PHILADELPHIA — The City of Brotherly Love has successfully wooed enough new residents to record its first population increase in 60 years, according to Census figures released Wednesday.

Allentown and Reading showed major growth since the 2000 Census, while Pennsylvania’s other two major cities — Pittsburgh and Erie — both lost population, the data show.

Philadelphia’s population of more than 1.5 million rose by only 0.6 percent — about 8,500 people — but Mayor Michael Nutter proclaimed the growth no small feat and “something that no mayor has been able to say since 1950.”

Pittsburgh, the state’s second-largest city, lost 8.6 percent of its population, leaving about 305,000 residents; its home, Allegheny County, totaled about 1.2 million people, a 4.6 percent decrease.

Chris Briem, a regional economist at the University of Pittsburgh, said while the Pittsburgh area shows a decline, the numbers may not reflect recent improvements.

“Ten years is a long time, and it doesn’t always capture what’s going on year over year,” Briem said.

It’s not that people are necessarily leaving the region, Briem added, noting there are more deaths than births because the population is more elderly.

The counties that lost the most population were Beaver, Cambria, Cameron, Elk, Fayette and McKean.