Lancaster County vs Middlesex County

A side-by-side comparison of Lancaster County and Middlesex County: population, income, housing, and more.

Lancaster County and Middlesex County are counties in Virginia. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Lancaster County has the higher population (10,876 vs 10,774 in Middlesex County). Middlesex County has the higher median household income ($74,154 vs $67,169 in Lancaster County). Lancaster County has the higher median home value ($307,600 vs $299,800 in Middlesex County).

Population, income & housing

	Lancaster County	Middlesex County
Population	10,876	10,774
Median age	59.1 yrs	55.5 yrs
Median household income	$67,169	$74,154
Median home value	$307,600	$299,800
Median gross rent	$978	$1,071
Housing units	7,483	7,140
Homeownership rate	79.8%	85.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	37.4%	31.6%
Unemployment rate	10.0%	4.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lancaster County	Middlesex County
Population	10,724 → 10,876 (+1.4%)	10,675 → 10,774 (+0.9%)
Median household income	$53,711 → $67,169 (+25.1%)	$57,438 → $74,154 (+29.1%)
Median home value	$257,200 → $307,600 (+19.6%)	$261,900 → $299,800 (+14.5%)
Median gross rent	$763 → $978 (+28.2%)	$844 → $1,071 (+26.9%)

Lancaster County

Population

10,72410,876

Median household income

$53,711$67,169

Median home value

$257,200$307,600

Median gross rent

$763$978

Middlesex County

Population

10,67510,774

Median household income

$57,438$74,154

Median home value

$261,900$299,800

Median gross rent

$844$1,071

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Lancaster County	Middlesex County
Under 5	3.1%	3.4%
5 to 17	11.6%	12.5%
18 to 24	4.7%	5.2%
25 to 34	7.5%	10.1%
35 to 44	6.3%	7.7%
45 to 54	10.9%	10.4%
55 to 64	15.9%	17.2%
65 to 74	21.7%	18.8%
75 and over	18.3%	14.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lancaster County	Middlesex County
White (non-Hispanic)	67.3%	78.0%
Black or African American	27.6%	14.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.5%	1.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.1%
Some other race	0.5%	0.2%
Two or more races	2.6%	2.8%
Hispanic or Latino	1.6%	2.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lancaster County	Middlesex County
No high school diploma	13.0%	8.7%
High school graduate	27.4%	30.2%
Some college or associate's	22.1%	29.4%
Bachelor's degree	21.7%	21.1%
Graduate or professional degree	15.7%	10.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lancaster County	Middlesex County
Drove alone	79.2%	70.4%
Carpooled	3.9%	6.8%
Public transit	0.4%	0.6%
Walked	0.6%	0.7%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.0%
Worked from home	13.8%	20.3%
Other means	2.0%	1.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lancaster County	Middlesex County
1-unit, detached	83.7%	84.5%
1-unit, attached	2.3%	2.0%
2 to 4 units	5.7%	3.1%
5 to 19 units	3.1%	1.7%
20 or more units	1.3%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	4.0%	8.7%

Poverty & households

	Lancaster County	Middlesex County
Poverty rate	13.1%	9.5%
Average household size	1.94	2.19
Mean commute (minutes)	25	31
Median year structure built	1981	1982