Johnstown, Pennsylvania
city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States

Johnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 18,411 as of the 2020 census. Located 57 miles (92 km) east of Pittsburgh, it is the principal city of the Johnstown metropolitan area, which had 133,472 residents in 2020. It is also part of the Johnstown–Somerset combined statistical area, which includes both Cambria and Somerset counties. Once a bustling industrial center, like many cities in the Rust Belt, Johnstown was severely affected by the loss of jobs in the steel industry due to globalization and the movement of American manufacturing to overseas markets.
History
Johnstown was settled by Europeans in 1770. Its population and economy expanded from the post-Civil War period well into the 20th century, as the Industrial Revolution stimulated manufacturing, mining of iron and coal, and the rise of the steel industry. These industrial jobs attracted migrants from the South and new groups of immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe.
The city has suffered three major floods in its history. The Johnstown Flood of May 31, 1889, occurred after the earthen South Fork Dam collapsed 14.1 miles (22.7 km) upstream from the city during heavy rains.
“Johnstown, Pennsylvania” enters the record as city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Johnstown, Pennsylvania and city can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Johnstown, Pennsylvania” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Johnstown, Pennsylvania and city provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1070763. VIAF identifies the subject as 151276746. The Library of Congress control number is n81023151. Authority coordinates are 40.323, -78.921. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2020, 1770 and 1889.
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Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “Johnstown, Pennsylvania” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.