Harrisburg vs Hershey

A side-by-side comparison of Harrisburg and Hershey: population, income, housing, and more.

Harrisburg and Hershey are places in Pennsylvania. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Harrisburg has the higher population (50,092 vs 14,334 in Hershey). Hershey has the higher median household income ($78,750 vs $47,783 in Harrisburg). Hershey has the higher median home value ($339,300 vs $121,000 in Harrisburg).

Population, income & housing

	Harrisburg	Hershey
Population	50,092	14,334
Median age	32.8 yrs	45.2 yrs
Median household income	$47,783	$78,750
Median home value	$121,000	$339,300
Median gross rent	$996	$1,241
Housing units	24,496	5,791
Homeownership rate	36.5%	54.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	26.3%	49.1%
Unemployment rate	9.4%	4.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Harrisburg	Hershey
Population	49,209 → 50,092 (+1.8%)	14,654 → 14,334 (-2.2%)
Median household income	$39,685 → $47,783 (+20.4%)	$69,688 → $78,750 (+13.0%)
Median home value	$80,800 → $121,000 (+49.8%)	$272,100 → $339,300 (+24.7%)
Median gross rent	$856 → $996 (+16.4%)	$1,058 → $1,241 (+17.3%)

Harrisburg

Population

49,20950,092

Median household income

$39,685$47,783

Median home value

$80,800$121,000

Median gross rent

$856$996

Hershey

Population

14,65414,334

Median household income

$69,688$78,750

Median home value

$272,100$339,300

Median gross rent

$1,058$1,241

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Harrisburg	Hershey
Under 5	7.6%	3.1%
5 to 17	19.9%	15.2%
18 to 24	8.9%	10.0%
25 to 34	17.6%	12.9%
35 to 44	12.8%	8.7%
45 to 54	10.5%	16.7%
55 to 64	11.0%	14.7%
65 to 74	6.9%	10.2%
75 and over	4.7%	8.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Harrisburg	Hershey
White (non-Hispanic)	25.9%	71.1%
Black or African American	41.5%	3.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.0%
Asian	2.6%	8.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	2.9%
Two or more races	4.3%	2.7%
Hispanic or Latino	25.0%	11.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Harrisburg	Hershey
No high school diploma	14.5%	10.5%
High school graduate	32.6%	16.3%
Some college or associate's	26.6%	24.1%
Bachelor's degree	16.2%	29.5%
Graduate or professional degree	10.1%	19.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Harrisburg	Hershey
Drove alone	58.5%	68.1%
Carpooled	9.7%	3.5%
Public transit	5.6%	0.5%
Walked	9.3%	4.6%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.8%
Worked from home	13.8%	21.7%
Other means	2.8%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Harrisburg	Hershey
1-unit, detached	14.5%	49.7%
1-unit, attached	44.1%	14.6%
2 to 4 units	13.2%	10.5%
5 to 19 units	12.8%	13.7%
20 or more units	14.4%	11.5%
Mobile home & other	0.9%	0.1%

Poverty & households

	Harrisburg	Hershey
Poverty rate	29.1%	9.0%
Average household size	2.23	2.25
Mean commute (minutes)	21	17
Median year structure built	1947	1970