Lancaster vs Wilmington
Metro-area medians — Lancaster, PA Metro Area vs Wilmington, NC Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Wilmington comes out ahead, winning 5 of the 9 clearly-decided measures.
Lancaster and Wilmington cost about the same to live in, but Lancaster households earn about 9% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Lancaster.
For your salary & household
Enter your pay and household size to see what it's really worth here — the numbers update live and the link stays shareable.
On $75,000 for just you, Wilmington leaves you about $787/yr better off after tax and local prices.
Take-home estimates a single filer taking the standard deduction (2025 federal brackets, FICA, and state income tax) and isn't tax advice. “Real value” rebases take-home to average U.S. prices using the BEA cost-of-living index; the per-person figure uses the OECD square-root equivalence scale.
Choose Lancaster for
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
- + Median rent
- + Median home value
Choose Wilmington for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Unemployment
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
- + Average commute
- + Air quality (median AQI)
Lancaster vs Wilmington — frequently asked
- Is Lancaster cheaper than Wilmington?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Lancaster and Wilmington metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Lancaster or Wilmington?
- Lancaster has the higher median household income — $85,802 versus $78,890 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 9% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Lancaster or Wilmington?
- A paycheck stretches further in Lancaster. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $87,324 there versus $81,817 in Wilmington.
- Which has cheaper rent, Lancaster or Wilmington?
- Lancaster has cheaper rent — a median of $1,449/mo versus $1,578/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).