Bethesda vs Germantown

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

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

Germantown has the higher population (90,521 vs 67,403 in Bethesda). Bethesda has the higher median household income ($191,348 vs $112,149 in Germantown). Bethesda has the higher median home value ($1,129,700 vs $401,400 in Germantown).

Population, income & housing

	Bethesda	Germantown
Population	67,403	90,521
Median age	43.4 yrs	37.6 yrs
Median household income	$191,348	$112,149
Median home value	$1,129,700	$401,400
Median gross rent	$2,437	$1,978
Housing units	29,552	32,540
Homeownership rate	65.1%	66.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	87.1%	50.2%
Unemployment rate	3.2%	4.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bethesda	Germantown
Population	63,195 → 67,403 (+6.7%)	90,582 → 90,521 (-0.1%)
Median household income	$164,142 → $191,348 (+16.6%)	$94,559 → $112,149 (+18.6%)
Median home value	$911,000 → $1,129,700 (+24.0%)	$345,400 → $401,400 (+16.2%)
Median gross rent	$2,026 → $2,437 (+20.3%)	$1,747 → $1,978 (+13.2%)

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

Germantown

Population

90,58290,521

Median household income

$94,559$112,149

Median home value

$345,400$401,400

Median gross rent

$1,747$1,978

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bethesda	Germantown
Under 5	4.8%	6.3%
5 to 17	18.6%	17.2%
18 to 24	6.8%	9.2%
25 to 34	10.2%	13.6%
35 to 44	11.8%	14.2%
45 to 54	15.3%	15.0%
55 to 64	13.6%	13.2%
65 to 74	10.0%	7.9%
75 and over	8.8%	3.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bethesda	Germantown
White (non-Hispanic)	67.7%	23.9%
Black or African American	5.3%	25.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	12.5%	21.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.7%	0.5%
Two or more races	4.8%	4.6%
Hispanic or Latino	9.0%	24.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bethesda	Germantown
No high school diploma	2.1%	10.4%
High school graduate	3.6%	16.8%
Some college or associate's	7.3%	22.6%
Bachelor's degree	28.5%	26.5%
Graduate or professional degree	58.5%	23.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bethesda	Germantown
Drove alone	41.1%	62.2%
Carpooled	3.3%	10.2%
Public transit	10.9%	5.2%
Walked	5.6%	0.8%
Bicycle	1.6%	0.1%
Worked from home	35.8%	19.2%
Other means	1.7%	2.4%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bethesda	Germantown
1-unit, detached	53.8%	26.3%
1-unit, attached	4.3%	41.2%
2 to 4 units	1.2%	5.2%
5 to 19 units	3.8%	22.0%
20 or more units	36.5%	5.1%
Mobile home & other	0.4%	0.2%

Poverty & households

	Bethesda	Germantown
Poverty rate	4.0%	8.5%
Average household size	2.45	2.84
Mean commute (minutes)	29	33
Median year structure built	1970	1989