Access to the Internet is crucial for households to communicate, search for jobs, complete schoolwork and participate in other important activities like banking, health care access and consumer research.

In 2018-22, 86% of households in Lancaster County had access to the Internet, slightly lower than Pennsylvania and the U.S (87% and 89%, respectively).

Compared to neighboring counties, Lancaster was tied with Lebanon County for the lowest share of households. The City of Lancaster had a similar percentage of people with internet access, at 87%.

Internet access questions were not included in surveys until 2013. The multiyear figures are from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. The bureau combined 5 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. Data for this indicator are released annually in December.