Bethesda vs Rockville

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

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

Bethesda has the higher population (67,403 vs 67,218 in Rockville). Bethesda has the higher median household income ($191,348 vs $122,384 in Rockville). Bethesda has the higher median home value ($1,129,700 vs $658,300 in Rockville).

Population, income & housing

	Bethesda	Rockville
Population	67,403	67,218
Median age	43.4 yrs	39.4 yrs
Median household income	$191,348	$122,384
Median home value	$1,129,700	$658,300
Median gross rent	$2,437	$2,244
Housing units	29,552	28,169
Homeownership rate	65.1%	53.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	87.1%	64.6%
Unemployment rate	3.2%	3.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bethesda	Rockville
Population	63,195 → 67,403 (+6.7%)	67,542 → 67,218 (-0.5%)
Median household income	$164,142 → $191,348 (+16.6%)	$106,576 → $122,384 (+14.8%)
Median home value	$911,000 → $1,129,700 (+24.0%)	$540,000 → $658,300 (+21.9%)
Median gross rent	$2,026 → $2,437 (+20.3%)	$1,921 → $2,244 (+16.8%)

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

Rockville

Population

67,54267,218

Median household income

$106,576$122,384

Median home value

$540,000$658,300

Median gross rent

$1,921$2,244

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bethesda	Rockville
Under 5	4.8%	5.0%
5 to 17	18.6%	15.2%
18 to 24	6.8%	8.0%
25 to 34	10.2%	14.7%
35 to 44	11.8%	14.3%
45 to 54	15.3%	13.2%
55 to 64	13.6%	11.6%
65 to 74	10.0%	9.0%
75 and over	8.8%	9.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bethesda	Rockville
White (non-Hispanic)	67.7%	44.5%
Black or African American	5.3%	10.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	12.5%	21.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.7%	1.0%
Two or more races	4.8%	4.7%
Hispanic or Latino	9.0%	17.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bethesda	Rockville
No high school diploma	2.1%	7.4%
High school graduate	3.6%	11.3%
Some college or associate's	7.3%	16.7%
Bachelor's degree	28.5%	26.8%
Graduate or professional degree	58.5%	37.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bethesda	Rockville
Drove alone	41.1%	47.2%
Carpooled	3.3%	6.2%
Public transit	10.9%	12.5%
Walked	5.6%	1.8%
Bicycle	1.6%	0.4%
Worked from home	35.8%	30.2%
Other means	1.7%	1.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bethesda	Rockville
1-unit, detached	53.8%	40.2%
1-unit, attached	4.3%	14.6%
2 to 4 units	1.2%	2.0%
5 to 19 units	3.8%	10.7%
20 or more units	36.5%	32.1%
Mobile home & other	0.4%	0.4%

Poverty & households

	Bethesda	Rockville
Poverty rate	4.0%	7.9%
Average household size	2.45	2.47
Mean commute (minutes)	29	31
Median year structure built	1970	1980