- published: 02 Apr 2015
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The Lehigh Valley, known officially by the United States Census Bureau as the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ metropolitan area and referred to locally as The Valley and A-B-E, is a metropolitan region consisting of Lehigh, Northampton, and Carbon counties in eastern Pennsylvania and Warren county on the western edge of New Jersey, in the United States.
The Lehigh Valley is the fastest growing and third most populous region in the state of Pennsylvania with a population of 821,623 residents as of the 2010 U.S. Census. It is eclipsed in total population only by the metropolitan areas of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. It is the 64th most populated metropolitan area in the entire United States. The region is named for the Lehigh River, which runs through it, and it is part of the Great Appalachian Valley.
The Lehigh Valley's principal cities are Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton, comprising the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton metropolitan area. The traditional bounds of the region are The Poconos to the north, the Delaware River to the east, the boundaries of Berks County and Montgomery County to the southwest, and the boundary with Bucks County to the south. More recently, however, the area around Phillipsburg, New Jersey west of Pohatcong Mountain, parts of upper Bucks County around Quakertown, and portions of northeastern Berks County and southwestern Carbon County in Pennsylvania are considered outer parts of the Valley.