City safety & data profile

Wilkes-BarrePA

Wilkes-Barre, PA is a 41K-resident city in Luzerne County with a median household income of $48,515.

Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Wilkes-Barre, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Wilkes-Barre has a population larger than 74% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $117,200, and 2 hospitals serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-04

41K
Population (place)
Top 26%
By size
$48,515
Median income (place)
$117,200
Median home (place)
23.1%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Wilkes-Barre

Wilkes-Barre posts a median household income higher than 7% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 2 hospitals serve the Wilkes-Barre area.

Bottom 8%
by median income, US cities
2
hospitals in & near Wilkes-Barre

Where Wilkes-Barre income ranks nationally

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

$48,515 Bottom 7% higher than 7% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Wilkes-Barre $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 Wilkes-Barre, PA beyond the headline numbers

Wilkes-Barre sits inside Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, at roughly 41.25°N, -75.88°W. Population 40,780, $48,515 median household income. Median home value $117,200, median rent $946. Poverty rate 23.1%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

2 hospitals in/around Wilkes-Barre, 3.5/5 avg rating, 2 with an ER.

23.1% of Wilkes-Barre, 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.

Housing is inexpensive against local pay -- the median home in Wilkes-Barre runs about 2.4 years of median household income, in the cheapest quarter of reporting cities.

Only 8.2% of Wilkes-Barre workers report working from home, the lowest quarter of reporting cities -- an economy still built around showing up somewhere.

Among the CDC measures on this page, short sleep duration departs furthest from its peer median: 42.3% in Wilkes-Barre, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,852 cities reporting that measure.

2.2% of Wilkes-Barre workers commute by public transit, a larger share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.

Wilkes-Barre's median age is 34.7 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Wilkes-Barre 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)
40,780
Wilkes-Barre · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$48,515
-46% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$117,200
-72% vs avg
Median Age (place)
34.7
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Luzerne County): Wilkes-Barre'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
328K+2%
Median Income
$63,691+43%
Median Home Value
$174,100+44%
Poverty Rate
15.3%-2%
Unemployment
5.8%-31%

Economics

Economics indicators for Wilkes-Barre, PA
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$946/mo
Poverty Rate
23.1% +86% vs avg
Unemployment 8.4%
Bachelor's Degree+ 20.5%
Work From Home 8.2%
Public Transit 2.2%

Population

White 53.7%
African American 11.3%
Asian 1.6%

Health Profile 2 measures

Health Indicators

Short Sleep Duration
42.3%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 54.4%

Hospitals 2 total

Rating Distribution
★★★★★
1
★★★★
0
★★★
0
★★
1
★
0
Average Rating
3.5/5
Total Hospitals
2
With ER
2
WILKES BARRE VA MEDICAL CENTER
WILKES-BARRE · Acute Care - Veterans Administration · ER
★★★★★
WILKES-BARRE GENERAL HOSPITAL
WILKES-BARRE · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★☆☆☆

What alerts and safety updates affect Wilkes-Barre?

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

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet PA-WILKES-BARRE · Wilkes-Barre

Wilkes-Barre: 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 Wilkes-Barre; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Pennsylvania state hubs · Methodology

Read with this city profile

Tracking Safety Alerts in Your Area

How Areazine tags Wilkes-Barre in the CAP feed
All safety guides →

Frequently Asked Questions 6

What is the population of Wilkes-Barre, PA? ▼
Wilkes-Barre, PA has a population of 40,780 people, located in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.
What is the median household income in Wilkes-Barre? ▼
The median household income in Wilkes-Barre, PA is $48,515 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 23.1%.
What is the median home value in Wilkes-Barre? ▼
The median home value in Wilkes-Barre, PA is $117,200. Median rent is $946/month.
What are the top health concerns in Wilkes-Barre? ▼
The top health indicators in Wilkes-Barre include Short Sleep Duration (42.3%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in Wilkes-Barre? ▼
Wilkes-Barre has 2 hospitals with an average rating of 3.5/5 stars. 2 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in Wilkes-Barre? ▼
The median age in Wilkes-Barre, PA is 34.7 years. 20.5% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

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

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside PA (23.1% here).

Memphis, TN 23.1% Waco, TX 23.1% Union City, NJ 23.1% Springfield, OH 23.1%

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside PA ($48,515 here).

Goldsboro, NC $48,540 Jennings, LA $48,558 Clarkston, GA $48,564 Fairfield, AL $48,456

Compare Wilkes-Barre 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

Kingston, PA 13K Mountain Top, PA 11K Nanticoke, PA 10K Back Mountain, PA 27K Scranton, PA 77K Hazleton, PA 25K Dunmore, PA 13K Berwick, PA 10K
All cities in Pennsylvania → Compare Wilkes-Barre vs Kingston → All comparisons → Browse all cities

Using Wilkes-Barre'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 Wilkes-Barre 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 Wilkes-Barre 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 (Luzerne 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.