Why they build here

Chester County is the wealthiest and most-educated county in Pennsylvania, an hour or two from three major cities, with a deep university talent pipeline, a rare cluster of global-company headquarters, and countryside it has spent decades protecting. Here is what draws companies, and their people, to stay.

Talent and education

Chester County has the highest median household income of any county in Pennsylvania and one of the most-credentialed workforces in the state: about 58% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher. The local pipeline is deep. West Chester University (~17,000 students, the largest in the Pennsylvania State System), Immaculata University, Cheyney University (the nation's oldest HBCU, founded 1837), and Lincoln University sit in or beside the county, inside greater Philadelphia's dense higher-education market, where Penn, Drexel, and Villanova are all within commuting distance.

Location and access

The county sits directly west of Philadelphia in the heart of the Northeast Corridor, roughly two hours from New York and two and a half from Washington. Philadelphia International Airport is about 45 minutes east, and the county's own G.O. Carlson Airport is Pennsylvania's third-busiest for corporate aviation. Route 202, the Pennsylvania Turnpike, US 30, and US 1 cross the county, and Amtrak's electrified Keystone Corridor stops at Paoli, Exton, Downingtown, Coatesville, and Parkesburg. A restoration of Philadelphia–Reading passenger rail, with a planned stop in Phoenixville, is underway.

A rare cluster of headquarters

The Route 202 and Great Valley corridor is the county's economic engine, anchored by the roughly 700-acre Great Valley Corporate Center. For a suburban county, Chester County hosts an unusual concentration of publicly traded headquarters — Bentley Systems (BSY), West Pharmaceutical Services (WST), AMETEK (AME), and Vishay (VSH) among them — alongside major employers like Vanguard and QVC. Pennsylvania's flat 3.07% income tax and the absence of a city wage tax are a real cost advantage over locating in Philadelphia.

Quality of life

More than 31% of the county — roughly 151,000 acres — is permanently preserved as open space, farmland, and parks, and it keeps adding to that each year. Walkable, amenity-rich towns like West Chester, Phoenixville, Kennett Square, and Malvern pair with top-rated public school districts and the cultural anchors of the Brandywine Valley, from Longwood Gardens to the Wyeth artistic legacy. It is a place professionals relocate to and stay, which is exactly what employers need.

What sets it apart

Few mid-size suburban counties combine this much wealth and education. Fewer still dominate a national industry the way Kennett Square does mushrooms: well over half of all U.S. production is grown here, an industry supporting roughly 9,500 jobs. Add the density of global headquarters and the Brandywine Valley's cultural identity, and Chester County offers something most business regions cannot — a place that is at once a serious economy and a genuinely good place to live.