City safety & data profile

LancasterPA

Lancaster, PA is a 59K-resident city in Lancaster County with a median household income of $63,690.

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Lancaster, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Lancaster has a population larger than 83% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $219,500, and 3 hospitals serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-04

59K
Population (place)
Top 17%
By size
$63,690
Median income (place)
$219,500
Median home (place)
20.3%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Lancaster

Lancaster posts a median household income higher than 28% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 recent safety alert is on record and 3 hospitals serve the Lancaster area.

Bottom 29%
by median income, US cities
1
safety alert on record
3
hospitals in & near Lancaster

Where Lancaster income ranks nationally

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

$63,690 Bottom 28% higher than 28% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Lancaster $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 Lancaster, PA beyond the headline numbers

Lancaster sits inside Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, at roughly 40.04°N, -76.31°W. Population 59,339, $63,690 median household income. Median home value $219,500, median rent $1,240. Poverty rate 20.3%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

3 hospitals in/around Lancaster, 4/5 avg rating, 2 with an ER.

20.3% of Lancaster, 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.

The median home in Lancaster costs roughly 3.4 times median household income, below the midpoint for reporting cities, so ownership remains reachable on a typical local wage.

Remote work covers 10.3% of Lancaster workers, under the midpoint for reporting cities.

Among the CDC measures on this page, short sleep duration departs furthest from its peer median: 42.6% in Lancaster, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,852 cities reporting that measure.

4.3% of Lancaster workers commute by public transit, a larger share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.

Lancaster's median age is 32.2 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Lancaster 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)
59,339
Lancaster · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$63,690
-29% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$219,500
-47% vs avg
Median Age (place)
32.2
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Lancaster County): Lancaster'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
558K+7%
Median Income
$86,959+54%
Median Home Value
$301,100+60%
Poverty Rate
8.2%-22%
Unemployment
3.4%-54%

Economics

Economics indicators for Lancaster, PA
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$1,240/mo
Poverty Rate
20.3% +64% vs avg
Unemployment 8.1%
Bachelor's Degree+ 29.4%
Work From Home 10.3%
Public Transit 4.3%

Population

White 47.3%
African American 14.3%
Asian 3%

Health Profile 2 measures

Health Indicators

Short Sleep Duration
42.6%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 56.1%

Hospitals 3 total

Rating Distribution
★★★★★
1
★★★★
0
★★★
1
★★
0
★
0
Average Rating
4/5
Total Hospitals
3
With ER
2
LANCASTER GENERAL HOSPITAL
LANCASTER · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★★★★
PENN STATE HEALTH LANCASTER MEDICAL CENTER
LANCASTER · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★★☆☆

What alerts and safety updates affect Lancaster? 1

Weather Alerts high

Flood Warning Issued for Lancaster, PA

NOAA ·

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet PA-LANCASTER-PA · Lancaster

Lancaster: 8 tagged alerts; lead category NWS weather alert.

  • VOL-LIGHT 8 on record
  • WX-LED 100% weather
  • DESK-MIX NOAA
  • PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Central
  • RANK-MID #53 tagged volume

Tagged alert mix: Lancaster

Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag

Value

What this shows 8 tagged notices on record for Lancaster.

Source Areazine publication corpus As of Live tagged feed

Nearest tagged-volume peer: Central, LA (8 tagged · Δ0)

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

Cities with a similar tagged alert volume 4

Nearest published-notice counts on Areazine (8 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.

Central, LA 8 alerts Dallas, TX 7 alerts Leicester, MA 7 alerts Albuquerque, NM 10 alerts

Read with this city profile

Understanding Weather Alerts

Watch vs warning vs advisory, how NOAA labels map to action
All safety guides →

Frequently Asked Questions 6

What is the population of Lancaster, PA? ▼
Lancaster, PA has a population of 59,339 people, located in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
What is the median household income in Lancaster? ▼
The median household income in Lancaster, PA is $63,690 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 20.3%.
What is the median home value in Lancaster? ▼
The median home value in Lancaster, PA is $219,500. Median rent is $1,240/month.
What are the top health concerns in Lancaster? ▼
The top health indicators in Lancaster include Short Sleep Duration (42.6%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in Lancaster? ▼
Lancaster has 3 hospitals with an average rating of 4/5 stars. 2 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in Lancaster? ▼
The median age in Lancaster, PA is 32.2 years. 29.4% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

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

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside PA (20.3% here).

North Little Rock, AR 20.3% Johnson City, TN 20.3% Channelview, TX 20.3% Adrian, MI 20.3%

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside PA ($63,690 here).

Sun City West, AZ $63,685 Liberal, KS $63,706 Auburn, AL $63,668 Columbia, TN $63,719

Compare Lancaster 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

Ephrata, PA 14K Columbia, PA 10K Elizabethtown, PA 12K Lebanon, PA 26K Hershey, PA 14K York, PA 44K Wyomissing, PA 10K Reading, PA 88K
All cities in Pennsylvania → Compare Lancaster vs Ephrata → All comparisons → Browse all cities

Using Lancaster'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 Lancaster 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 Lancaster 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 (Lancaster 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.