Lebanon, Pennsylvania

Area Profile

26,536 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Lebanon, in Lebanon County.

60out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 49% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity2821st of 3,904 published cities46
Schools1954th of 2,668 published cities33
GrowthTop 39% of 2,973 published cities56
Housing affordabilityTop 47% of 4,223 published cities82
Climate2847th of 4,223 published cities64
Physical resilienceTop 27% of 4,182 published cities78
Access2422nd of 4,226 published cities90
Economic stability3501st of 4,226 published cities40
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.3% and the Opportunity signal places Lebanon in the bottom 28%.

In the public schools here, 18% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 13.1 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 25% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.2 times that income.

At a glance

Population
26,536
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$48,456
Bottom 20% nationally
Density
6,368/sq mi
4.2 sq mi of land
Median age
37.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Lebanon County
Pennsylvania
Metro area
Lebanon, PA
Nearest major airport
MDT
21 mi · Harrisburg Intl
Median home value
$156,500
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.3% is lower than 16% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 4.2% over the past year, to 11,747 employed residents.

Median household income of $48,456 is below 80% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,986$48,456Bottom 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,538$25,520Bottom 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate22.9%Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute22.5 minBottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher15.9%Bottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment11,747Bottom 6%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.8%Top 25%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)4.2%Top 1%June 2026
Labor force12,408Bottom 6%June 2026
Labor force participation60.8%Top 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$57,260Bottom 8%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$46,500Bottom 11%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.1%Top 49%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.3%Top 16%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/06113.5
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 5.3% 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
202120222023202448k42k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $48,456 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 — Lebanon, PA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Stockers and Order Fillers1,890$37,440
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand1,790$38,750
Fast Food and Counter Workers1,490$28,200
Retail Salespersons1,420$32,960
Cashiers1,390$29,050
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers1,380$57,250

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.

18% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 33% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.1 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
5
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.1
across all schools here
Math proficiency
18.1%
Bottom 25% in Pennsylvania
Reading proficiency
33.0%
Bottom 17% in Pennsylvania
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Northwest El SchLebanon SD55712.76%20%
Ebenezer El SchCornwall-Lebanon SD50013.528%42%
Union Canal El SchCornwall-Lebanon SD38612.533%46%
Lebanon Intermediate SchLebanon SD38011.95%22%
Houck El SchLebanon SD34815.821%38%

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 $992 takes 25% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.2 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
24.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$992
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$156,500
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.23Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate46.7%Bottom 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±52311,685Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$57$992Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$6,221$156,500Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income24.6%Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.9%Bottom 42%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
56/ 100
Top 39% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, measured from 2022 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 fallen 1% since 2020, reaching 26,456 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward after moving the other way the year before.

At 0.8 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
22
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.8
Bottom 27% nationally
Year over year
+267%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
22.7%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202427k26k
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
2022202320242025130.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 86°F and January a low of 22°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 42.1 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 43, 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 LANCASTER AP, 16.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index64.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation42.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low22°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high86°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10022024 calendar year
Median air quality index43.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing45°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
43
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
64
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

78 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneElevated
EarthquakeModerate
Heat waveModerate

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. 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.

Lebanon County records 2.9 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 9.7 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 8.3 per 100,000 residents in Lebanon County.

Homicide
2.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
9.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
8.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
14.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

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 Lebanon 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 Lebanon rather than Lebanon 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 21 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Harrisburg IntlMDT21 mi10,001 ft
Philadelphia IntlPHL70 mi12,000 ft
Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood MarshallBWI82 mi10,503 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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Compare

Put Lebanon side by side with a similar place.

Lebanon vs GreenvilleLebanon vs AkronLebanon vs ElkhartLebanon vs Hamilton

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
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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.

ZIP codes in Lebanon

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
1704631,835$62,22163