menu
Data on this report is based on areas within the legal city boundary, outlined in black on the map. Any additional neighborhoods shown on the map are associated with the city by name and are included for reference only.

Lancaster, PA
Real Estate & Demographic Data






Lancaster profile


Living in Lancaster



Lancaster is a larger medium-sized city located in the state of Pennsylvania. With a population of 57,453 people and 36 associated neighborhoods, Lancaster is the ninth largest community in Pennsylvania. Lancaster has a large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.

Also of interest is that Lancaster has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 7.81% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.

One thing noticeable about Lancaster, although not a huge city, is that it has a large population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. That’s because Lancaster is full of single people in their 20s and 30s and who have undergraduate or graduate degrees and are starting careers in professional occupations. This makes Lancaster a pretty good place for young, educated career starters looking to find many people like themselves, with good opportunities for friendships, socializing, romance, and fun.

Although the majority of commuting trips in the city are by private automobile, Lancaster is somewhat unusual for a city of its size for having a substantial number of people who use public transportation. For a lot of people, the bus helps to get to and from their jobs every morning, which benefits everyone in the Lancaster area by reducing both traffic and air pollution.

The percentage of people in Lancaster who are college-educated is somewhat higher than the average US community of 21.84%: 27.41% of adults in Lancaster have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Lancaster in 2018 was $28,653, which is lower middle income relative to Pennsylvania and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $114,612 for a family of four. However, Lancaster contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Lancaster is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Lancaster home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. People of Hispanic or Latino origin are the most prevalent group in Lancaster, accounting for 39.37% of the city’s residents (people of Hispanic or Latino origin can be of any race). The greatest number of Lancaster residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Lancaster include German, Irish, English, Italian, and Swiss.

The most common language spoken in Lancaster is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and African languages.