Philadelphia

Philadelphia () is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and its only consolidated city-county, the fifth-most-populous city in the United States, and the core of the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the country. Located in the Northeastern United States at the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, Philadelphia is the economic and cultural center of the . The population of the city was counted at 1,526,006 in and estimated at 1,553,165 in 2013, according to the United States Census Bureau. The four Pennsylvania counties nearest Philadelphia have an estimated total population of 2,510,793, while its Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes parts of four states, is home to more than 6 million people. In 1682, William Penn founded the city to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. During the American Revolution, Philadelphia played an instrumental role as a meeting place for the Founding Fathers of the United States, who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the Constitution in 1787. Philadelphia was one of the nation’s capitals during the Revolutionary War, and the city served as the temporary U.S. capital while Washington, D.C., was under construction. During the 19th century, Philadelphia became a major industrial center and railroad hub that grew from an influx of European immigrants. It became a prime destination for African Americans during the Great Migration and surpassed two million occupants by 1950. Following numerous civil rights protests and riots, the city experienced decades of heavy crime and neared bankruptcy by the 1980s. Revitalization began in the 1990s with gentrification turning around many neighbors and reversing its decades-long trend of population loss. The city is the center of economic activity in Pennsylvania, and is home to the Philadelphia Stock Exchange and seven Fortune 1000 companies. It is also known for its arts and culture. The city has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city, and Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park is the largest landscaped urban park in the world. Philadelphia’s cuisine is shaped by the city’s diaspora of ethnic groups. The region’s history, culture, and attractions brought in $10 billion from over 39 million domestic tourists in 2013.