Delaware Valley

In general, the Delaware Valley is a term used to refer to the valley where the Delaware River flows.

However, this article discusses the economic region centered on the cities on the tidal part of the Delaware Valley, including the metropolitan areas centered on Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. and Wilmington, Delaware. It is roughly the Philadelphia–Camden–Wilmington, Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Delaware-Maryland (PA-NJ-DE-MD) Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The Delaware Valley as discussed here is composed of several counties in Eastern Pennsylvania and Western New Jersey, one county in northern Delaware and one county in northeastern Maryland. The area has a population of over 6.1 million (as of the 2010 Census Bureau count). Philadelphia, being the region's major commercial, cultural, and industrial center, maintains a rather large sphere of influence that affects the counties that immediately surround it. The majority of the region's populace resides in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.

As of March 2011, the Philadelphia–Camden–Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metropolitan Statistical Area is the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the United States and is located towards the southern end of the Northeast megalopolis extending from Boston to Washington, D.C.

Based on commuter flows, the OMB also defines a wider labor market region that adds Berks County to the Philadelphia–Camden–Wilmington CSA bringing the total metropolitan population to 6.53 million.

Philadelphia's media ranks fourth, behind New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, in Nielsen Media Market size rankings.

Such educational institutions as Delaware Valley Regional High School in Alexandria Township and Delaware Valley College in Doylestown Township are such examples of regional naming. Likewise, Frenchtown's now defunct newspaper The Delaware Valley News is another example of the usage.