Bangor is a city in and the county seat

County seat

A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....

 of Penobscot County, Maine

Maine

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

, United States, and the major commercial and cultural center for eastern and northern Maine. It is also the principal city of the Bangor, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Penobscot County

Penobscot County, Maine

Penobscot County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maine. For U.S. Census statistical purposes, it is part of the Bangor, Maine, New England County Metropolitan Area . As of 2010, the population was 153,923...

.

As of 2008, Bangor is the third most-populous city in Maine, as it has been for more than a century. The population of the city was 35,473 at the 2010 census.