10 Pennsylvania Coal Towns That Are Slowly Dying Right Before Our Eyes

Pennsylvania's anthracite Coal Region once heated homes from Philadelphia to New York. Immigrants from Ireland, Wales, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Italy and Slovakia built its towns on steep hillsides. Today the census shows many of those towns at a fraction of their peak. Here are 10 of them, counted down by how much of their population is gone, from Nanticoke to Centralia, the town that has been on fire underground since 1962. Did your family come from the Coal Region? Tell us which town, which mine or which church in the comments. CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro: the Coal Region 1:17 #10 Nanticoke, Luzerne County 2:32 #9 Ashland, Schuylkill County 4:00 #8 Shamokin, Northumberland County 5:35 #7 Mount Carmel, Northumberland County 6:45 #6 Girardville, Schuylkill County 8:37 #5 Mount Carbon, Schuylkill County 9:48 #4 Mahanoy City, Schuylkill County 11:27 #3 Shenandoah, Schuylkill County 13:24 #2 Gilberton, Schuylkill County 14:51 #1 Centralia, Columbia County 16:29 Recap THE NUMBERS (U.S. Census, peak year vs 2020) Nanticoke: 26,043 (1930) to 10,628, down 59% Ashland: 7,346 (1890) to 2,471, down 66% Shamokin: 21,204 (1920) to 6,942, down 67% Mount Carmel: 17,967 (1930) to 5,725, down 68% Girardville: 4,891 (1930) to 1,308, down 73% Mount Carbon: 364 (1870) to 91, down 75% Mahanoy City: 15,936 (1910) to 3,499, down 78% Shenandoah: 25,774 (1910) to 4,243, down 84% Gilberton: 5,401 (1910) to 579, down 89% Centralia: 2,761 (1890) to 5, down 99.8% Voiceover is AI-generated. #CensusGhosts #CoalRegion #Pennsylvania