Photo: W.marsh · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Lancaster earn less than those in 94% of U.S. towns
About one in seven work in Lancaster itself; outside it, Lexington draws the most (18%, 30 miles). The poverty rate is 29.1% (Kentucky 16.1%). Lancaster grades D for jobs and income and D for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Lancaster at work: what stands out
Inside Lancaster’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Lancaster is better than 6% of U.S. towns, #132 of 142 in Kentucky. Job access by car holds Lancaster’s grade up (ahead of 44% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (11.7%, U.S. 5.2%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lancaster could be anywhere from D− to C−.
How many miles Lancaster commutes
About 17% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
The daily flow of workers through Lancaster
On a workday 1,336 residents head out to work, 234 work right here, and 1,018 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.80 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
The towns that employ Lancaster’s residents
Where Lancaster clocks in
12% of workers
6% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Lancaster is a services town
1,252 jobs are based in Lancaster.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lancaster, 2013 → 2023: 1,186 → 1,252. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Lancaster’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 26 minutes each way, longer than most of Kentucky
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lancaster workers work from home, vs 10% across Kentucky. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,357 commuters (the 9% who work from home are left out). Across Kentucky: 85% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
In Lancaster, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lancaster is more walkable than 10% of U.S. towns, #139 of 142 in Kentucky. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.1% across Kentucky.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,491 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 10.0% of Lancaster households have no vehicle (Kentucky 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lancaster’s commuters take a bus or train.
Lancaster and other U.S. towns of 2,900 to 5,500
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | Indian Hills KY | 2,939 | $192K | 2.6% | 0.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 89 | Buckner KY | 4,119 | $164K | 0.1% | 2.1% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 286 | Prospect KY | 4,705 | $163K | 2.4% | 4.2% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,803 | Clarion PA | 4,037 | $47K | 23.9% | 9.8% | 16% | D |
| 3,804 | Oxford Township OH | 4,637 | $54K | 31.3% | 16.7% | 20% | D |
| 3,805 | Lancaster KY | 4,111 | $44K | 29.1% | 11.7% | 15% | D |
| 3,806 | Sidney NY | 5,391 | $52K | 19.7% | 8.6% | 21% | D |
| 3,807 | Eastpoint FL | 3,163 | $68K | 18.8% | 16.4% | 15% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,023 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Lancaster, the top three, the last and three more from Kentucky.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Lancaster: questions
What is the median household income in Lancaster?
$43,898 (±$10,264) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,726 across Kentucky and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lancaster?
29.1%, against 16.1% across Kentucky and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lancaster?
26 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Kentucky and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lancaster work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lexington (18%, 30 mi), Danville (12%, 11 mi), Nicholasville (6%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lancaster walkable?
Lancaster is more walkable than 10% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.4 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lancaster without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lancaster, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lancaster
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.