Now that the State Board of Education has adopted new regulations requiring all Pennsylvania school districts to develop a strategic plan, it seems useful to describe the role of demographic information in that planning process. This Pennsylvania Educational Policy Studies (PEPS) report provides a rationale for considering information regarding key environmental factors in the district's strategic planning process. The factors considered include those representing the family environment, the community, and the possible competition from non-public schools. This paper also describes ways in which Pennsylvania's school districts vary with respect to these demographic factors, and how the latest version of PEPS PC (a user-friendly personal computer program) makes it possible for districts to describe themselves relative to other districts in the state using these key environmental indicators. Ten figures illustrate the discussion. (Contains 15 references.) (Author/SLD)