Northampton County, Pennsylvania

Northampton County
County
A 1905 illustration of Northampton County Courthouse in Easton
Flag Seal
Location within the U.S. state of Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania's location within the U.S.
Coordinates: 40°45′N 75°19′W / 40.75°N 75.31°W / 40.75; -75.31
Country	United States
State	Pennsylvania
Founded	March 11, 1752
Named for	Northamptonshire
Seat	Easton
Largest city	Bethlehem
Area
• Total	377 sq mi (980 km2)
• Land	370 sq mi (1,000 km2)
• Water	7.7 sq mi (20 km2)  2.0%
Population  (2020)
• Total	312,951
• Density	830/sq mi (320/km2)
Time zone	UTC−5 (Eastern)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
Congressional district	7th
Website	www.northamptoncounty.org

Northampton County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 312,951.^[1] Its county seat is Easton.^[2] The county was formed in 1752 from parts of Bucks County. Its namesake was the county of Northamptonshire in England, and the county seat of Easton was named for Easton Neston, a country house in Northamptonshire. The county is part of the Southeast Pennsylvania region of the state.^[a]

Northampton County and Lehigh County to its west combine to form the eastern Pennsylvania region known as the Lehigh 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 the Philadelphia media market, the fourth-largest in the nation.

Northampton County has historically been a national leader in heavy manufacturing, especially of cement, steel, and other industrial products. Atlas Portland Cement Company, the world's largest cement manufacturer from 1895 until 1982, was based in Northampton in the county.^[3] Bethlehem Steel, the world's second-largest manufacturer of steel for most of the 20th century, was based in Bethlehem, the county's most populous city, prior to its dissolution in 2003.

Northampton County borders Carbon County and the Poconos to its north, Lehigh County to its west, Bucks County to its south, and the Delaware River and New Jersey to its east. The Lehigh River, a 109-mile-long (175 km) tributary of the Delaware River, flows through the county.

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