The Pittsburgh Region
Taken as a whole, it is not just the City of Pittsburgh that has been losing population, but the six-county region as a whole. The city is a part of Allegheny County. That county lies at the heart of what in 2000 was a six-county metropolitan region that in addition to Allegheny County consisted of the counties of Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington, and Westmoreland.
The multi-county Pittsburgh region originally consisted of four counties: Allegheny, Beaver, Washington, and Westmoreland. In 1983, Fayette County was added to the multi-county region, making it five-counties in size. Then, in 1993, Butler County was added and the region became the six-counties covered by the population graph above. More recently still, in 2003, a seventh county (Armstrong County) was added to the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Armstrong County was officially added in 2003 by the federal Office of Management and Budget. The decision to include Armstrong was based upon an analysis of commuting and other data. At some point in the future it is possible that additional counties will be made a part of the Pittsburgh region. Counties that may be added someday include the nearby counties of Greene, Indiana, and Lawrence.
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