Steel Valley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the 'Steel Valley' Metropolitan Area in Brazil, see Vale do Aço.

The Steel Valley is a five county area that encompasses Mahoning County, Ohio, Trumbull County, Ohio, Columbiana County, Ohio, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, and Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. The name was a once-relative nickname used to describe the post-industrial region in Northeast Ohio (between Cleveland and Pittsburgh) that is the Greater Youngstown-Warren Metropolitan Area.

This Combined Statistical Area is the geographic center of the Rustbelt/Mideast region of the United States. Including both the Mahoning and Shenango Valleys, The Steel Valley is home to over 716,000 residents.

Historically, it was the largest steel producing region in the world (including all of NEO and West Penn), and while today the area produces little steel, it is home to many scrap metal yards and aluminum plants (Linkon and Russo, 2003).

This area is geographically similar to the Mahoning Valley, which refers to the geographic valley in which the Steel Valley sits. A once powerful Ohio high school athletic conference in the Youngstown area is called the Steel Valley Conference.