Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania

County ranked by announced AI data-center load

Undisclosed Announced AI load

Campuses

Lead operator

AWS

Resi rate Δ (PPL)

-0.3%

Home price Δ (3y)

+23.5%

Property tax Δ (3y)

+5.2%

Population (2024 ACS)

144K

Median HH income (2024 ACS)

$68,313

Key takeaways

Schuylkill County's population peaked at 235,505 in the 1930 census and has fallen to 143,558. Anthracite output peaked in 1917 and now only four underground mines and 17 surface mines remain, the rump of an industry that once defined the region.Source: Census ACS 2024 B01003 + sources[0] (Wikipedia: Schuylkill County)
PPL's residential rate slipped 0.3% from 2021 to 2023, an outlier flat in the Mid-Atlantic. The 346-acre Tobyhanna campus in Kline Township is on a utility that has not yet been asked to absorb a publicly disclosed AI load number.Source: data/cache/utility_rate_yoy.csv (PPL Electric Utilities Corp, PA) + data/sites/data_centers.csv
Home prices are up 23.5% over three years on a median household income of $68,313 and a median home value of $153,000, the largest 3-year home-price jump in any batch-4 county. Wind already supplies 80% of the county's 25% renewable electricity share, so the AWS site is landing in a county where the rural grid is unusually clean.Source: data/cache/realestate_yoy.csv (FIPS 42107) + Census ACS 2024 B19013, B25077 + sources[0]
AWS has not disclosed Tobyhanna's MW or campus count, and Schuylkill is the only batch-4 county where the lead operator is AWS rather than a hyperscaler with a public site map. The bachelor's-degree share is 19.9%, low for an East Coast county.Source: data/sites/data_centers.csv (Tobyhanna Kline) + Census ACS 2024 B15003

Manufacturing still employs 19.3% of Schuylkill's workforce (12,504 jobs), the highest manufacturing share of any Pennsylvania AI county and the second-highest in the batch-3 set. The county replaced anthracite with food processing (Yuengling, Wegmans distribution) rather than the service economy the AWS Tobyhanna build implies.Source: Census ACS 2023 C24050 (Schuylkill County, PA)
Only 84.7% of Schuylkill households have wired broadband, the lowest connectivity rate among Pennsylvania AI counties. The same Kline Township the AWS campus sits in is part of the rural northern-tier broadband gap PennDOT and PUC have been documenting since 2018.Source: Census ACS 2023 B28002 (Schuylkill County, PA)
Schuylkill is 89.7% white and just 6.8% Hispanic, the most racially homogeneous county in the batch-3 set. The Pottsville and Schuylkill Haven labor pool that Yuengling has hired from for 195 years is the same one AWS construction crews now compete for.Source: Census ACS 2023 B02001 and B03003 (Schuylkill County, PA)
76.3% of Schuylkill housing is owner-occupied, the highest ownership rate in any Pennsylvania AI county. Median gross rent is just $842, the second-lowest in the batch-3 set after Trumbull OH, which makes the 23.5% home-price spike a homeowner equity story rather than a renter displacement one.Source: Census ACS 2023 B25003 and B25064 (Schuylkill County, PA)