The Northern Tier is a geographic region consisting of five rural counties in north-central

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, ...

Geography

The region is bordered to the north by the

Southern Tier The Southern Tier is a geographic subregion of the broader Upstate New York region of New York State, consisting of counties west of the Catskill Mountains in Delaware County and geographically situated along or very near the northern border ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

state. Together, these regions are known as the Twin Tiers. The counties and important towns in the Northern Tier are: *

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

** Sayre ** Towanda * Sullivan ** Dushore ** Laporte * Susquehanna ** Forest City ** Montrose ** New Milford * Tioga **

Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area (followed by Sutton-in-Ashfield). It gained the Royal Charter of a market to ...

** Wellsboro *

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to t ...

** Tunkhannock The region is bounded to the north by the Southern Tier of New York, to the west by Northern Pennsylvania, and to the east by Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Population

The five Northern Tier counties are home to roughly 180,000 people distributed among many small towns and the countryside. The largest town is Sayre which is located on the left-east bank of the North Branch Susquehanna River and is on Interstate 86 where it dips just south of the New York state line.

Transportation

U.S. Route 220, U.S. Route 15 and U.S. Route 6 cross the region.

Sayre Yard Historic Sayre Yard, named after the chief engineer and first superintendent of the Lehigh Valley Railroad (LV), was established across the state line in 1876 in Waverly, New York and Sayre, Pennsylvania. The large yard, and the purpose built com ...

is a large railyard currently operated by

Norfolk Southern Railroad The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31, ...

that extends across the state line into Waverly, New York and connects

rail transport Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

centers via

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. It is the s ...

, to freight yards in Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Baltimore to Buffalo and other

Upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York (state), New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upsta ...

cities as well as the Great Lakes basin cities.

Notable features

The Endless Mountains are a major geographic feature of the eastern counties.

Education

The region is home to

Mansfield University of Pennsylvania Mansfield University of Pennsylvania is a campus of Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania and it is located it in Mansfield, Pennsylvania. Part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), the campus' total enrollment is 1,6 ...

, located in

Economy

The Northern Tier region as a whole is notorious for its high

unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the refe ...

and low per-capita incomes in comparison to the rest of Pennsylvania, though the discovery of the

Marcellus Formation The Marcellus Formation or the Marcellus Shale is a Middle Devonian age unit of sedimentary rock found in eastern North America. Named for a distinctive outcrop near the village of Marcellus, New York, in the United States, it extends throughou ...

provided an economic boost in the 2000s and 2010s. The region's top two employers are government-funded services, specifically health care and education services. Agriculture is an important activity in the region despite the short growing season and hilly terrain. Small-scale beef and dairy farming is common, and there are many small-scale producers of maple syrup in the region. Production of crude oil and natural gas are important to the local economy. The characteristics of Pennsylvania Grade Crude Oil make it especially desirable for high-end uses. Logging, forest product industries and paper product industries are significant parts of the region's economy. Agriculture and light manufacturing are also important employers.

Sources

Northern Tier Regional Planning and Development Commission
{{Coord, 41.842, -76.085, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-PA, display=title Regions of Pennsylvania