The presence of young adults provides a regional economy with a supply of young workers starting out in careers. A region with a vibrant economy, particularly in technology and/or innovation, will tend to attract more young adults, while a more stagnant region is likely to lose them.

In 2020-24, Lancaster County had over 26,000 young adults with a bachelor's or higher, making up 6.1% of the total population, slightly below the state and nation (at 7% and 6.9%, respectively). This young, educated slice of the population has grown in Lancaster County from 4.5% in 2010-14. This growth rate is similar to the state and nation during the same period.

The City of Lancaster's share of residents ages 25 to 34 with a bachelor's degree or higher was 8.4%, an increase of over 2 percentage points since 2010-14.

Among neighboring counties in 2020-24, Lebanon (4%), Berks (4.7%), and York (5%) had lower shares than Lancaster County, while Cumberland (7%), Dauphin (7.2%), and Chester (9%) counties had larger shares than Lancaster.

The multi-year figures are from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. The bureau combined five years of responses to the survey to provide estimates for smaller geographic areas and increase the precision of its estimates. However, because the information came from a survey, the samples responding to the survey were not always large enough to produce reliable results, especially in small geographic areas. CGR has noted on data tables the estimates with relatively large margins of error. Estimates with three asterisks have the largest margins, plus or minus 50% or more of the estimate. Two asterisks mean plus or minus 35%-50%, and one asterisk means plus or minus 20%-35%. For all estimates, the confidence level is 90%, meaning there is 90% probability the true value (if the whole population were surveyed) would be within the margin of error (or confidence interval). The survey provides data on characteristics of the population that used to be collected only during the decennial census.