Today, the 167-acre main campus of Luzerne County Community College is located within the city.

The name Nanticoke was derived from Nentego ("tidewater people"), an Algonquian-speaking Native American people who moved to the Wyoming Valley when their Chesapeake Bay homelands were spoiled for hunting by the European settlers.

[5] All of these names were described as erroneous in Henry C. Bradsby's 1893 book History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.

The settlement was incorporated as a village in 1830; Nanticoke was chartered by the Pennsylvania Legislature as a borough on January 31, 1874.

[6] The citizens voted in the fall of 1924 to form a city government; and elections were held the following year.

[8] The city gained prominence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as an active anthracite coal mining community, drawing a large portion of its labor force from European immigrants.

However, when the mining industry in the region collapsed, Nanticoke witnessed urban decay and a shrinking population.

[9] Concrete City, built by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad's coal division in 1911, is located near the Hanover Section of Nanticoke.

Abandoned since 1924, it was designated as an historic site in 1998, and its remnants still stand as a tourist attraction.

However, there is an alternate route that does not appear on maps; it can be found at the end of Bliss and Mosier Streets.

The school also maintains eleven satellite learning centers located throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Nanticoke faced a projected $700,000 deficit that year, with revenues flat and falling far behind expenses.

Nanticoke has a hot-summer humid continental climate (Dfa) and the hardiness zone is 6a bordering on 6b.

The police department provides full-time protection for its citizens, visitors, businesses, and public property.