ZIP code 17603

ZIP 17603 is a small city in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, with 66,788 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #3 of 1,833 ranked by population — larger than 99% of them. The median age here is 35.5 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly younger profile than the country as a whole. At this size the Census also publishes one-year estimates; the five-year values used here are steadier and let you compare against smaller neighbours on the same basis.

Households in ZIP 17603 earn a median of $77,156 a year, 1.8% below the national figure of $78,538. The median is the midpoint household, not an average, so a handful of very high earners cannot drag it upward the way they distort a mean. Poverty reaches 14.8% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 17603 is valued at $244,500, 19.4% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,265 a month, 10% below the national figure, or roughly $15,180 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 19.7% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 3.2×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 62.4% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

Every value on this page is published directly by the Census for this area — nothing is modelled or interpolated. 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.

ZIP 17603 is tabulated inside Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, one of 53 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 1,833 across Pennsylvania. This is a dense urban ZIP, where a single postal boundary can hold more residents than an entire rural county. County assignment on this page follows the largest share of the ZIP's land area, which matters where a delivery route crosses a county line: mail addressed to 17603 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 17603 reports a median household income of $77,156, 11% below the $86,848 county median, and 10% above the $70,000 typical PA ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $244,500, 16% below the county figure and 30% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,265 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Pennsylvania charges 6% statewide, and local governments overlapping 17603 may add county, city or special-district levies on top. We publish the state floor for this ZIP rather than guessing a combined figure, because ZIP boundaries and taxing-district boundaries were drawn for different purposes and do not line up.

Everything above comes from the Census Bureau American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates for this ZIP Code Tabulation Area, with sales tax rates traced to the state revenue agency. Five-year estimates pool sixty months of responses, so they are stable enough to compare 17603 with its neighbours but always trail the current year, and any value the Census suppressed for sample size is shown as unpublished rather than filled in with a model.