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 becoming older and more diverse in both racial/ethnic and immigrant terms, although the population remains overwhelmingly white and native-born.

The population of Lancaster County has been aging. Between 2000 and 2016-20, the greatest increase was in those 85 and older (up 66%), followed by people 60 to 84 (up 56%), while the population under 20 increased just 2%.

Since 2000, people under age 20 have been the largest single age group in Lancaster County with 142,000 people, followed by those between the ages of 20 and 39 and people between 40 and 59, with approximately 125,000 and 122,000 people in each group respectively.

While the percentage of men 85 or older increased at more than twice the rate of women 85 or older during the 2000 to 2016-20 period, there are still many more women of that age range than men (9,600 and 5,300 respectively).

From 2000 to 2016-20, Lancaster County’s Hispanic population more than doubled – a 119% increase. Its African American and Asian American population increased by 70% and 84% respectively. The county’s white population increased 10%. Despite these shifts, white people still outnumbered Hispanic people, the next largest subgroup, by a margin of about 9 to 1.

In 2016-20, Lancaster County’s population of people with disabilities was 11%. This is lower than national, state, and neighboring counties, with the exception of Chester County which has a slightly smaller percentage of people with disabilities at 9%. The City of Lancaster has the highest percentage of people with disabilities at 17%.

In 2016-20, 5% of Lancaster County’s population was foreign-born, up 2 percentage points from 2000. 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 2016-20, 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 speak a language other than English in their homes.