Demographic indicators present information on key aspects of the people in a region: telling us what the population looks like and how is it evolving in terms of age, gender, race and ethnicity and immigrant and disability status. Overall, the population of Lancaster County is becoming older and more diverse in both racial/ethnic and immigrant terms, although the population remains overwhelmingly white and native-born.

Since 2000, the overall population in Lancaster County has grown approximately 18%, notably higher than the state increase of 5.6% and similar to the national rate. The population of Lancaster County has been aging. While the percentage of men 85 or older increased at more than twice the rate of women 85 or older during the 2000 to 2017-21 period, there are still many more women of that age range than men (9,200 and 5,000 respectively).

Between 2007-11 and 2017-21, the greatest increase was in those 60 to 84 (up 31%), followed by people 85 and older (up 21%), while the population under 20 increased just 0.3%.

Since 2007-11, people under age 20 have been the largest single age group in Lancaster County with 144,500 people, followed by those between the ages of 20 and 39 and people between 40 and 59, with approximately 126,600 and 141,300 people in each group respectively.

From 2007-11 to 2017-21, Lancaster County’s Hispanic population grew the fastest at 41%. Its African American and Asian American population increased by 18% and 32% respectively. The county’s white population increased 2%. Despite these shifts, whites are still a majority with over 473,000 residents. 

In 2017-21, Lancaster County’s population of people with disabilities was 11%. This was lower than national, state, and neighboring counties, with the exception of Chester County which had a slightly smaller percentage of people with disabilities at 9%. The City of Lancaster had the highest percentage of people with disabilities at 16%.

In 2017-21, 6% of Lancaster County’s population was foreign-born, up 2 percentage points from 2000. This was slightly lower than Pennsylvania, at 7%, and 8 percentage points lower than the nation, at 14%. There was a larger foreign-born population in the City of Lancaster (13%).

In 2017-21, 17% of Lancaster County residents spoke a language other than English at home, up 4 percentage points since 2000. This was higher than Pennsylvania, at 12%, but less than the U.S., at 22%. Both the state and nation had similar increases since 2000 during this period. The City of Lancaster had the most language diversity--more than a third of its population spoke a language other than English in their homes.