Pennsylvania by the numbers
In Pennsylvania, the median worker earns $48,550 a year, the typical home is worth $240,500 and carries $3,241 of property tax, and the average household pays $172 a month for electricity at 21.55¢ per kilowatt-hour.
Northeast PJM Retail choice statewide
Energy
Pennsylvania is a large net exporter of electricity. It has the second-largest nuclear fleet in the country, enormous Marcellus gas production feeding efficient combined-cycle plants, and a legacy coal fleet that has been shrinking. On fundamentals it should be a cheap state, and relative to its Northeast neighbours it is.
What is moving the rate is the same PJM capacity cost that hit New Jersey, Maryland and Ohio. Pennsylvania's utilities procure default supply through periodic auctions, and those auctions have repriced upward as capacity costs rose. The state's own generation abundance does not shield ratepayers, because generators sell into the regional market at the regional price rather than to local customers at cost.
Delivery costs have also risen as utilities recover distribution system improvement charges, a Pennsylvania mechanism that lets them recover infrastructure spending between full rate cases.
Averaged across the twelve months to May 2026, Pennsylvania households used 845 kilowatt-hours a month and paid $172. At the state median wage that is about 7.4 hours of work a month to keep the lights on. For heating, gas is still cheaper to run than a heat pump here, by about $6.46 per million BTU.
Work and pay
The median Pennsylvania worker earned $48,550 in 2024, 1.9% below the national median. What distinguishes a state's labour market is rarely its biggest occupations, which are retail and food service everywhere, but what it has disproportionately.
| Occupation | Concentration | Median pay |
|---|---|---|
| Shampooers | 3.5× | $27,280 |
| Ambulance Drivers and Attendants, Except Emergency Medical Technicians | 3.28× | $32,630 |
| Pourers and Casters, Metal | 2.99× | $44,060 |
| Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tenders | 2.82× | $60,200 |
| Chemists | 2.79× | $63,450 |
Property tax
The median Pennsylvania homeowner pays $3,241 a year on a home worth $240,500, an effective rate of 1.35% against a national 0.98%. Nobody sets that rate. It is what falls out of county, city, school district and special district levies applied to an assessed value, so the state figure is a weighted average of 66 counties rather than a posted number.
Cost of living
Prices in Pennsylvania run at 97.6 where the national average is 100, ranking it #24 of 51. Goods sit at 99.4, which is close to national almost everywhere because most goods are shipped and priced nationally. Rents sit at 85.1, and that is where states actually separate from one another. A median wage of $48,550 therefore buys what $49,744 buys nationally.
Metro areas priced separately: Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington (102.6) , Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton (100.0) , Harrisburg-Carlisle (98.7) , Lancaster (98.3) , Reading (97.1) .
Housing
House prices in Pennsylvania rose 3.9% over the year to 2026 Q2, against a median across all states of +2.7%. Over ten years the index is +90.8%. Prices are at or near their record level.
Metro areas tracked here: Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton (+6.9%) , Pittsburgh (+2.9%) .
Who supplies the power
21 utilities report residential service in Pennsylvania, together serving 4.2 million customers. Retail choice statewide.
Pennsylvania: common questions
What does it cost to live in Pennsylvania?
Prices overall run at 97.6 against a national average of 100, with rents at 85.1. The typical home is worth $240,500 and carries $3,241 a year in property tax, an effective rate of 1.35% against a national 0.98%. Electricity averages $172 a month at 21.55¢ per kilowatt-hour. Against that, the median wage is $48,550.
What is the property tax rate in Pennsylvania?
The effective rate is 1.35% of home value, from a median bill of $3,241. It is set locally rather than by the state, so the figure is a weighted outcome across 66 counties. County by county rates.
Does a salary go further in Pennsylvania?
The median wage of $48,550 buys what $49,744 buys nationally, once local prices are taken out. A state paying above the national median while charging above it for housing can leave a household no better off, and this is the arithmetic that shows which side of that line Pennsylvania falls on.
Is Pennsylvania expensive for electricity?
It ranks #16 of 51 jurisdictions on price at 21.55¢ per kilowatt-hour, +16.9% against the U.S. average. On the actual bill it ranks 7 of 51, because households there use 845 kWh a month against a national 871.
What is the median salary in Pennsylvania?
$48,550 across all occupations, about $23.34 an hour, covering 6,014,180 wage and salary workers as of 2024.
Who supplies electricity in Pennsylvania?
21 utilities report residential service, the largest being FirstEnergy Pennsylvania Electric Co with 1.5 million customers. Retail choice statewide.
Electricity May 2026, gas 2024, utilities 2024, wages 2024. All figures from federal statistical agencies. Methodology · Sources