[4] Like the rest of Cambria County, it is part of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the borough of Loretto has a total area of 0.97 square miles (2.5 km2), all land.

[4] Saint Francis University, an institute of higher learning with an enrollment of 2,210,[6] occupies the southwestern quadrant of the borough.

Loretto was founded in 1799 by Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin as the first English-speaking Catholic settlement west of the Allegheny Front.

He named it after the town of Loreto, Italy,[7] site of a Catholic place of pilgrimage.

Loretto was built adjoining the original settlement founded by Captain Michael McGuire, a Revolutionary War veteran, in 1788.