City safety & data profile

HersheyPA

Hershey, PA is a 14K-resident city in Dauphin County with a median household income of $78,587.

Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Hershey, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Hershey has a population larger than 24% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $379,200, and 1 hospital serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-04

14K
Population (place)
Bottom 25%
By size
$78,587
Median income (place)
$379,200
Median home (place)
17.6%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Hershey

Hershey posts a median household income higher than 47% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 hospital serves the Hershey area.

Bottom 48%
by median income, US cities
1
hospital in & near Hershey

Where Hershey income ranks nationally

Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)

$78,587 Bottom 47% higher than 47% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Hershey $0 $260,000 every profiled place, bucketed by value

Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year

Largest cities in PA

Population among 88 PA places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.

residents

What this shows Philadelphia is the largest PA city on this list; Franklin Park leads median income.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

Highest median incomes in PA

Median household income among the same 88-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.

median

What this shows Franklin Park posts the highest place-level median income in PA; Philadelphia is largest by headcount.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

The quick read

Reading Hershey, PA beyond the headline numbers

Hershey sits inside Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, at roughly 40.29°N, -76.65°W. Population 14,257, $78,587 median household income. Median home value $379,200, median rent $1,268. Poverty rate 17.6%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

1 hospital in/around Hershey, 4/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER.

17.6% of Hershey, PA residents live below the poverty line, placing it in the hardest-hit quarter of reporting cities. Read every median on this page against that: half the households are above it, and a large minority are far below.

A median home in Hershey runs about 4.8 times median household income, above the midpoint. Multiples in this range usually mean buyers are arriving from outside the local wage base.

16.4% of Hershey workers are remote, above the midpoint of reporting cities.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Hershey from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.

Population (place)
14,257
Hershey · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$78,587
-12% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$379,200
-8% vs avg
Median Age (place)
38.6
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Dauphin County): Hershey's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.

20132024
Population
290K+8%
Median Income
$76,242+41%
Median Home Value
$236,400+49%
Poverty Rate
12.9%-3%
Unemployment
4.5%-42%

Economics

Economics indicators for Hershey, PA
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$1,268/mo
Poverty Rate
17.6% +42% vs avg
Unemployment 4.6%
Bachelor's Degree+ 50.2%
Work From Home 16.4%
Public Transit 0.3%

Population

White 69.6%
African American 5.9%
Asian 8.6%
Two or More Ethnicities 3%

Health Profile 2 measures

Health Indicators

Short Sleep Duration
36.9%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 69.9%

Hospitals 1 total

Rating Distribution
★★★★★
0
★★★★
1
★★★
0
★★
0
0
Average Rating
4/5
Total Hospitals
1
With ER
1
MILTON S HERSHEY MEDICAL CENTER
HERSHEY · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★★★☆

What alerts and safety updates affect Hershey?

No area-tagged alerts are on record for Hershey right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet PA-HERSHEY · Hershey

Hershey: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.

  • FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
  • LEAD-NONE Feed idle
  • DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed

Counts reflect published articles tagged to Hershey; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Pennsylvania state hubs · Methodology

Read with this city profile

Frequently Asked Questions 6

What is the population of Hershey, PA?
Hershey, PA has a population of 14,257 people, located in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
What is the median household income in Hershey?
The median household income in Hershey, PA is $78,587 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 17.6%.
What is the median home value in Hershey?
The median home value in Hershey, PA is $379,200. Median rent is $1,268/month.
What are the top health concerns in Hershey?
The top health indicators in Hershey include Short Sleep Duration (36.9%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in Hershey?
Hershey has 1 hospital with an average rating of 4/5 stars. 1 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in Hershey?
The median age in Hershey, PA is 38.6 years. 50.2% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

Two ACS-derived peer sets for Hershey, both outside Pennsylvania so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside PA (17.6% here).

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside PA ($78,587 here).

Compare Hershey with another city

Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.

Quick picks:

Nearby Cities 8

Using Hershey's profile

Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.

  • Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Hershey area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
  • Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
  • Compare Hershey against Pennsylvania peers on any ranking lens. Explore Pennsylvania

Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.

Data Sources

All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Dauphin County) where that is the smallest published unit.

Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.