According to the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service, more than 5,000 farms with almost 85,000 acres of apples are located in the northeastern United States. Pennsylvania produces 400 to 500 million pounds of apples per year and ranks fourth in the nation for apple production. The majority of the production is centered in the southcentral part of Pennsylvania (due in large part to the topography of the land), but apples can be found commercially throughout the Commonwealth.