When William Penn's followers arrived in Pennsylvania, they joined small groups of Dutch, Swedish, and Finnish immigrants who were already settled along the Delaware River. By 1685, 50% of Pennsylvania's European population was British. In 1683, the Frankfort Land Co. founded the Mennonite community of Germantown on 6,000 acres (2,400 hectares) east of the Schuylkill River. One hundred years later there were 120,000 Germans, about one-fourth of the state's census population; the Moravians, from Saxony, settled primarily in Bethlehem and Nazareth, and the Amish in Lancaster and Reading.
During the 19th century, more immigrants settled in Pennsylvania than in any other state except New York. Between 1840 and 1890, the anthracite mines in east-central Pennsylvania attracted the Irish, Welsh, and Slavs; Scots-Irish, Italian, Austrian, Hungarian, and Polish (and, after 1880, Russian) immigrants worked the western coal fields. The cities attracted Italian, French, and Slavic workers. East European and Russian Jews settled in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh between 1882 and 1900. By the turn of the century, the urban population surpassed the rural population.
During the 20th century, these patterns have been reversed. The trend among whites, particularly since World War II, has been to move out—from the cities to the suburbs, and from Pennsylvania to other states. Blacks, who began entering the state first as slaves and then as freemen, continued to migrate to the larger cities until the early 1970s, when a small out-migration began. Overall, between 1940 and 1980, Pennsylvania lost a net total of l,759,000 residents through migration; it lost an additional 98,000 residents between 1980 and 1983. From 1985 to 1990, Pennsylvania had a net migration gain of nearly 21,000. Between 1990 and 1998, the state had a net loss of 219,000 in domestic migration but a net gain of 104,000 in international migration. In 1996, about 3% of Pennsylvania's population (421,000) was foreign-born. In 1998, 11,942 foreign immigrants arrived in the state; of these, the greatest number, 1,127, came from India. Pennsylvania's overall population increased only 1% between 1990 and 1998. In the period 1995–2000, 668,753 people moved into the state and 800,049 moved out, for a net loss of 131,296, 92,385 of whom moved to Florida.