[6] Garrett Nelson and Alasdair Rae's 2016 analysis of American commuter flows, "An Economic Geography of the United States: From Commutes to Megaregions", identified the Pittsburgh megaregion as a region encompassing the entirety or significant portions of 54 counties in Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, Northern West Virginia, and Western Maryland.

By this liberal definition, the Pittsburgh mega region consists of twenty-eight Pennsylvania counties (Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Bedford, Blair, Butler, Cambria, Cameron, Centre, Clarion, Clearfield, Crawford, Elk, Erie, Fayette, Forest, Greene, Huntingdon, Indiana, Jefferson, Lawrence, Mercer, Mifflin, Somerset, Venango, Warren, Washington, and Westmoreland), nineteen West Virginia counties (Barbour, Brooke, Doddridge, Grant, Hancock, Harrison, Lewis, Marion, Marshall, Mineral, Monongalia, Ohio, Preston, Randolph, Taylor, Tucker, Tyler, Upshur, and Wetzel), five Ohio counties (Belmont, Columbiana, Harrison, Jefferson, and Monroe), and two Maryland counties (Allegany and Garrett), and portions of Chautauqua, New York in and around Ripley.

[15] The Nielsen Corporation's Pittsburgh Designated Market Area (DMA) is another commonly used formal definition of the region.

[20] Christopher Briem, an economist at the University of Pittsburgh's University Center for Social and Urban Research, has argued that southwestern Pennsylvania is "far more interconnected" with northeastern Ohio than it is with the eastern half of Pennsylvania, and that the industries of Pittsburgh are primarily linked to Ohioan cities such as Youngstown, Akron, and Cleveland, not to Pennsylvanian cities such as Allentown, Scranton, or Philadelphia.

[21][22][23] Robert Lang and Arthur Nelson of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech also identify the region between Cleveland and Pittsburgh as being an interconnected "megapolitan area" and refer to it as the "Steel Corridor".

[25] The smaller but less crowded Arnold Palmer Regional Airport to the east of downtown in Latrobe provides commercial service to the metro area.

Arnold Palmer Regional Airport offers commercial service via Spirit Airlines to Florida and South Carolina.

Smaller suburban airports serve as private plane and corporate jet bases include: The Pittsburgh area is served by four main-line Interstates including the Pennsylvania Turnpike (which is co-signed with I-76 and in the extreme eastern part of the region also co-signed with I-70): It's also served by several Interstate spur routes: The Port of Pittsburgh ranks as the 21st-largest port in the United States with almost 34 million short tons of river cargo in 2011.

The University of Pittsburgh Transportation System also provides services in the eastern core of the metropolitan area while Mountain Line Transit serves the city, western suburbs and an express route south to Morgantown, West Virginia.

[28] Amtrak serves the region with stops at Penn Station in Downtown Pittsburgh, Connellsville to the southeast and both Greensburg and Latrobe to the east.

Freight rail is a major industry for the area with the Pittsburgh Line and the Conway Yard among other infrastructure serving the region.

Joseph Scarpaci, professor emeritus of geography at Virginia Tech,[31] has described Pittsburgh as having "one foot in the East...and the other in the Midwest".

The title of the book is intentionally provocative:"The Paris of Appalachia" some have called Pittsburgh derisively, because it's still the largest city along this gorgeous mountain chain that needs a better press agent.

[33]Greater Pittsburgh is home to several museums, galleries, and organizations which promote appreciation for the visual arts.

[35][36] Other regional visual arts museums include:[37][38] The Pittsburgh area served as a launchpad for the professionalization of both American football and ice hockey in the 1890s and 1900s.

The first professional player (William Heffelfinger) played for a Pittsburgh football team in 1892, which was followed by the first open professional (John Brallier), the first all-professional team (the Latrobe Athletic Association), and a participant in the first all-professional league (the Pittsburgh Stars of the first National Football League).