Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Ephrata Township is a solid, middle-of-the-road choice. It grades C+ overall, 784th among Pennsylvania's 1032 graded towns, with no subject far below average. Its best mark is incomes: the median household earns $85K. Expect to pay for it: homes are expensive, about $344K for a typical one and 4 times the Lancaster metro’s $87K median household income. 20% of the land in Ephrata Township is conserved, where Pennsylvania’s towns sit at 8.2% and U.S. towns at 4.3%. Its National Register listings include Keller's Covered Bridge and Hibshman Farm. Ephrata Township is easier to get around on foot or by transit than 71% of U.S. towns.
Where Ephrata Township beats most towns.
Census counts: 392 in 1880, a low of 392 in 1880, 13,794 in 2020. The archive holds 76 old photos and papers going back to 1701 and 6 maps from 1906 on.
4 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Pennsylvania), ordered by how far Ephrata Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Ephrata Township. Close and well known come first.
29 mi Theme parkHersheypark3.0M visitors a year
3 mi MuseumEphrata Cloister
10 mi Theme parkDutch Wonderland
32 mi GardenLongwood Gardens
38 mi MuseumWinterthur Museum, Garden and Library
13 mi MuseumRailroad Museum of PennsylvaniaHersheypark: Michael Gray, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Ephrata Cloister: 1549bcp at English Wikipedia, Public domain · Dutch Wonderland: FlugKerl2, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Longwood Gardens: P. Hughes, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library: Photo by and (c)2007 Derek Ramsey (Ram-Man), CC BY-SA 2.5 · Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania: Dough4872, Public domain
Who provides power, water and the rest in Ephrata Township, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in Ephrata Township.
Ephrata Township trades workers with Ephrata and other neighbors, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Pennsylvania (mostly inland flooding).
Across 7 parks and preserves: 2.2 miles of trail. The biggest park or preserve is Ephrata Mountain Conservation Area, at 60 acres. Ephrata Township’s concentration of trails stands at 0.1 miles per square mile, against 0.5 in Pennsylvania’s towns and 0.4 across U.S. towns.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Ephrata Township Community Park | 0.6 mi | 52 |
| 2. Ephrata Mountain Conservation Area | 0.4 mi | 60 |
| 3. Lloyd H. Roland Memorial Park | 0.2 mi | 18 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
One of its 3 schools is below, with the reason it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ephrata Mennonite School PrivateLargest high schoolGrades 1–12 | Grades 1–12 | 353 | – |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within PA on state tests and graduation
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 90% of Pennsylvania towns, with expected losses of about $157 per resident a year; that rating is what its C+ for hazard risk is built on.
FEMA puts just over three quarters of Ephrata Township’s expected hazard losses down to inland flooding, and 10% to hurricanes. The natural-hazard score from FEMA in the town is 68 of 100. 33 flood insurance claims have been paid in the town since 1978.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
July afternoons reach 86°, January nights drop to 22° and about 34 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Ephrata Township has about as many jobs (4,560) as working residents, but only 341 people both live and work here.
The top destinations are Ephrata (7%), Manheim Township (6%) and East Cocalico Township (6%). Ephrata Township had 4,560 jobs in 2023, up 380 from 2013. Half the trips to work are shorter than 10 miles.
| Ephrata Township | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 24 minutes | 26 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 6.7% | 7.6% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $85,000 | $81,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
In Ephrata Township, 18% of adults binge drink. For adults in the town, the share who have high blood pressure is 32%.
| Ephrata Township | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 32% | 34% | 35% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 18% | 16% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 17% | 14% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 38% | 38% | 36% |
| What stands out | Ephrata Township | PA |
|---|---|---|
| More uninsured adults | 7.8% | 5.8% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Here, 28% of adults 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree, against 35% in Pennsylvania as a whole. No age group stands out against Pennsylvania: all are within 4 points. 10,675 people lived in Ephrata Township by the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate, 2.9% more than in 2020.
| Ephrata Township | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 22% | 20% | 22% |
| Median age | 40.9 years | 43.2 years | 40.5 years |
52% women, 48% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±3 points. Across Pennsylvania, 50.7% of residents are women.
| Ephrata Township | PA | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 10.8% | 10.8% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 11.2% | 9.7% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 7.8% | 9% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 13.8% | 13% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 12.8% | 12.6% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 10.1% | 11.9% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 13% | 13.6% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 11.6% | 11.4% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 8.8% | 8.1% | 7% |
| No diploma | 11.5% | 7.9% | 10.4% |
| High school | 37% | 32.9% | 26% |
| Some college | 15.9% | 15.1% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 7.8% | 8.9% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 17.5% | 20.9% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 10.3% | 14.3% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
8 within 15 miles of the center of Ephrata Township
About 4 of every 100 Ephrata Township residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Pennsylvania.
9,400 counted in 2010 and 10,386 in 2020; an estimated 10,675 in 2025.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts · Census Bureau estimate, July 1, 2025
4 places in Ephrata Township on the National Register of Historic Places.
Borough in Pennsylvania, US
Ephrata ( EF-rə-tə; Pennsylvania German: Effridaa) is a borough in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located 42 miles (68 km) east of Harrisburg and about 60 miles (97 km) west-northwest of Philadelphia and is named after Ephrath, the former name for current-day Bethlehem. In its early history, Ephrata was a pleasure resort and an agricultural community. Ephrata's population has steadily grown over the last century. In 1900, 2,452 people lived there, and by 1940, the population had increased to 6,199. The population was 13,794 at the 2020 census. Ephrata is the most populous borough in Lancaster County. Ephrata's sister city is Eberbach, Germany, the city where its founde…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
10 towns share a border with Ephrata Township.
| Town | PA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ephrata Township | #784 | C+ | C− | — | B− | B |
| Ephrata | #370 | A− | B | A− | B− | B |
| East Cocalico Township | #208 | A | C+ | A | A− | B |
| Warwick Township | #338 | A− | C | — | A− | A− |
| Akron | #504 | B+ | C+ | — | B− | B |
| West Earl Township | #220 | A | C+ | A+ | B+ | B |
| Rothsville | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Earl Township | #792 | C+ | C+ | — | C+ | C+ |
Ephrata Township, Warwick Township, Akron and Earl Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Rothsville isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Ephrata Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Ephrata Township grades C+ overall, better than 41% of U.S. towns and #784 of 1032 in Pennsylvania. It grades B for health and B− for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a C−.
Yes. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C−.
