City safety & data profile
EssexMD
Essex, MD is a 39K-resident city in Baltimore County with a median household income of $67,168.
Baltimore County, Maryland. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Essex, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Essex has a population larger than 73% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, and a median home value of $258,900.
Data updated 2026-09-03
- 39K
- Population (place)
- Top 27%
- By size
- $67,168
- Median income (place)
- $258,900
- Median home (place)
- 12.6%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Essex
Essex posts a median household income higher than 33% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 5 recent safety alerts are on record.
- Bottom 34%
- by median income, US cities
- 5
- safety alerts on record
Where Essex income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$67,168 Bottom 33% higher than 33% 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 Essex, MD beyond the headline numbers
Essex sits inside Baltimore County, Maryland, at roughly 39.31°N, -76.47°W. Population 39,262, $67,168 median household income. Median home value $258,900, median rent $1,319. Poverty rate 12.6%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
Poverty in Essex, MD stands at 12.6%, above the midpoint of reporting cities. A median income can look comfortable while a share this size sits well beneath it, which is why the two figures belong together.
The median home in Essex costs roughly 3.9 times median household income, below the midpoint for reporting cities, so ownership remains reachable on a typical local wage.
Only 7.5% of Essex workers report working from home, the lowest quarter of reporting cities -- an economy still built around showing up somewhere.
Among the CDC measures on this page, binge drinking departs furthest from its peer median: 13.1% in Essex, the lowest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.
4.1% of Essex workers commute by public transit, a larger share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.
At 41.8 years, Essex'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 Essex 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 (Baltimore County): Essex'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 | 12.6% |
| Unemployment | 6.2% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 19.9% |
| Work From Home | 7.5% |
| Public Transit | 4.1% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
What alerts and safety updates affect Essex? 5
Flood Alert Issued for Rivers Wid and Can in Essex
Flood Alert Issued for River Colne from Great Yeldham to Colchester
Flood Alert Issued for Rivers Pant, Blackwater, and Brain in Essex
Flood Alert Issued for Rivers Wid and Can in Essex Following Recent Rainfall
Flood Alert Issued for Upper River Chelmer in Essex Between Thaxted and Chelmsford
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet MD-ESSEX · Essex
Essex: 90 tagged alerts; lead category Environment Agency flood warning.
- VOL-HEAVY 90 on record
- MIX-LED 91% uk-floods
- DESK-MIX NOAA
- NEAR-PEER 36 · Somerset
- RANK-UPPER #15 tagged volume
Tagged alert mix: Essex
Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag
- Flood Warnings
Flood Warnings
82
- Weather Alerts 7
Weather Alerts
7
- Weather Alerts 1
Weather Alerts
1
What this shows 90 tagged notices on record for Essex.
Nearest tagged-volume peer: Somerset, NJ (36 tagged · Δ54)
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Essex; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Maryland state hubs · Methodology
Cities with a similar tagged alert volume 4
Nearest published-notice counts on Areazine (90 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 5
What is the population of Essex, MD? ▼
What is the median household income in Essex? ▼
What is the median home value in Essex? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Essex? ▼
What is the median age in Essex? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Essex, both outside Maryland so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside MD (12.6% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside MD ($67,168 here).
Compare Essex 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 Essex'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 Essex 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 Essex 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 (Baltimore 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.