272 Area Code – Scranton, Pennsylvania: Location, Time Zone & History

The Office, the NBC sitcom that ran from 2005 to 2013, set its fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company in Scranton, and the show has shaped much of how outsiders picture this corner of northeastern Pennsylvania ever since. Long before that, the Wyoming Valley around Scranton and Wilkes-Barre was one of the largest anthracite coal mining regions in the country, an industry that defined the area's identity and workforce through the mid-twentieth century and left a lasting imprint on local towns.

Telephone numbering in the region traces back to area code 717, one of the original codes assigned in 1947, from which 570 split off on December 5, 1998 to serve northeastern Pennsylvania. As 570 itself approached exhaustion, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission approved 272 as an overlay on July 15, 2010; permissive and mandatory ten-digit dialing began September 21, 2013, and new 272 numbers were issued starting that October.

The 570 numbering plan area now serves about 1.6 million people in the Eastern time zone, with cities including Wilkes-Barre, Williamsport, Hazleton, Pittston, and Carbondale alongside Scranton. Its economy today rests on healthcare, higher education, tourism and hospitality tied to the Pocono Mountains, logistics and warehousing, and manufacturing.