Altoona, PA Metro Area

The Altoona, PA metro area is one county in Pennsylvania: Blair County. About 119,541 people lived there on July 1, 2025 (Census estimate), 2.7% fewer than in April 2020.

Blair County, centralAltoona
Blair County in Pennsylvania
Population, July 2025
119,541 2.7% fewer than in April 2020
Type
Metropolitan statistical area
County
Blair County
Land area
525 sq mi (1,360 km²)
Time zone
Eastern TimeUTC-05:00 in January; UTC-04:00 in July
State
Pennsylvania
Combined statistical area
Altoona-Huntingdon, PA
CBSA code
11020

The county in the Altoona, PA metro area

CountyRolePopulation, July 2025
Blair CountyCentral119,541

A central county holds the area’s core, an urban area of at least 50,000 people. This area has no outlying counties: no neighboring county sends enough commuters to join it. A county belongs to one metro or micro area at most, and it counts whole, countryside included.

Principal city

  1. Altoona43,196 people

OMB names the area after its largest principal cities. A principal city is the area’s largest city, plus any other city that is very large or a big job center, and smaller ones with at least as many jobs as working residents (2020 Census and commuting figures). People counts are American Community Survey 2020–2024 5-year estimates.

Part of the Altoona-Huntingdon, PA combined statistical area

OMB joins neighboring metro and micro areas into a combined statistical area when enough people commute between them. The other area in this one is

  1. Huntingdon, PA Micro Area43,001 people

Bordering metro and micro areas, nearest first

Areas with a county on this area’s edge. Distances are straight lines between the areas’ largest cities.

  1. Huntingdon, PA Micro Area21 mi east
  2. Johnstown, PA Metro Area30 mi southwest
  3. State College, PA Metro Area35 mi northeast
  4. DuBois, PA Micro Area46 mi northwest

Before using this answer on a form

A metro or micro area is a statistical area that OMB draws for federal statistics. It is not a city, a local government or a mailing address, and it is not a measure of urban and rural: whole counties count, rural parts included. Programs that use metro areas, such as housing income limits or wage rates, can use their own version of these lists; check the program’s own list for an address.

Find the metro area where you are now, find your county, or see every metro and micro area by population.

See this area on Census.gov ↗