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 2010, the overall population in Lancaster County has grown approximately 7.2%, notably higher than the state increase of 2% and slightly below the national rate. The population of Lancaster County has been aging. While the percentage of men 85 or older increased more than the rate of women 85 or older during the 2010 to 2018-22 period, there are still many more women of that age range than men (10,300 and 5,200 respectively).

Between 2008-12 and 2018-22, the greatest increase was in those 60 to 84 (up 34%), followed by people 85 and older (up 19%), while the population under 20 decreased 1%.

Since 2008-12, people under age 20 have been the largest single age group in Lancaster County with 143,500 people, followed by those between the ages of 20 and 39 and people between 40 and 59, with approximately 139,000 and 130,200 people in each group respectively.

From 2008-12 to 2018-22, Lancaster County’s Hispanic population grew the fastest at 37%. Its African American and Asian American population increased by 21% and 31% respectively. The county’s white population stayed relatively the same. Despite these shifts, whites are still a majority with over 467,000 residents. 

In 2018-22, 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 2018-22, 5% of Lancaster County’s population was foreign-born, up 1 percentage point from 2008-12. This was slightly lower than Pennsylvania, at 7%, and 9 percentage points lower than the nation, at 14%. There was a larger foreign-born population in the City of Lancaster (13%).

In 2018-22, 16% of Lancaster County residents spoke a language other than English at home, up 1 percentage point since 2008-12. This was higher than Pennsylvania, at 12%, but less than the U.S., at 22%. Both the state and nation had similar increases as Lancaster County during this period. The City of Lancaster had the most language diversity--about a third of its population spoke a language other than English in their homes.