Presbyterian Churches in Pennsylvania: 872 Congregations Mapped by County and City

Pennsylvania holds 872 Presbyterian congregations in the Churches List directory, the largest Presbyterian state count in the directory and 8.8 percent of the tradition's 9,877 national listings. The geography is the geography of the Scots-Irish settlement: the 18th-century migration that entered through Philadelphia and pushed west along the ridges planted a kirk at every valley crossroads, and the map below still shows the route.

The congregations spread across 438 Pennsylvania cities and towns, the second-widest dispersion of any tradition-state pair in this series. Pittsburgh's 60 congregations lead, fitting for the city that became American Presbyterianism's industrial capital, with Philadelphia at 40 and the college town of Grove City, population under 10,000, holding 11.

Which Pennsylvania cities have the most Presbyterian churches?

Pittsburgh and Philadelphia together hold only 100 of the 872 congregations, 11 percent of the state total. The other 89 percent is the Pennsylvania Presbyterian signature: county-seat churches and valley congregations in places like New Castle (10 listings), Aliquippa (9), and Washington (8), the old steel and coal towns of the state's western counties where the Scots-Irish settlement ran deepest.

A selection of Presbyterian congregations across Pennsylvania

The table holds 60 of the 872 Presbyterian congregations listed in Pennsylvania, selected for record completeness. The Presbyterian tradition page and the Pennsylvania state page hold the complete lists.

Where Presbyterian congregations stand in Pennsylvania: the map

How Presbyterian's Pennsylvania footprint compares nationally

Nationally, the directory lists 9,877 Presbyterian congregations, and Pennsylvania's 872 lead all states. Nine of the Pennsylvania congregations hold National Register of Historic Places listings, and 214 publish websites. The tradition's center of gravity has shifted south and west over a century, but no state has displaced Pennsylvania's count, which rests on hundreds of small-town congregations rather than a few metropolitan ones.

How this map was assembled

Counts come from the Churches List directory snapshot of June 11, 2026: 872 congregations in Pennsylvania carry the Presbyterian tradition label, out of 9,877 nationwide and 17,007 Pennsylvania churches of all traditions. Tradition labels derive from each congregation's source records and self-description; 214 of the Pennsylvania listings carry a website. The directory does not rank congregations. Corrections are applied through the corrections page.

Related reading in The Letter: United Church of Christ congregations in Pennsylvania maps the German Reformed parallel to this Scots-Irish geography, and Pennsylvania's 1,792 Catholic parishes covers the state's largest single tradition. Philadelphia by transit measures access to the city's churches. The Presbyterian tradition page lists all 9,877 congregations nationwide.