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Tuesday, February 14, 2012

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Home > Community Development > Community Profiles > Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) > Demographics and Economic Data

Community Profile: Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)

Demographics and Economic Data

Included in this section is a brief summary of demographic and economic data. Detailed data can be accessed through the following websites:

• Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council : The website includes a geocoding/mapping system that allows users to obtain census data based on specific street addresses and a census report system that provides census information by census tract within a county or MSA.
• PolicyMap : This geographic information system, which includes an interactive mapping tool developed by The Reinvestment Fund, allows users to create custom maps, tables, and charts for over 10,000 indicators and provides the ability to plot external data.
• U.S. Census Bureau American FactFinder : Official source for population, housing, economic, and geographic data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Included below is a summary of the following data:

• Population
• Income
• Poverty Level
• Housing Units
• Housing Permits
• Local Industries
• Unemployment Rate
• Education

Note

The Office of Management and Budget modified MSA boundaries effective January 1, 2004, at which time the boundary for the Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA MSA changed. The MSA was previously called the Harrisburg-Lebanon-Carlisle, PA MSA and included Lebanon County. With the boundary modifications, Lebanon County became a separate MSA in 2004.

Unless otherwise noted, the data in this section, including data from the 2000 census, are based on the updated boundary for the Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA MSA effective January 1, 2004. The data include the following three counties: Cumberland, Perry, and Dauphin.

Population1

The population of the Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA MSA rose from 474,242 in 1990 to 509,074 in 2000, a 7.3 percent increase. During the same period, the state of Pennsylvania experienced a population increase of 3.4 percent, while the city of Harrisburg lost 6.3 percent of its population.

Table 1 shows the racial composition of the state of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA MSA, and the city of Harrisburg based on the 2000 census. In the city of Harrisburg, 53.3 percent of the population was black or African American, compared to 9.9 percent of the population for the state and 9.2 percent for the Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA MSA. The last line of the table represents the percentage of the total population who stated they were Hispanic or Latino in origin.

The racial composition of the Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA MSA is illustrated in Figure 1.

The racial composition of those who reported they were Hispanic or Latino in origin within the Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA MSA (2.7 percent of the total population for the MSA) is illustrated in Figure 2.

Income

The 1999 household median income for the Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA MSA was $43,673, and the family median income was $52,961.2 Statewide, the household median income was $40,106, and the family median income was $49,184. In the same year, the household median income for the city of Harrisburg was $26,920, and the family median income was $29,556.1

The term low- and moderate-income persons (LMI) is used for CRA and community development purposes and includes people and communities whose income is less than 80 percent of the area median income. People and communities whose income is less than 50 percent of the area median income are considered low income and those whose income exceeds 50 percent, but does not exceed 80 percent, are considered moderate income.

In 2000, there were 202,456 households within the Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA MSA. Of all households in all census tracts, 21.2 percent were households with low incomes and 17.9 percent were households with moderate incomes. A household's income is not necessarily an indicator of the income of the census tract in which the household resides. As Table 2 indicates, 65.3 percent of all households with low incomes resided in middle- and upper-income census tracts and 75.2 percent of all households with moderate incomes resided in middle- and upper-income census tracts. 3

In 2007, there were 111 census tracts in the Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA MSA. Of the total, five were low-income tracts and 26 were moderate-income tracts. In the city of Harrisburg, there were 15 census tracts. Of the total, five were low-income tracts and nine were moderate-income tracts.3

Poverty Level1

In 1999, the Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA MSA had 40,094 residents living below the poverty line, or 8.2 percent of the MSA population. Statewide, 11.0 percent of the population was living below the poverty line. The city of Harrisburg had 11,849 residents (24.6 percent of the total population) living below the poverty line.

Information about how the U.S. Census Bureau measures poverty is available through its website.

Housing Units1

In 2000, the Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA MSA had a total of 217,025 housing units, of which 93.3 percent were occupied and 6.7 percent were vacant. Of the occupied housing units, 69.7 percent were occupied by the owner, and 30.3 percent were occupied by a renter. The state of Pennsylvania had a total of 5,249,750 housing units, of which 91.0 percent were occupied and 9.0 percent were vacant. The city of Harrisburg had a total of 24,337 housing units, of which 84.6 percent were occupied and 15.4 percent were vacant.

The reasons for vacancies are illustrated in Figure 3.

Housing Permits4

In January 2007, 98.4 housing permits for new, privately owned houses in the Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA MSA were issued. Of this group, 93.7 housing permits were for 1- to 4-unit homes. These numbers have been seasonally adjusted.

More current information regarding housing permits in the Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA MSA and other areas within the Third Federal Reserve District is available through a database on the Regional Employment, Unemployment, and Selected Statistics page of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Research Department.

Local Industries4

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Research Department maintains a database of monthly employment data by industry for the Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA MSA (Excel spreadsheet). Please note that all values for industry employment in this file are in thousands.

Unemployment Rate5

In 2006, the Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA MSA had an annual unemployment rate of 3.8 percent, compared with a rate of 4.7 percent for the state of Pennsylvania. The city of Harrisburg had an annual unemployment rate of 5.7 percent for the same year.

More recent unemployment data are available through the Bureau of Labor Statistics website.

Education1

Overall, the Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA MSA population is well educated: 24.3 percent of the population that is 25 years of age or older has a bachelor’s degree or higher. In the city of Harrisburg, however, only 14.3 percent of the population that is 25 years of age or older has received a bachelor’s degree or higher. For the state of Pennsylvania, this figure is 22.4 percent. See Figure 4 for more details.

• 1 Source: U.S. Census Bureau, “2000 Census – Summary File 3,” http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en 
• 2 Source: Estimates for median household income and median family income provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, “2000 Census – Summary File 3,” http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en . Actual median household income falls within the range of $40,000 to $44,999. Actual median family income falls within the range of $50,000 to $59,999.
• 3 Source: Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), http://www.ffiec.gov. 
• 4 Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Research Department, “Regional Employment, Unemployment, and Selected Statistics,” http://www.philadelphiafed.org/research-and-data/regional-economy/ 
• 5 Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Local Area Unemployment Statistics,” 2005 annual data, http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/outside.jsp?survey=la 

• Last updated: Friday, November 9, 2007