Scranton is a city in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania, United States. It is the county seat of Lackawanna County and the largest principal city in the Scranton?Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area. Scranton is Pennsylvania's seventh most populous city after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, Reading, and Bethlehem. Scranton is the geographic and cultural center of the Lackawanna River valley. It is the largest city located in a contiguous quilt-work of former anthracite coal mining communities including the smaller cities of Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, and Carbondale.