on the 2010 census of Northampton County. † ''county seat''

Notable people

References

External links

Official websiteNorthampton County news
at Lehigh Valley Live

" ''The Morning Call'', August 18, 2006 {{coord, 40.75, -75.31, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-PA_source:UScensus1990 1752 establishments in Pennsylvania Lehigh Valley Populated places established in 1752