Forest County is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

in the

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,973, making it the third-least populous county in Pennsylvania. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

is Tionesta. The county was created in 1848 and later organized in 1857. The county is part of the North Central region of the commonwealth.

History

Forest County was created on April 11, 1848, from part of Jefferson County. The county was enlarged on October 31, 1866, when part of Venango County was incorporated into the county. Forest County was named for the forests contained within its limits.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.8%) is water. It has a warm-summer

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(''Dfb'') and average monthly temperatures in Tionesta range from 25.3 °F in January to 69.8 °F in July.

Adjacent counties

* Warren County (north) * McKean County (northeast) * Elk County (east) * Jefferson County (south) * Clarion County (south) * Venango County (west)

National protected area

Part of Allegheny National Forest covers Forest County. Part of Allegheny Islands Wilderness is in Forest County.

State protected area

Part of Cook Forest State Park is in Forest County. Part of Cornplanter State Forest is in Forest County.

Major highways

* * * * * * * *

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 4,946 people, 2,000 households, and 1,328 families residing in the county. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 8,701 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county, largely a result of the SCI Forest State Penitentiary, was 77.4%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 21.1%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.40% Native American, 0.14% Asian, 0.69% from other races, and 0.61% from two or more races. 1.21% of the population were

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race. 19.9% were of German, 9.0% Irish, 6.2% English ancestry. There were 2,000 households, out of which 23.20% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.70% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 6.70% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.60% were non-families. 29.10% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.29 and the average family size was 2.81. In the county, the population was spread out, with 22.70% under the age of 18, 5.90% from 18 to 24, 22.60% from 25 to 44, 28.90% from 45 to 64, and 19.90% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44 years. For every 100 females there were 111.20 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102.30 males. According to a 2025 Census Bureau survey, Forest County had the highest percentage of unmarried adults of any county in the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern,

Appalachia Appalachia ( ) is a geographic region located in the Appalachian Mountains#Regions, central and southern sections of the Appalachian Mountains in the east of North America. In the north, its boundaries stretch from the western Catskill Mountai ...

n, and

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

regions of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

2020 census

Law and government

Law enforcement

all areas in the county use the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) in a law enforcement capacity, either with part-time police departments or with no other police departments.

Voter Registration

As of February 5, 2024, there are 3,159 registered voters in Forest County. * Republican: 1,944 (61.86%) * Democratic: 847 (26.81%) *

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

: 230 (7.28%) * Third Party: 128 (4.05%)

State Senate

Source: * Scott E. Hutchinson, Republican, Pennsylvania's 21st Senatorial District

State House of Representatives

Source: * Donna Oberlander, Republican, Pennsylvania's 63rd Representative District * Kathy L. Rapp, Republican, Pennsylvania's 65th Representative District

United States House of Representatives

* Glenn Thompson, Republican,

Pennsylvania's 15th congressional district Pennsylvania's 15th congressional district has been located in Western Pennsylvania, western and central Pennsylvania since 2019. Since 2023, the district includes all of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Armstrong, Cameron County, Pennsylvania, C ...

United States Senate

Dave McCormick David Harold McCormick (born August 17, 1965) is an American politician, businessman, and former United States Army, Army officer serving since 2025 as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senato ...

, Republican * John Fetterman, Democrat

Education

The Forest Area School District serves the entire Forest County. Private schools: * Cornell Abraxas I Arlene Lissner (9th-12th) Marienville Libraries: *Marienville Area Library - Marienville *Sarah Stewart Bovard Memorial Library - Tionesta

Communities

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

cities A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

boroughs A borough is an administrative division in various English language, 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 ...

, townships, and, in at most two cases,

towns A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

. The following boroughs and townships are located in Forest County:

Borough

* Tionesta (county seat)

Townships

* Barnett *

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

Harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

Hickory Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes 19 species accepted by ''Plants of the World Online''. Seven species are native to southeast Asia in China, Indochina, and northeastern India (Assam), and twelve ...

* Howe * Jenks * Kingsley * Tionesta

Census-designated place

* Marienville

Unincorporated communities

* Brookston *

Clarington Clarington (Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population 101,427) is a lower-tier municipality in the Regional Municipality of Durham in Ontario, Canada. It was incorporated in 1973 as the town of Newcastle with the merging of the town of Bowmanville, the ...

* Cooksburg‡ * East Hickory * Endeavor * Porkey * West Hickory

Population ranking

The population ranking of the following table is based on the 2010 census of Forest County. The jump in census figures between the 2000 and 2010 census, is due in a large part to the opening of the State Correctional Institution - Forest (SCI - Forest) in October 2004. SCI Forest houses approximately 2,200 inmates at their facility in Marienville, PA. † ''county seat''

References

{{authority control 1857 establishments in Pennsylvania Populated places established in 1857