Lykens, Pennsylvania.
. Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$793 (+111%) since Jan 2020.
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Pennsylvania$1,507
- United States$1,922
Living in Lykens, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania
Lykens is a borough of 1,873 people in Dauphin County. Half its households earn more than $73,318 a year and half less, against $76,242 across Dauphin County. Unemployment in Dauphin County was 4.1% in August 2026, and the county had 0.1% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Dauphin County work in schools and health care, then shops.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Lykens is a small borough in Dauphin County, with a population that skews older than much of the country. Household incomes run a little below the county's, and a four-year degree is less common among adults here than in many places. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and a good deal of snow, while summers are warm, and rain and melted snow add up to a fair amount over the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in professional and business services, and in government. Across Dauphin County, the largest workplaces include the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, UPMC Pinnacle Hospitals and the Hersheypark Entertainment Complex. Commutes are on the long side, and a fair number of people work from home. Unemployment across the county has eased compared with a year earlier, and the number of jobs there has held roughly steady.
Things to do. Fort Swatara is in or beside town, a historic fort close to home. A longer drive away, Hersheypark is an amusement park, and the Schuylkill River offers a river to visit. The rides within the park, such as Great Bear, are among the tourist attractions people travel for.
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- 828households
- 13%of adults have a degree
- 30 mintypical commute
- 19%work from home
What people in Dauphin County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Dauphin County had 190,394 jobs in 2025, 0.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 37° and lows near 20°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 60°. About 28 inches of snow and 51 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Dehart Dam weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Dauphin County
- Milton S. Hershey Medical CenterGeneral hospital6,685FTE
- Upmc Pinnacle HospitalsGeneral hospital4,482FTE
- Hersheypark Entertainment ComplexAmusement and theme parks2,950
- UPSCouriers and express delivery services2,941
- Pinnacle Health Medical ServicesOffices of physicians2,368
- Harrisburg Area Community CollegeTwo-year college2,087
- Commonwealth Charter Academy CSSchool district1,799FTE
- Central Dauphin SDSchool district1,789FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 303 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 57,633 people in all across the county; Lykens has one of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) and school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Inland floodingVery high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Lykens’ census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Dauphin County and the Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA metro.
Lykens home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Lykens15
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Lykens7
Zip codes with a Lykens address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Lykens — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.