Is Rome further north than Philadelphia?
Yes. Rome, at 41.9° N, lies about 220 km further north than Philadelphia, at 40.0° N.
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Why it surprises
Rome is in sunny southern Europe and Philadelphia in the north-eastern United States, so most people place Philadelphia further north. It is one of the pairs psychologists have used in classic studies of how people remember maps. In fact Rome’s centre lies at 41.9° N and Philadelphia’s at 40.0° N, so Rome is about 220 km further north. Philadelphia is level with Beijing and Ankara in our deck. Psychologists explain the mistake by the way we store maps. We tend to line up whole regions with each other, as if Europe sat directly opposite the United States, when in reality much of Europe lies further north than most of the US. We also think in categories, “southern Europe” against “northern US”, and then reason from those labels instead of from the actual latitude of each city.
Sources for this explanation
- Cognitive Psychology (Academic Press): tc.columbia.edu, checked 25 October 2026
- Psychonomic Society: link.springer.com, checked 25 October 2026
Where the numbers come from
Each city is placed by Wikidata’s coordinate for its centre, cross-checked with Natural Earth’s populated places. Details: Rome and Philadelphia.
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