Harper Polling released their annual “Our Commonwealth” survey, which reveals the various preferences and feelings Pennsylvanians hold about their state.

One such section concerns “Cities, States & Famous People”.

Cities and States

Respondents were asked which major PA city would they most prefer to live in (obviously they couldn’t name the city where they currently live).

Pittsburgh rather handily defeated Philadelphia 30% to 19%. The Steel City’s victory over the City of Brotherly Love was mainly due to the fact that those in the Southwestern part of the state were far more open to living in Pittsburgh (56%) than South Easterners were to the prospect of living in Philly (30%).

Following the two main cities was Lancaster in an impressive third place showing with 12%. Erie and Allentown finished fourth and fifth with eight and seven percent respectively.

Rounding out the field were: Bethlehem (4%); Harrisburg (3%); Scranton (2%) and Reading (2%). 14% were unsure.

Meanwhile, Harper also inquired as to which neighboring state residents would prefer to live in.

Maryland with 23% and Delaware with 21% stood out from the rest of the pack.

Ohio and New York tied for third with 14%. New Jersey (11%) and West Virginia (9%) brought up the rear.

Universities

The poll then turned to Pennsylvania universities and which were the most respected throughout the commonwealth. We’ll start with public schools.

No clear winner emerged with a 17% plurality answering “not sure”. Nevertheless, Indiana University edged out West Chester by a single point, 16-15.

Next, Bloomsberg and Slippery Rock each received 11%. Eight percent of respondents choose Kutztown and Millersville while seven percent each went with California and Shippensburg Universities.

When it came to private schools, the winners were much more clear with Penn and Carnegie Mellon standing out from the pack with 29% and 26% respectively.

The rest of the field finished as follows: Bucknell (9%), Lehigh (9%), Villanova (8%), Franklin & Marshall (5%), Lafayette (4%), and Dickison (3%).

Celebrities and Athletes

The most important questions, though, we saved for last: Who are your favorite PA celebrities and athletes?

Bradley Cooper won with the former question with 17%. The ubiquitous Kevin Bacon finished second with 14%.

In a bit of a surprise, world-famous musician Taylor Swift finished third with 14%. Harper believes this is because they only took responses from those aged 18 and up, missing Swift’s core teenage demographic. Of course, with all those songs about New York and Nashville people might not know she is a PA native. Come on, Taylor write a song about…Wyomissing (on second thought, don’t listen to me you’re doing fine).

Tina Fey received 13% while Will Smith and Patti LaBelle each garnered 11%. Kevin Hart (6%), Bobby Rydell (5%) and Sharon Stone (3%) were also included.

As for athletes, the great Wilt Chamberlain once again topped the list with 24% although Arnold Palmer isn’t far behind with 21%.

Joe Montana came in third with 17%, ahead of fellow quarterbacks Dan Marino (12%) and Joe Namath (10%). Kobe Bryant came in last with 8%.

Harper polled 546 Pennsylvania residents for this survey through landline interviews conducted using Interactive Voice Response (IVR). It took place on July 12th and 13th and the margin of error is +/- 4.19%