Catonsville vs Essex

A side-by-side comparison of Catonsville and Essex: population, income, housing, and more.

Catonsville and Essex are places in Maryland. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Catonsville has the higher population (42,717 vs 40,670 in Essex). Catonsville has the higher median household income ($110,051 vs $67,082 in Essex). Catonsville has the higher median home value ($405,800 vs $253,500 in Essex).

Population, income & housing

	Catonsville	Essex
Population	42,717	40,670
Median age	39.8 yrs	40.9 yrs
Median household income	$110,051	$67,082
Median home value	$405,800	$253,500
Median gross rent	$1,697	$1,307
Housing units	16,755	17,142
Homeownership rate	69.3%	57.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	51.9%	19.0%
Unemployment rate	3.9%	5.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Catonsville	Essex
Population	41,547 → 42,717 (+2.8%)	39,437 → 40,670 (+3.1%)
Median household income	$89,219 → $110,051 (+23.3%)	$57,780 → $67,082 (+16.1%)
Median home value	$327,900 → $405,800 (+23.8%)	$191,400 → $253,500 (+32.4%)
Median gross rent	$1,462 → $1,697 (+16.1%)	$1,086 → $1,307 (+20.3%)

Catonsville

Population

41,54742,717

Median household income

$89,219$110,051

Median home value

$327,900$405,800

Median gross rent

$1,462$1,697

Essex

Population

39,43740,670

Median household income

$57,780$67,082

Median home value

$191,400$253,500

Median gross rent

$1,086$1,307

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Catonsville	Essex
Under 5	4.3%	5.2%
5 to 17	15.4%	16.9%
18 to 24	14.4%	8.2%
25 to 34	10.2%	12.9%
35 to 44	12.2%	12.0%
45 to 54	9.3%	14.7%
55 to 64	12.7%	14.0%
65 to 74	10.7%	9.9%
75 and over	10.8%	6.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Catonsville	Essex
White (non-Hispanic)	60.8%	53.0%
Black or African American	18.1%	33.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	9.1%	1.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	0.2%
Two or more races	5.0%	5.3%
Hispanic or Latino	6.7%	7.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Catonsville	Essex
No high school diploma	7.3%	14.1%
High school graduate	17.1%	39.6%
Some college or associate's	23.7%	27.2%
Bachelor's degree	26.7%	11.7%
Graduate or professional degree	25.2%	7.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Catonsville	Essex
Drove alone	68.8%	71.7%
Carpooled	4.9%	11.9%
Public transit	1.8%	6.3%
Walked	4.0%	1.1%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.3%
Worked from home	19.0%	6.6%
Other means	1.4%	2.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Catonsville	Essex
1-unit, detached	49.7%	38.9%
1-unit, attached	18.3%	34.9%
2 to 4 units	6.5%	5.2%
5 to 19 units	13.9%	14.9%
20 or more units	11.6%	5.2%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.8%

Poverty & households

	Catonsville	Essex
Poverty rate	6.9%	12.7%
Average household size	2.35	2.52
Mean commute (minutes)	26	30
Median year structure built	1964	1964