Bethesda vs Gaithersburg

A side-by-side comparison of Bethesda and Gaithersburg: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Gaithersburg has the higher population (69,225 vs 67,403 in Bethesda). Bethesda has the higher median household income ($191,348 vs $107,496 in Gaithersburg). Bethesda has the higher median home value ($1,129,700 vs $484,500 in Gaithersburg).

Population, income & housing

	Bethesda	Gaithersburg
Population	67,403	69,225
Median age	43.4 yrs	37.8 yrs
Median household income	$191,348	$107,496
Median home value	$1,129,700	$484,500
Median gross rent	$2,437	$2,008
Housing units	29,552	27,386
Homeownership rate	65.1%	51.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	87.1%	52.4%
Unemployment rate	3.2%	5.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bethesda	Gaithersburg
Population	63,195 → 67,403 (+6.7%)	67,742 → 69,225 (+2.2%)
Median household income	$164,142 → $191,348 (+16.6%)	$89,763 → $107,496 (+19.8%)
Median home value	$911,000 → $1,129,700 (+24.0%)	$392,200 → $484,500 (+23.5%)
Median gross rent	$2,026 → $2,437 (+20.3%)	$1,740 → $2,008 (+15.4%)

Bethesda

Population

63,19567,403

Median household income

$164,142$191,348

Median home value

$911,000$1,129,700

Median gross rent

$2,026$2,437

Gaithersburg

Population

67,74269,225

Median household income

$89,763$107,496

Median home value

$392,200$484,500

Median gross rent

$1,740$2,008

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bethesda	Gaithersburg
Under 5	4.8%	7.0%
5 to 17	18.6%	15.6%
18 to 24	6.8%	8.1%
25 to 34	10.2%	14.1%
35 to 44	11.8%	16.5%
45 to 54	15.3%	13.4%
55 to 64	13.6%	11.6%
65 to 74	10.0%	7.7%
75 and over	8.8%	6.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bethesda	Gaithersburg
White (non-Hispanic)	67.7%	31.2%
Black or African American	5.3%	15.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	12.5%	19.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.2%
Some other race	0.7%	0.7%
Two or more races	4.8%	3.8%
Hispanic or Latino	9.0%	29.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bethesda	Gaithersburg
No high school diploma	2.1%	11.9%
High school graduate	3.6%	16.1%
Some college or associate's	7.3%	19.6%
Bachelor's degree	28.5%	27.7%
Graduate or professional degree	58.5%	24.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bethesda	Gaithersburg
Drove alone	41.1%	54.2%
Carpooled	3.3%	10.7%
Public transit	10.9%	6.6%
Walked	5.6%	1.8%
Bicycle	1.6%	0.4%
Worked from home	35.8%	23.9%
Other means	1.7%	2.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bethesda	Gaithersburg
1-unit, detached	53.8%	19.6%
1-unit, attached	4.3%	29.0%
2 to 4 units	1.2%	2.6%
5 to 19 units	3.8%	26.9%
20 or more units	36.5%	21.9%
Mobile home & other	0.4%	0.1%

Poverty & households

	Bethesda	Gaithersburg
Poverty rate	4.0%	8.8%
Average household size	2.45	2.65
Mean commute (minutes)	29	29
Median year structure built	1970	1989