West Mifflin is a

borough 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 ...

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Allegheny County ( ) is a County (United States), county in Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,250,578, making it the List of counties in Pennsylvania, state's second-most populous county, after Philadelp ...

, United States, located southeast of downtown

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

. The population was 19,589 at the 2020 census. It is named after

Thomas Mifflin Thomas Mifflin (January 10, 1744January 20, 1800) was an American merchant, soldier, and politician from Pennsylvania, who is regarded as a Founding Father of the United States for his roles during and after the American Revolution. Mifflin sig ...

, 1st

Governor of Pennsylvania The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

, signer of the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally includi ...

, and 1st Quartermaster General of the United States Army. Although the borough is heavily residential, it is home to one of America's oldest traditional amusement parks, Kennywood Park. Other employers include advanced naval nuclear propulsion technology research and development facility, Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory; monorail manufacturer Bombardier; US Steel's Mon Valley Works–Irvin Plant; Community College of Allegheny County's South Campus; and the Allegheny County Airport.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the borough has a total area of , of which is land and , or 1.80%, is water. The landscape is largely hilly and wooded, and the borough's eastern boundary is contiguous with the

Monongahela River The Monongahela River ( , ), sometimes referred to locally as the Mon (), is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 river on the Allegheny Plateau in nor ...

three separate times. Much of the original landscape has been altered as a result of the historic dumping of

steel mill A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-fini ...

byproducts such as

slag The general term slag may be a by-product or co-product of smelting (pyrometallurgical) ores and recycled metals depending on the type of material being produced. Slag is mainly a mixture of metal oxides and silicon dioxide. Broadly, it can be c ...

and

fly ash Coal combustion products (CCPs), also called coal combustion wastes (CCWs) or coal combustion residuals (CCRs), are byproducts of burning coal. They are categorized in four groups, each based on physical and chemical forms derived from coal combust ...

Surrounding and adjacent neighborhoods

West Mifflin has ten land borders, including the

neighborhoods of Lincoln Place and Hays as well as Munhall and Whitaker, to the north, Duquesne to the east, Dravosburg to the southeast, Jefferson Hills and Pleasant Hills to the south, Baldwin to the west and also a short border with Clairton to the south. Three segments of West Mifflin run along the Monongahela River. Adjacent to these areas across the river are Braddock, North Braddock, McKeesport and Glassport.

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 22,464 people, 9,509 households, and 6,475 families residing in the borough. The population density was . There were 9,966 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the borough was 89.64%

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 ...

, 8.85%

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 ...

, 0.12% Native American, 0.25% Asian, 0.06%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 0.25% from other races, and 0.84% from two or more races.

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 were 0.57% of the population. There were 9,509 households, out of which 26.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.6% 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, 13.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.9% were non-families. 29.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.35 and the average family size was 2.89. In the borough the population was spread out, with 21.5% under the age of 18, 6.9% from 18 to 24, 26.2% from 25 to 44, 23.8% from 45 to 64, and 21.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females, there were 89.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.3 males. The median income for a household in the borough was $36,130, and the median income for a family was $46,192. Males had a median income of $36,984 versus $26,529 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the borough was $18,140. About 8.8% of families and 10.2% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 16.6% of those under age 18 and 9.1% of those age 65 or over. The unemployment rate is just over 6%.

Environment

Coal mining in the area has affected the flow and water quality of small streams. Land developers have produced more level ground by clean-filling ravines and other small parcels of land to improve the land usage Toxic waste dump areas are monitored with water quality improvement with

bioremediation Bioremediation broadly refers to any process wherein a biological system (typically bacteria, microalgae, fungi in mycoremediation, and plants in phytoremediation), living or dead, is employed for removing environmental pollutants from air, wate ...

successfully implemented. West Mifflin operates its own

sewage treatment Sewage treatment is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable to discharge to the surrounding environment or an intended reuse application, thereby preventing water p ...

facility. The Environmental Protection agency regulates 78 facilities for environmental compliance. Asbestos waste and radioactive waste and controls were addressed in 1991.

Government and politics

Education

Seven schools exist in West Mifflin: four public schools and three private schools. West Mifflin public schools belong to one district- West Mifflin Area School District. School students in the neighboring boroughs of Whitaker and Duquesne also attend school in the West Mifflin School District. There are two West Mifflin elementary schools, one West Mifflin middle school, one West Mifflin High School, and 13 West Mifflin preschools. New England Elementary has been closed since June 2012. Saint Agnes School has been closed since June 2019. New Emerson has been closed since 2020. Prior to July 2016, Wilson Christian Academy existed at 1900 Clairton Road. It was merged into Cornerstone Christian Preparatory Academy, which is currently at that location. West Mifflin school administrators' use of school credit cards for meals has been called into question. The West Mifflin School District charges tuition for nearby Duquesne students to attend. Community College of Allegheny County also has its South Campus in the borough, at 1750 Clairton Road.

Transportation

West Mifflin is accessible primarily by road, though no Interstate highways pass through the area. The main road passing through most of the area is Pennsylvania Route 885, which intersects with Pennsylvania Route 51 nearby in the borough of

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London, England. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It ...

. West Mifflin is the location of Allegheny County Airport, a

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...

airport; as a result, most of West Mifflin is in Class D airspace. The nearest airports with commercial service are Pittsburgh International Airport and Arnold Palmer Regional Airport.

References

External links

Borough of West Mifflin official website

West Mifflin Borough Recreation official website
{{S-end Populated places established in 1788 Pittsburgh metropolitan area Boroughs in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania populated places on the Monongahela River Superfund sites in Pennsylvania 1942 establishments in Pennsylvania