Beaver County, Pennsylvania
Troubling Trends are Emerging, but the Pennsylvania Region Isn’t Giving Up
by Carole VanSickle Ellis
Beaver County, Pennsylvania, is considered part of the Greater Pittsburgh region of the state, and, like the Steel City itself, Beaver County is currently enduring some economic tightening not reflected to the same degree elsewhere in the country.
In early 2024, the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland released a report ranking the Pittsburgh region next to last in terms of large metro areas recovering economically since February 2020. In fact, Greater Pittsburgh lost 2.1% of its employees between 2020 and 2024 (vs. dramatic gains in cities like Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; and Raleigh, North Carolina).
For the Greater Pittsburgh area and, by extension, Beaver County, employment could be a “real issue going forward,” Chris Briem, a regional economist at the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Social and Urban Research, warned at the time. Although the area boasts relatively low unemployment rates, the employees themselves are departing the area. Between 2019 and 2022, Beaver County lost nearly 3% of its population. During the same time period, the state of Pennsylvania’s population grew by more than 2% and the population of the United States grew by 7.7%.
Beaver County’s population decline has been a topic of concern for more than 10 years at this point, ever since US Airways, which was founded in Pittsburgh, merged with American Airlines and withdrew from the area in 2015.
Jack Manning, Beaver County’s commissioner, compared the loss of US Airways to the departure of the area’s steel mills in the 1980s. Between 1980 and 1990, half of the population in the Pittsburgh region had disappeared as three-quarters of the steel mills in the area were shuttered.
In early 2024, Manning said this about his county’s population: “When the airlines started shutting down, that contributed almost as much as the steel mills closing down.”
The county has invested millions in improvements to elements likely to attract new residents, including “parks, recreation, ball fields, arts and entertainment, and…supporting our legacy riverfront towns like Bridgewater,” he added. Currently the Center for Rural Pennsylvania predicts that Beaver County’s population will have fallen by nearly 3,500 in 2030 and nearly 15,000 by 2050 (vs. 2020 counts).
Home Values in Beaver County Contradict Other Economic Warning Signals
Although the population in Beaver County is falling along with the number of employers in the area, home values appear to contradict any analyst attempting to claim all is lost in the area. In February 2025, median sold values were up year-over-year by 6% to $292,000 for single-family homes, according to the Rocket Homes Market Report for the area. Interestingly, this increase in sold prices applied only to three- and four-bedroom homes; two-bedroom home sales prices fell by 2.3% year-over-year in February while 5-plus-bedroom home sales prices fell by 1.5% during the same time period. Only one-third of homes on the market were selling in fewer than 90 days at time of publication, compared to 54 days on market a year prior.
The relatively high home prices in Beaver County are directly affecting how accessible home ownership is in the area. According to ATTOM Data, Beaver County has the fourth-worst housing affordability in the country. Nonprofits like Neighborhood Allies (NA) are hoping to change this; NA invested $800,000 with a nonprofit developer midway through last year in an attempt to purchase 69 units in Homewood, one of the county boroughs, and renovate them into affordable housing.
The nonprofit was attempting to purchase 141 units that had been declared uninhabitable in 2017, forcing residents to move out of the county. Although NA ultimately was only able to acquire 69, it hopes to bring some of the displaced residents back and shore up the declining population. The NA investment is the largest awarded by a nonprofit for housing, and units will be reserved for low-income residents for 20 years.
The state of Pennsylvania also remains dedicated to revitalization in Beaver Country. In early 2025, the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development announced it would fund $34 million in tax credits for programs operating in Beaver County and elsewhere in the state. The department also awarded more than $1 million to projects in Beaver County intended, state representative Rob Matzie said, “to allow our local employers to expand and create new jobs, strengthen our local industry, and spur the economy by bringing more business to the region.”
Local building-materials supplier Versatex announced in late 2024 (prior to the PDCED award) it would invest $40 million in its Beaver County facility in order to “double production and build a new 96,500 square-foot facility.” This is expected to create “at least 80 new jobs” in the region, Versatex said.
The PDCED is also presently debuting its $20 million Main Street Matters program, which is intended to support main streets, downtown business districts, small businesses, and local communities in Pennsylvania. The state’s lieutenant governor and secretary of state made the announcement in Beaver County last September.
Helen Kissick, co-director of the Beaver County Chamber of Commerce, said optimistically, “Research shows investment in a downtown drives higher area employment, fosters new businesses, increases property values, and spurs further private investment.”
All of these would benefit Beaver County and help shore up its population and broader economy.
SIDEBAR 1
By the Numbers
4 — According to ATTOM Data, Beaver County’s affordability is 4th-worst in the country (Q1 2025)
15 — Beaver County ranked 15th on 94.5 WPST’s list of best places to retire in Pennsylvania
30 — Distance between Beaver County and Pittsburgh
3 — Number of colleges/universities in Beaver County
5 — Number of parks in Beaver County, including Buttermilk Falls and Raccoon Creek State Park
50% — Half the U.S. population lives within a six-hour drive of Beaver County
$1 million — In February 2025, the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development announced it would dedicate $1 million to projects in Beaver County
SIDEBAR 2
Petrochemical Plant Problem
When the Shell petrochemical plan in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, opened its doors in 2023, expectations were high that the plant would grow jobs, revitalize the local economy, and completely justify the $1.7 billion subsidy Shell Global (Shell) received from the state in exchange for locating its plastics plant there. Pennsylvania outbid Ohio and West Virginia with this offer. In exchange, Shell committed to investing $1 billion in Pennsylvania and create 2,500 jobs or more. Earlier this year when confronted with allegations it had failed in its side of the commitment, Shell responded, in part, “Shell has continued our focus on the community through the creation of nearly 500 permanent jobs.”
Petrochemical plants process chemicals made from petroleum, producing a vast array of products including plastics, fertilizers, packaging, clothing, digital devices, tires, cosmetics, and medical equipment. The Beaver County plant, Shell Polymers Monaca, produces polyethylene pellets used by other manufacturers to create many petrochemical products. Unfortunately, in a report published by climate watchdog and nonprofit The Ohio River Vally Institute (ORVI), it appears the plant has dramatically underperformed. The report comes on the heels of rumors Shell is divesting itself of many chemical assets, including the Monaca plant. However, it is important to note that at time of publication, the plant is part of a review process that could precede a sale but has not been sold.
According to ORVI, “by nearly every measure of economic activity, Beaver County is worse off than it was before the Shell plant was announced in 2012. Today, Beaver County has fewer jobs, fewer businesses, and fewer residents.” ORVI also reported Beaver County’s gross domestic product (GDP) dropped by a little more than 12% between 2012 and 2023 despite national and statewide trends moving in the opposite direction. Similarly, the county lost about 5,000 people during the same time period, contrary to state and national population gains.
Notably, Beaver County commissioner Jack Manning responded to the report by declaring it “utterly meaningless” and insisting, “Shell put us on the map with the largest construction project to be built in Pennsylvania history since World War II.” He credited the Monaca plant with “keeping us afloat during a global pandemic” and blamed declining residential trends on “death, retirement, job moves, or a search for better school districts.”
