Northampton County andLehigh County to its west combine to form the eastern Pennsylvania region known as theLehigh Valley; Lehigh County, with a population of 374,557 as of the 2020 U.S. census, is the more highly populated of the two counties. Both counties are part of thePhiladelphia media market, thefourth-largest in the nation.
Northampton County has historically been a national leader in heavy manufacturing, especially ofcement,steel, and other industrial products.Atlas Portland Cement Company, the world's largest cement manufacturer from 1895 until 1982, was based inNorthampton in the county.[3]Bethlehem Steel, the world's second-largest manufacturer of steel for most of the 20th century, was based inBethlehem, the county's most populous city, prior to its dissolution in 2003.
Northampton County bordersCarbon County and thePoconos to its north, Lehigh County to its west, Bucks County to its south, and theDelaware River andNew Jersey to its east. TheLehigh River, a 109-mile-long (175 km) tributary of the Delaware River, flows through the county.
According to theU.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 377 square miles (980 km2), of which 370 square miles (960 km2) is land and 7.7 square miles (20 km2) (2.0%) is water.[4] The climate ishumid continental (mostlyDfa with a littleDfb in higher northern areas) and thehardiness zone is 7a except in the northern tier where it is 6b. Average monthly temperatures in downtown Bethlehem average from 29.1 °F in January to 74.1 °F in July, while inWind Gap, they average from 27.0 °F in January to 71.7 °F in July.[5] Both theLehigh andDelaware rivers flow through the county.Kittatinny Ridge is to its north.South Mountain is to its south. Paxinosa Mountains are to its east.
U.S. Decennial Census[6] 1790-1960[7] 1900-1990[8] 1990-2000[9] 2010-2019[1]
As of the2020 census, the county's population was 312,951, reflecting growth of 5.1% over 2010.[1] 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.
Northampton County is part of the largerLehigh Valley metropolitan region, which was historically a global leader in heavymanufacturing. As of 2023, the Lehigh Valley'sgross domestic product (GDP) was $55.7 billion, led by its manufacturing sector, which comprised $9 billion, or 16 percent.[11]
The county served as the global headquarters ofBethlehem Steel, founded in 1857 and based inBethlehem, which was the nation's second-largest steel manufacturer afterU.S. Steel for most of the 20th century. In 1982, Bethlehem Steel reported an unexpected loss of US$1.5 billion, and responded by promptly shutting down much of its operations. In 2001, the company declared bankruptcy, and it was dissolved in 2003. The plight of Bethlehem Steel is often cited as a prominent example of the impact ofdeindustrialization associated with theRust Belt regions of the U.S. during the late 20th century.[12]
Northampton is one of the seven counties in Pennsylvania which has adopted ahome rulecharter. Voters elect a county executive, a nine-person county council, a county controller, and a county district attorney. The executive, controller, district attorney, and five of the nine council members are electedat large by all voters in the county. The other four members of the county council are elected fromsingle-member districts, which they represent. This weighted structure of county government favors the majority of voters. The county's row officers are nominated by the county executive and approved by county council.
Northampton County is considered one of Pennsylvania's "swing counties," with statewide winners carrying it in most cases.[16][17] As of 2024, the last presidential election where Northampton County did not back the statewide winner was in 1948.
In November 2019, municipal elections were in Pennsylvania in November 2019, and the county's result tabulations were plagued with problems caused by newly purchased voting machines, known as ExpressVoteXL, which were manufactured and sold to the county byElection Systems & Software (ES&S), anOmaha, Nebraska-based company, as representing a luxury one-stop voting system.
According toThe New York Times and other media, a few minutes after polls closed in the county in 2019, panic began to spread through the county's election offices as it became evident that vote totals in one judge's race showed one candidate, Abe Kassis, aDemocrat, had received just 164 votes out of 55,000 ballots across more than the 100 precincts in the county; Some precinct machines reported zero votes for him.[18]
The ES&S voting system, which is used in other Pennsylvania jurisdictions, features a touch screen with a paper ballot backup. County officials ultimately calculated results by counting paper ballots, which showed Kassis actually won the election by 1,054 votes, according to unofficial results that were announced on November 6. The election results were later certified following a canvass and audit, and no challenges to the results were filed.[19]
On November 7, 2023, ExpressVoteXL machines again malfunctioned in calculating votes forSuperior Court of Pennsylvania judges with the machines switching "yes" and "no" votes on the summary display of votes on whether the judges should be retained. The county's director of administration, Charles Dertinger, attributed the problem to the summary display and not the actual ballots.[20]
Public bus service in Northampton County is available throughLANta. A shuttle bus service called the Bethlehem Loop provides public transportation services inBethlehem.NJ Transit provides service fromEaston's Centre Square to thePhillipsburg area.
Northampton County was once served only by the215 area code from 1947 (when theNorth American Numbering Plan of theBell System went into effect) until 1994. With the county's growing population, however, Northampton County was affordedarea code 610 in 1994. Today, Northampton County is covered by 610 except for the Portland exchange which uses570. Anoverlay area code, 484, was added to the 610 service area in 1999.[23] A plan to introducearea code 835 as an additional overlay was rescinded in 2001.[24]
^abCenter, Legislativate Data Processing."Find Your Legislator".The official website for the Pennsylvania General Assembly.Archived from the original on April 22, 2017. RetrievedApril 21, 2017.
Frances S. Fox,Sweet Land of Liberty: The Ordeal of the American Revolution in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000
William J. Heller,History of Northampton County (Pennsylvania) and the Grand Valley of the Lehigh. In Three Volumes. New York: American Historical Society, 1920Volume 1 |Volume 2 |Volume 3
James and Linda Wright,Place Names of Northampton County, Pennsylvania (Nazareth, Pennsylvania: J&L Wright, 1988)
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