Dauphin County, PA

County Profile

289,593 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Dauphin County, PA.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

67out of 100
Area Score
Top 31% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 15% of 1,255 counties75
Schools798th of 973 counties25
GrowthTop 46% of 1,226 counties52
Housing affordabilityTop 39% of 1,255 counties96
ClimateTop 42% of 1,254 counties70
Physical resilienceTop 41% of 1,255 counties68
AccessTop 19% of 1,255 counties93
Economic stabilityTop 32% of 1,255 counties73
The quick read

Dauphin County ranks in the top 15% of published profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.9% and median household income of $76,242.

In the public schools here, 24% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 13.8 students for every teacher.

A major airport is 15 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
289,593
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$76,242
Top 24% nationally
Density
552/sq mi
524.9 sq mi of land
Median age
39.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Dauphin County
Pennsylvania
Metro area
Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA
Nearest major airport
MDT
15 mi · Harrisburg Intl
Median home value
$236,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.9% is lower than 62% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 2.7% over the past year, to 145,693 employed residents.

34% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 85% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$1,935$76,242Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,041$42,294Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate12.9%Bottom 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute22.9 minBottom 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher34.4%Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment145,693Top 19%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.9%Top 42%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)2.7%Top 3%June 2026
Labor force151,590Top 19%June 2026
Labor force participation64.6%Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.8%Bottom 8%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.9%Bottom 38%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.83.1
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.9% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202476k66k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $76,242 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides13,040$29,050
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand11,760$43,640
Registered Nurses9,210$96,770
Stockers and Order Fillers8,240$36,790
General and Operations Managers8,180$101,890
Fast Food and Counter Workers8,030$28,070

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

24% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 44% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.8 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
68
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
24.3%
Bottom 16% in Pennsylvania
Reading proficiency
43.7%
Bottom 10% in Pennsylvania
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Central Dauphin SHSCentral Dauphin SD1,96615.2
Central Dauphin East SHSCentral Dauphin SD1,57313.6
Harrisburg HSHarrisburg City SD1,34318.1
Dauphin County Technical SchoolDauphin County Technical School1,18715.0
Lower Dauphin HSLower Dauphin SD1,05712.1
Hershey HSDerry Township SD1,05012.4
Linglestown MSCentral Dauphin SD84115.022%57%
Central Dauphin MSCentral Dauphin SD83414.922%67%
Steelton-Highspire El SchSteelton-Highspire SD82113.54%12%
Susquehanna Twp MSSusquehanna Township SD82017.812%37%
Thomas W Holtzman Jr El SchSusquehanna Township SD79216.922%44%
Lower Dauphin MSLower Dauphin SD78111.727%42%

70.4% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Pennsylvania’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,217 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.1 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
19.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.1×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,217
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$236,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.10Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate63.1%Bottom 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±159127,828Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$26$1,217Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$3,814$236,400Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.2%Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate5.1%Bottom 5%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
52/ 100
Top 46% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 2 consecutive years, measured from 2020 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has grown 2% since 2020, reaching 293,029 in 2024.

At 1.7 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
501
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.7
Bottom 30% nationally
Year over year
+53%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
52.7%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024293k287k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
202020212022202320242025707325
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−42%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 88°F and January a low of 25°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 41.0 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 48, in the Good band, and about 2 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station HARRISBURG CPTL CY AP, 13.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index70.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation41.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low25°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high88°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10022024 calendar year
Median air quality index48.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing45°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
48
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
70
90th percentile index
Days above 100
2
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

68 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, hurricane and earthquake.

Inland floodingModerate
HurricaneElevated
EarthquakeModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, strong wind, heat wave, lightning, tornado, cold wave, ice storm, drought, avalanche, wildfire, hail.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Dauphin County records 4.1 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 10.4 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 14.9 per 100,000 residents in Dauphin County.

Homicide
4.1
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.4
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
14.9
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
13.8
per 100,000 residents

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Dauphin County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Dauphin County rather than Dauphin County itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 15 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Harrisburg IntlMDT15 mi10,001 ft
Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood MarshallBWI86 mi10,503 ft
Philadelphia IntlPHL90 mi12,000 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
67
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.