Laflin is a borough in the Greater Pittston area of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,443 at the time of the 2020 census.
History
Laflin was incorporated as a borough in 1889. It was likely named for one of the owners of the Laflin & Rand Powder Company. The following year, in 1890, the population of the newly formed borough was just over two hundred. Coal mining led to a population boom in the region.
Laflin witnessed its greatest increase between 1970 and 1980, when the number of residents grew by over 313% (or from 399 people to 1,650 people).
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of , all of it land.
Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 1,502 people, 612 households, and 452 families residing in the borough.
The population density was . There were 632 housing units at an average density of .
The racial makeup of the borough was 95.61% White, 0.13% African American, 3.66% Asian, 0.13% from other races, and 0.47% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.60% of the population.
There were 612 households, out of which 26.6% had children under the age of eighteen living with them; 62.9% were married couples living together, 9.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.1% were non-families. 24.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.1% had someone living alone who was sixty-five years of age or older.
The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 2.90.
In the borough the population was spread out, with 20.5% under the age of eighteen, 4.5% from eighteen to twenty-four, 24.8% from twenty-five to forty-four, 33.4% from forty-five to sixty-four, and 16.8% who were sixty-five years of age or older. The median age was forty-five years.
For every one hundred females there were 88.9 males. For every one hundred females aged eighteen and over, there were 86.9 males.
The median income for a household in the borough was $55,658, and the median income for a family was $69,226. Males had a median income of $50,433 compared with that of $29,375 for females.
The per capita income for the borough was $29,581.
Roughly 1.5% of families and 2.5% of the population were living below the poverty line, including 4.0% of those who were under the age of eighteen and 3.9% of those who were aged sixty-five or over.
Government
The government consists of a mayor and a five-member borough council. The mayor is William C Kennedy, and members of the Borough Council include: Carl Yastremski, (president), Anthony D'Eliseo, (vice-president), Paul Benderavich, Kyle Costello, and Marc Malvizzi.
Infrastructure
Major highways include Interstate 81 and Route 315.