Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Lancaster County is a county in Pennsylvania, United States, about 35 miles southeast of Harrisburg
and 70 miles west of Philadelphia. It had a population of 552,984 at the 2020 census, an estimated
563,159 by 2025, and covers 984 square miles (2,550 km2), of which 944 square miles are land,
centred near 40°02′N 76°15′W.

Lancaster is the county seat and the county’s only city; its postal code is 17603. The county
holds 1 city, 18 boroughs and 41 townships — 60 municipalities in all — plus dozens of
unincorporated villages, and it runs on Eastern Time. Its FIPS code is 42071.

Towns & Villages in Lancaster County

The table below covers the city, all 18 boroughs and the county’s largest unincorporated
communities (Census-designated places, or CDPs). Lancaster County has 41 townships in addition to
these — see the Townships table further down. City · seat marks the
county seat; CDP marks an unincorporated community with no borough government of its
own.

Manheim Township and the borough of Manheim are two different places roughly 8 miles apart —
the township surrounds Lancaster city on the north side, the borough sits further northwest near
Manheim Central. Paradise is both a CDP and the name of the surrounding township. Denver, Pennsylvania
is unrelated to Denver, Colorado. None of these should be confused with Lancaster, California, a
city of over 170,000 on the other side of the country, or with Lancaster County, South Carolina,
Nebraska or Virginia — all separate counties with no connection to this one.

Townships

Lancaster County has 41 townships, the county’s most common form of local government by count.
Manheim Township, bordering the city of Lancaster, is the largest by population and the county’s
second-largest municipality overall.

ZIP Codes

• 17603 — Lancaster (also serves Manheim Township)
• 17522 — Ephrata
• 17022 — Elizabethtown
• 17512 — Columbia
• 17543 — Lititz (also serves Rothsville)
• 17551 — Millersville
• 17584 — Willow Street
• 17552 — Mount Joy
• 17540 — Leola
• 17557 — New Holland
• 17545 — Manheim borough
• 17520 — East Petersburg
• 17547 — Maytown and Marietta
• 17501 — Akron
• 17517 — Denver
• 17579 — Strasburg
• 17554 — Mountville
• 17566 — Quarryville
• 17527 — Gap
• 19501 — Adamstown (a Berks County ZIP that also covers the borough)
• 17534 — Intercourse
• 17581 — Terre Hill
• 17562 — Paradise
• 17509 — Christiana
• 17505 — Bird-in-Hand
• 17576 — Smoketown

Several small CDPs — Salunga, Landisville, Gordonville and Reamstown among them — share
a post office town’s ZIP rather than carrying one of their own, since the U.S. Postal Service
assigns codes by delivery route, not by census boundary.

Geography

Lancaster County sits on the Piedmont plateau of south-central Pennsylvania, drained by the
Susquehanna River along its western edge and the Conestoga River through its middle. The
Susquehanna forms the boundary with York County and widens into the Safe Harbor and Holtwood
reservoirs in the county’s southwest corner. Land makes up 944 of the county’s 984 square miles;
the remaining 40 square miles (100 km2) is water, about 4.1% of the total.

Lancaster County borders Lebanon County to the north, Berks County to the northeast, Chester
County to the east (no live page on this site links there yet), York County to the southwest,
Dauphin County to the northwest, and Cecil County and Harford County, Maryland, to the south.

Demographics

The county had a population of 552,984 at the 2020 census, up from 519,445 in 2010, and an
estimated 563,159 by 2025. Lancaster city and Manheim Township, its largest municipalities, together
hold roughly 102,000 residents — about a fifth of the county. Median household income was
$86,959 in 2024, above the Pennsylvania figure of $77,971. Population density works out to about
586 people per square mile of land area. Roughly 42,000 residents belong to Plain Anabaptist
communities, chiefly Old Order Amish, spread across around 220 church districts — the largest
Amish settlement in the United States, concentrated in the townships east and south of Lancaster
city (Leacock, Salisbury, Paradise and East Lampeter).

Economy & Local Life

Health care and social assistance is the county’s largest employment sector at 43,416 workers,
followed by manufacturing at 40,347 and retail trade at 33,192, out of roughly 281,000 employed
residents. Manufacturers headquartered or with major plants in the county include Armstrong World
Industries and Conestoga Wood Specialties (both Lancaster area), Dart Container (Leola), Tyson Foods
(New Holland) and Turkey Hill Dairy (Conestoga). Agriculture remains central to the county’s
identity: farms here produce about $800 million a year in food, feed and fiber, close to a fifth of
Pennsylvania’s total farm output, with dairy alone worth $266 million. Lancaster County leads the
nation in farmland preserved under conservation easement, more than 100,000 acres. Tourism draws
heavily on Pennsylvania Dutch Country — Bird-in-Hand, Intercourse and Paradise are its best
known villages — and on the Strasburg Rail Road, a working 19th-century excursion line that
is one of the region’s oldest tourist attractions.

History

Lancaster County was organized on May 10, 1729, Pennsylvania’s fourth county, carved out of
Chester County. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster in Lancashire, England, the home
county of early settler John Wright. Lancaster city briefly served as the capital of the United
States for a single day in 1777, when the Continental Congress passed through fleeing Philadelphia,
and later served as Pennsylvania’s state capital from 1799 to 1812. German-speaking Mennonite,
Amish and Church of the Brethren settlers arrived through the 1700s, giving the county its
Pennsylvania Dutch character; their descendants still farm much of the land today. In October 2006,
a gunman killed five girls at the West Nickel Mines Amish School in Bart Township, an attack that
drew international attention to the county’s Amish community and to its response of public
forgiveness.

Getting There

Interstate 76, the Pennsylvania Turnpike, clips the county’s northeastern corner near Denver and
Morgantown; most through traffic instead runs on U.S. Route 30 (the Lincoln Highway, running
east–west through Lancaster city) and U.S. Route 222 (running north–south to Reading).

• Harrisburg — 35 miles northwest
• Philadelphia — 70 miles east
• Reading — 25 miles northeast
• York — 25 miles west

Lancaster Airport (LNS), near Lititz, offers scheduled passenger service; Smoketown Airport
handles general aviation. Amtrak’s Keystone Corridor stops at Lancaster station, with additional
stops at Mount Joy and Elizabethtown.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Lancaster County, Pennsylvania?
It is in south-central
Pennsylvania, about 35 miles southeast of Harrisburg and 70 miles west of Philadelphia.

What is the population of Lancaster County?
552,984 at the 2020 census,
estimated at 563,159 by 2025.

How big is Lancaster County?
984 square miles total, 944 of them land.

What is the county seat of Lancaster County?
Lancaster, the county’s only
city, with a population of 58,039.

How many towns are in Lancaster County?
One city, 18 boroughs and 41
townships — 60 municipalities in all — plus dozens of unincorporated CDPs such as
Bird-in-Hand and Intercourse.

What ZIP codes cover Lancaster County?
Codes run from 17501 (Akron) to
17603 (Lancaster city); see the ZIP Codes table above for the full list by town.

Is Lancaster County Amish country?
Yes. Around 42,000 residents belong to
Plain Anabaptist communities, making it the largest Amish settlement in the United States,
concentrated around Bird-in-Hand, Intercourse and Paradise.

Is this the same as Lancaster, California?
No. Lancaster, California is an
unrelated city of over 170,000 in Los Angeles County; Lancaster County, South Carolina, Nebraska
and Virginia are also separate, unconnected counties.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Pennsylvania.