City safety & data profile
BethesdaMD
Bethesda, MD is a 61K-resident city in Montgomery County with a median household income of $192,237.
Montgomery County, Maryland. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Bethesda, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Bethesda has a population larger than 84% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $1,169,900, and 2 hospitals serving the surrounding area.
Data updated 2026-09-03
- 61K
- Population (place)
- Top 16%
- By size
- $192,237
- Median income (place)
- $1,169,900
- Median home (place)
- 4.3%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Bethesda
Bethesda posts a median household income higher than 98% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 2 hospitals serve the Bethesda area.
- Top 2%
- by median income, US cities
- 2
- hospitals in & near Bethesda
Where Bethesda income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$192,237 Top 2% higher than 98% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year
Largest cities in MD
Population among 121 MD places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.
- Baltimore
Baltimore, MD
585,708 residents
- Columbia 99,615
Columbia, MD
99,615 residents
- Germantown 86,395
Germantown, MD
86,395 residents
- Silver Spring 71,452
Silver Spring, MD
71,452 residents
- Frederick 69,479
Frederick, MD
69,479 residents
- Waldorf 67,752
Waldorf, MD
67,752 residents
- Glen Burnie 67,639
Glen Burnie, MD
67,639 residents
- Gaithersburg 67,456
Gaithersburg, MD
67,456 residents
- Rockville 66,980
Rockville, MD
66,980 residents
- Ellicott City 65,834
Ellicott City, MD
65,834 residents
What this shows Baltimore is the largest MD city on this list; Travilah leads median income.
Highest median incomes in MD
Median household income among the same 121-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.
- Travilah
Travilah, MD
$250,001 median
- Potomac
Potomac, MD
$236,675 median
- Scaggsville
Scaggsville, MD
$207,220 median
- Bethesda
Bethesda, MD
$192,237 median
- North Potomac
North Potomac, MD
$186,514 median
- Clarksburg
Clarksburg, MD
$176,678 median
- Green Valley
Green Valley, MD
$171,707 median
- Olney
Olney, MD
$171,458 median
- Severna Park
Severna Park, MD
$169,953 median
- Rosaryville
Rosaryville, MD
$158,923 median
What this shows Travilah posts the highest place-level median income in MD; Baltimore is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Bethesda, MD beyond the headline numbers
Bethesda sits inside Montgomery County, Maryland, at roughly 38.98°N, -77.10°W. Population 60,858, $192,237 median household income. Median home value $1,169,900, median rent $2,469. Poverty rate 4.3%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
2 hospitals in/around Bethesda, 4/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER.
Hardship is low by national standards: 4.3% of Bethesda, MD residents live below the poverty line, in the least-affected quarter of the 3,890 cities reporting a rate.
The median home in Bethesda costs around 6.1 times what a median household earns in a year -- the most expensive quarter of reporting cities, and far enough ahead of local pay that ownership is largely closed to median earners.
38% of Bethesda workers report working from home, the highest quarter of reporting cities. Where that share runs this high, local income increasingly reflects employers located somewhere else.
Among the CDC measures on this page, frequent mental distress departs furthest from its peer median: 10.4% in Bethesda, the lowest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.
9.6% of Bethesda workers commute by public transit, a larger share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.
At 42.8 years, Bethesda's median age is in the oldest quarter of reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Bethesda from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.
10-Year Trends 2013–2024
County-level trend (Montgomery County): Bethesda's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.
Economics
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 4.3% -65% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 3% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 87.1% |
| Work From Home | 38% |
| Public Transit | 9.6% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
Hospitals 2 total
What alerts and safety updates affect Bethesda?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Bethesda right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet MD-BETHESDA · Bethesda
Bethesda: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.
- FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
- LEAD-NONE Feed idle
- DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Bethesda; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Maryland state hubs · Methodology
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 6
What is the population of Bethesda, MD? ▼
What is the median household income in Bethesda? ▼
What is the median home value in Bethesda? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Bethesda? ▼
How many hospitals are in Bethesda? ▼
What is the median age in Bethesda? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Bethesda, both outside Maryland so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside MD (4.3% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside MD ($192,237 here).
Compare Bethesda with another city
Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.
Nearby Cities 8
Using Bethesda's profile
Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.
- Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Bethesda area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
- Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
- Compare Bethesda against Maryland peers on any ranking lens. Explore Maryland
Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.
Data Sources
All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Montgomery County) where that is the smallest published unit.
Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.