Luzerne, PA population, income and ZIP codes

Luzerne borough is a small town in Pennsylvania, with 2,720 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #521 of 2,002 ranked by population — larger than 74% of them. The median age here is 50.1 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in Luzerne borough earn a median of $39,257 a year, 50% below the national figure of $78,538 and 45% below the $71,118 median for the 982 Pennsylvania cities we cover. Household income here is measured before tax and pooled across everyone at the address, which is why it reads higher than typical individual earnings in the same area. Poverty reaches 21.8% of residents here, well above the 12.4% national rate, which is the single clearest signal in this dataset that median income here is carried by a narrow band of households.

The typical owner-occupied home in Luzerne borough is valued at $113,700, 62.5% below the national figure and 41% below the $193,200 peer median, while median gross rent runs $758 a month, 46.1% below the national figure, or roughly $9,096 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 23.2% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 2.9×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 59.5% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

A median age of 50.1 puts Luzerne borough well into retirement-weighted territory, which pulls median household income down even where household wealth is high, because retirement draws are counted differently from wages.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.