THE NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Northern Shale Valleys setting.
Northumberland County has 457.7 square miles of land in Pennsylvania. 5 mapped landscape regions meet across Northumberland County: Northern Shale Valleys, Northern Sandstone Ridges, Anthracite Subregion, among others.
Long, roughly parallel ridges and valleys follow folded and faulted rock layers. Limestone valleys, sandstone ridges and other geologic contrasts produce varied terrain and numerous regional springs and caves.
Regional context: Ridge and Valley ↗ · Regional mapping across the county footprint
Where the landscape changes
Northumberland County intersects 5 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Northern Shale Valleys65.4%
- Northern Sandstone Ridges17.5%
- Anthracite Subregion8.2%
- Northern Limestone/Dolomite Valleys6%
- Northern Dissected Ridges and Knobs2.9%
Finding your parcel within Northumberland County
The atlas lists 50 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Northumberland County, including Shamokin, Delaware, Rush. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Northumberland County by land and water
The Census records 19.6 square miles of water within Northumberland County, or 4.1% of its total area. That share is close to Northumberland County’s 4.1%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Northumberland County has 22.2 times the land area of nearby Rockefeller township (20.6 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Columbia County, Dauphin County, Juniata County, Lycoming County, Montour County, Perry County, Schuylkill County, Snyder County and other counties within Pennsylvania. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.