Gathering in South Jersey

An article last week in the Philadelphia Inquirer described the transportation needs of the metro Philadelphia area. It should come as no surprise that the need outstrips the necessary funding:

Maintaining and modernizing highways, bridges, and transit in Southeastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey will require at least $110 billion over the next 26 years, according to the plan approved by the bi-state Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC). That is $45 billion more than the region can expect to receive from projected federal, state, and local spending.

But the article also cited some significant and interesting statistics about South Jersey, Gloucester County, and the future role of the suburbs on the metro area.

For example, describing the growth of South Jersey, the PI noted that in the nine counties that comprise the metro area, Gloucester County, NJ, is projected to experience the greatest increase in population by 2035:

By 2035, the nine-county region will be home to 6.1 million people, up 11 percent from the 5.5 million who lived here in 2005, the report predicted. Most of the growth is expected to occur in Gloucester (35 percent), Chester (31 percent), Bucks (21 percent) and Burlington (21 percent) Counties, while Philadelphia is forecast to have about the same population then as now - 1.5 million.

Of further interest is that while the greatest number of jobs in the area will continue to be located in the city of Philadelphia, its percentage of the region's employment will slightly decline as the suburbs continue to gain in this respect.

Between 2005 and 2035, the region is forecast to add an additional 370,000 jobs, an increase of 13 percent over 2005 levels.Philadelphia is expected to remain the region's largest job center, with more than 736,000 jobs forecast in 2035. But the share of the region's employment located in the city is expected to decline from 26 percent in 2005 to 23 percent by 2035, due to faster job growth in the suburbs.

So, while the city of Philadelphia will continue to function as the dominant cultural and economic force of the tri-state area (South Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, and Delaware), the suburbs will play an increasingly significant role in regional demographics, even to the point of functioning more and more like cities themselves