The Town of Lancaster is a bedroom community serving the more urban Clinton, Leominster and Worcester.  The town has little industry, but does contain some working farms. 

Lancaster offers a spread of municipal services to its residents, and the school system, which includes one elementary and one middle school, has long held a high reputation for academic excellence, although municipal budget cuts are causing concern among residents about the continuance of the town's school standards.  The town's high school students attend the Nashoba Valley Regional High School, which also has a strong academic reputation. Lancaster is the site of a half-dozen private schools, including South Lancaster Academy, the Dr. Franklin Perkins School, a comprehensive service agency for children, adolescents, adults and senior citizens, and the Atlantic Union College, a Seventh-Day Adventist school. A significant number of town residents are Adventists and the group hosts a gathering of their co-religionists from around the country each summer. 

Lancaster has only one restaurant and no taverns, having been a dry town since its incorporation in 1653.  As residents note, "It's a quiet, little town."