These Are The 10 Most Expensive Places In Pennsylvania To Raise A Family

I used to hate it back in high school when lunch would cost me literally 2 hours of work at my summer job. That’s partly because I lived in an expensive suburb of New York City where the cost of living is significantly higher than most of the country.

And much like my home town, these places in Pennsylvania cost more than the average place in the Keystone State. And the cost of living can have a big impact on how far your hard earned salary stretches for you and your family.

That’s where Zippia comes in; to show you the places that will eat up a big part of your paycheck on expenses — places like my hometown scattered around Pennsylvania. Where housing is expensive and day care will put you back a pretty penny.

These are the places in Pennsylvania where the cost of living is actually higher than the national average because, for the most part, Pennsylvania isn’t all that expensive.

After we crunched all the numbers, we were left with this set of the most expensive places to raise a family in the Keystone State:

Bethlehem
Dunmore
Easton
Lansdale
Phoenixville
West Chester
Emmaus
Lansdowne
Norristown
Yeadon

Read on to see how we determined the places that try to keep up with the Joneses a little too much.

How we determined the least affordable places to live in the Keystone State

There are basic necessities that you have to buy no matter where in the country you live. Those things include:

Housing
Food
Gas
Health Insurance
Utilities
Transportation

You can then compare the cost of these things in each of the places in Pennsylvania to figure out which is the most expensive.

What you are left with is a “Cost of Living Index” that normalizes to 100 for an average place in the United States. And lucky for us, Sperling’s Best Places has such an index for us.

So we used that cost of living index in order to rank the largest 50 cities in Pennsylvania.

And just so you can better understand how the cost of living index works, 100 is the average cost of a place in the United States. A score of 90 means that the place cost 10% less than average. A score of 120 means it’s 20% more expensive.

San Francisco has a score of 243 meaning it’s almost 2.5 times as expensive as the average place in the country.

1. Bethlehem

Population: 75,016

2. Dunmore

Population: 14,081

3. Easton

Population: 26,885

4. Lansdale

Population: 16,278

5. Phoenixville

Population: 16,430

6. West Chester

Population: 18,656

6. Emmaus

Population: 11,268

8. Lansdowne

Population: 10,634

9. Norristown

Population: 34,217

10. Yeadon

Source: Wikipedia

Population: 11,477

Full Table Of Expensive Places In Pennsylvania

City	Population	Expensive Score	Rank
Bethlehem	75,016	40.17	1
Dunmore	14,081	41.17	2
Easton	26,885	42.33	3
Lansdale	16,278	42.67	4
Phoenixville	16,430	42.83	5
West Chester	18,656	43.17	6
Emmaus	11,268	43.17	6
Lansdowne	10,634	43.5	8
Norristown	34,217	43.67	9
Yeadon	11,477	44.33	10
Philadelphia	1,525,811	45	11
Coatesville	13,029	45.17	12
Allentown	117,942	45.33	13
Pottstown	22,388	45.67	14
Whitehall	13,932	46	15
Wilkes-Barre	41,463	46.17	16
Darby	10,648	46.67	17
Kingston	13,180	48.5	18
State College	42,008	48.67	19
Chester	34,127	49	20
Scranton	76,021	49.17	21
Williamsport	29,441	49.5	22
Reading	87,926	50.33	23
Indiana	14,026	53.17	24
Franklin Park	13,462	53.17	24
Elizabethtown	11,579	53.5	26
Hanover	15,315	53.83	27
Chambersburg	20,217	54	28
Murrysville	20,075	54	28
Ephrata	13,426	54.67	30
Bethel Park	32,285	55	31
Altoona	46,434	55.67	32
Johnstown	20,976	56.5	33
Monroeville	28,322	56.67	34
Lancaster	59,205	56.83	35
Lower Burrell	11,765	57.17	36
Lebanon	25,495	57.5	37
Hazleton	25,166	57.5	37
York	43,677	57.83	39
Greensburg	14,881	57.83	39
Pittsburgh	306,430	58.5	41
Hermitage	16,252	58.67	42
Pottsville	14,315	59.5	43
New Kensington	13,157	59.67	44
West Mifflin	20,335	60	45
Munhall	11,405	60	45
Meadville	13,370	60.83	47
Erie	101,454	61	48
Mckeesport	19,877	61.17	49
New Castle	23,290	62.33	50

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Author

Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.

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