boundary lines of each of these factors were then 
superimposed on a large master map and the final 
metropolitan area line determined substantially as 
a composite of all these individual factor lines. 
To facilitate the compilation of statistics the true 
metropolitan area line was adjusted to conform to 
the nearest existing township lines. 
ee rerere—— 
Summary In this area live 2,934,920 per- 
of Data sons having an annual spend- 
for Aden able income totalling $2,550, 
000,000. In it there are 7,218 
industrial establishments em- 
oloying 348,300 wage earners, who are paid an- 
wally $466,250,000, and who produce annually 
manufactures valued at $2,591,000,000. Retail 
sales in the area total annually $1,054,992,000. 
There are 548 separate and distinct communities 
»f Pennsylvania and New Jersey that lie within the 
Philadelphia Metropolitan Area. Roughly the area 
is bounded by the following points which lie within 
its limits: In Pennsylvania—Marcus Hook, West 
Chester, Paoli, Valley Forge, Hatfield, Lansdale, 
Hatboro, Langhorne and Bristol; in New Jersey— 
Burlington, Mt. Holly, Berlin, Glassboro and Gibbs- 
own. 
The productivity and the volume of business done 
within this area are apparent when statistics for 
the area are reduced to percentages. By this it is 
shown that while the district as defined embraces 
only forty-one one-thousandths of one percent of 
the total area of the United States, the district em- 
braces two percent of the entire population of the 
country, four percent of the country’s industrial 
establishments, and produces four percent of the 
total value of all manufactured products made in 
America. 
While the city of Philadelphia proper, with its 
sstimated 1929 population of 2,069,400, comprises 
nearly ten percent of the metropolitan area, the 
Metropolitan Area is growing at a rate nearly one 
and one-half times as fast as the entire United 
States. The area has increased mearly twenty per- 
cent since 1920, as compared with a fourteen per- 
sent increase for the country at large. 
me mn 
Movement Philadelphia’s population has, 
of of Ss in rsaiing grams te 
. original center, followed the 
Population railroad and highway routes 
outward. The boundary lines 
of the Metropolitan Area include the farthest points 
of the “built-up” district. 
In accordance with the practice of the United 
States Census Bureau, the population line of the 
Philadelphia Metropolitan Area, as shown on the 
map on Page 5, was drawn where population 
density tapered to 150 persons per square mile. 
Establishment of this line also took into account 
towns, highway and railroad routes, and other land- 
marks affecting the density and grouping of popula- 
tion. An air photograph of the entire area was 
closely studied in determining the boundary line 
of the “built-up” area. This photograph clearly 
shows the tapering off of concentrated building 
construction. 
error {Jarre 
Commuting Commuting was another im- 
as a portant factor in determining 
Fact the Philadelphia Metropolitan 
or Area. The commuting line on 
the Metropolitan Area map in- 
dicates perhaps as well as any other factor the 
relation between the urban and the suburban area. 
While people commute daily to Philadelphia from 
such distant points as Atlantic City, Princeton and 
Reading, and in numbers from Trenton and Wil- 
mington, the bulk of the commuting comes from 
points within the “built-up” area line. 
To establish the Philadelphia Commuting area, 
forty-five-minute commuting time and twenty-five 
ent one-way commuting fare were selected as de- 
termining the effective limits of the great bulk of 
commuting. Time-tables were consulted to deter- 
mine number and time of trains at convenient com- 
muting hours. 
Estimates were also obtained from the leading 
transportation companies of traffic in all directions 
from Philadelphia. These companies included 
Pennsylvania Railroad, Reading Company, Phila- 
delphia and Western Railway, Philadelphia and 
West Chester Traction Company, and the Public 
Service Co-ordinated Transport. The result of these 
studies is represented by the commuting area line 
on the accompanying map. 
Retail Philadelphia’s department 
Sales stores form the backbone of its 
Volume retail shopping facilities. These 
and other stores in the area 
enjoy a steady trade from an 
area bounded by Baltimore, Harrisburg, Allen- 
town, Princeton and Atlantic City. 
The metropolitan shopping area is defined as 
that territory whose population shops in the central 
city. The area is determined under the standards 
of the United States Census Bureau by the daily 
free delivery of department stores in their own 
trucks. Such stores are chosen as representative 
of general retail trade because of the large volume 
of their business and because they deal in all three 
classes of retail consumption—necessities, luxuries 
and convenience goods. 
A line on the accompanying Metropolitan Area 
map shows the extent of the territory in which two 
or more Philadelphia department stores make free 
daily delivery in their own trucks. This metropoli- 
tan shopping area goes as far as Wilmington, 
rd 2 A