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Cities and towns

6,162 articles

Pawtucket, Rhode Island

Pawtucket, Rhode Island: city of about 75,600 founded 1671 at the Blackstone River falls, home of Slater Mill (1793), the 1824 first US workers' strike, and the Tidewater Landing riverfront redevelopment.

Payson, Arizona

Payson, Arizona: a town in northern Gila County at about 5,000 feet below the Mogollon Rim, 90 miles north of Phoenix; population 16,351 (2020), home of the World's Oldest Continuous Rodeo since 1884.

Pearland, Texas

Pearland, Texas: fast-growing Houston suburb of about 130,000 in Brazoria, Harris, and Fort Bend counties; founded 1882 as a railroad siding, once a fig-farming town, now a diverse bedroom community with 32.7-minute commutes.

Pécs

Pécs (Fünfkirchen, Pečuh, Latin Quinque Ecclesiae, Roman Sopianae) is Hungary's fifth-largest city, seat of Baranya County, with 137,976 residents in 2026, a UNESCO-listed 4th-century early Christian necropolis, Hungary's first university (1367), and European Capital of Culture 2010.

Peekskill, New York

Peekskill, New York: a Westchester County city on the east bank of the Hudson River, about 46 miles north of NYC, named for trader Jan Peeck and Dutch "kill" (stream); Continental Army Hudson Valley headquarters in 1776, city since 1940, population about 25,900.

Peicheng

Peicheng, alternate romanization of the county seat of Pei County (沛县), Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China; pop about 195,000. Qin-era Sishui Commandery seat, home of Liu Bang and the Dafeng Ge; distinct from Picheng town.

Pekalongan

Pekalongan (Kota Batik), coastal city in Central Java, Indonesia; founded 1 April 1906, population 321,095 (2024); UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art (2014) producing about 70% of national batik, facing tidal flooding from land subsidence.

Pekanbaru

Pekanbaru, capital of Riau Province, Indonesia, on the Siak River; grew from the 1784 Senapelan market. Covers 632.26 km², 15 districts, about 1.03 million people (2024), HDI 84.91 (2025).

Pella

Pella is a major archaeological site in the northern Jordan Valley of Jordan, inhabited for some 12,000 years and known in antiquity as one of the cities of the Decapolis.

Pelm

Pelm is a municipality in the Vulkaneifel district, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Kyll river near Gerolstein, known for the Gallo-Roman Juddekirchhof temple sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Caiva in AD 124, plus the Kasselburg castle and a Roman villa rustica.

Pemalang

Pemalang is a regency on the northern coast of Central Java, Indonesia, with its seat at the town of Pemalang, founded in 1575 and known for tea plantations.

Pematangsiantar

Pematangsiantar (Siantar), city in North Sumatra, Indonesia; enclave of Simalungun Regency on the Trans-Sumatra highway. Area 79.97 km², population 274,056 (2022), third largest in the province, municipality since 1 July 1917.

Pemba

Pemba, formerly Porto Amélia, is the capital of Cabo Delgado Province, Mozambique, a port city on Pemba Bay; 2017 census 201,846, over 350,000 by 2025 with displaced arrivals; timber, graphite, and LNG servicing hub.

Pembroke Dock

Pembroke Dock (Doc Penfro), Pembrokeshire, Wales: town created by the Royal Navy Dockyard opened 1815 at Paterchurch; nearly 250 ships built, dockyard closed 1926, later RAF Sunderland base, Irish ferry port, and marine energy hub.

Pembroke Pines, Florida

Pembroke Pines is a city in southwestern Broward County, Florida, incorporated January 16, 1960; 171,178 residents at the 2020 census, second most populous in Broward County, 11th in Florida.

Pengze

Pengze County (彭泽县) is a county of Jiujiang, Jiangxi, on the south bank of the Yangtze at the Anhui border. Founded 201 BC and named for the Pengli marsh, it is a historic cotton county with chemicals, building materials, and cotton spinning industries.

Pensacola, Florida

Pensacola is the county seat of Escambia County in the Florida Panhandle, home to Naval Air Station Pensacola and the Blue Angels, with a 2020 population of 54,312.

Penza

Penza (Пенза), city on the Sura River in European Russia, founded as a fortress in 1663, administrative center of Penza Oblast since 1939; population about 488,000 in 2024, 629 km southeast of Moscow.

Penzance

Penzance (Cornish Pennsans, "holy headland") is west Cornwall's largest town and historic port on Mount's Bay. Borough chartered 1614, market rights 1332, Spanish burning 1595, Golowan Festival, Jubilee Pool, 2020 Great Town Award.

Peoria, Illinois

Peoria, Illinois: city on the Illinois River, county seat of Peoria County, oldest European settlement in Illinois (French outpost, 1691, Henri de Tonti). Whiskey capital until 1920; Caterpillar hub; 2020 population 113,150.

Pereiaslav (Переяслав)

Pereiaslav (Переяслав, 1943–2019 Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi) is a Kyiv-oblast city on the Trubizh, a Kievan Rus' principality capital, site of the 1654 Cossack Council, and a museum town with Ukraine's first skansen.

Pereira

Pereira is a Colombian city founded in 1863 and named for Francisco Pereira Martínez. It is the capital of Risaralda, a commercial hub of the coffee-growing Eje Cafetero.

Pergamon

Pergamon (Pergamum, Turkish Bergama) was the Attalid capital in Mysia, Asia Minor, famed for its Great Altar, library rivaling Alexandria, parchment, and Galen; bequeathed to Rome in 133 BC, now a UNESCO site.

Périgueux

Périgueux, prefecture of the Dordogne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France; ancient Gallo-Roman Vesunna on the Isle river. 29,055 inhabitants (2023), Saint-Front Cathedral UNESCO-listed, Vesunna museum by Jean Nouvel.

Perm

Perm (Пермь), formerly Molotov until 1957, is a Russian city of about one million on the Kama River near the Urals, administrative center of Perm Krai, founded around the 1723 Yegoshikha copper works and made a city by Catherine II in 1780.

Perpignan

Perpignan (Perpinyà) is a city in southern France, prefecture of Pyrénées-Orientales. Continental capital of the Kingdom of Majorca 1276–1344; 121,616 inhabitants in 2023; poverty rate 36%.

Perris, California

Perris, California: Riverside County city (pop. 83,237 est. 2025) incorporated 1911, named for railroad engineer Fred T. Perris; home of Lake Perris State Recreation Area, the Southern California Railway Museum, and a major Inland Empire warehouse hub.

Perth

Perth (Boorloo), capital of Western Australia, founded 1829 by Captain James Stirling as capital of the free-settler Swan River Colony on Whadjuk Noongar country; 2.1 million people, Swan River location, planned growth to 3.5 million by 2050.

Perth Amboy, New Jersey

Perth Amboy, New Jersey: a Middlesex County port city founded 1683, colonial state capital until 1790, site of the first Bill of Rights ratification and Thomas Mundy Peterson's 1870 vote; about 55,400 residents, 83.6% Hispanic.

Perth, Scotland

Perth, Scotland: the Fair City on the River Tay, granted city status in 2012 as Scotland's seventh city, a UNESCO City of Crafts and Folk Art, home of the Stone of Destiny at Perth Museum.