Bethesda vs Silver Spring

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

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

Silver Spring has the higher population (82,129 vs 67,403 in Bethesda). Bethesda has the higher median household income ($191,348 vs $98,880 in Silver Spring). Bethesda has the higher median home value ($1,129,700 vs $619,400 in Silver Spring).

Population, income & housing

	Bethesda	Silver Spring
Population	67,403	82,129
Median age	43.4 yrs	35.2 yrs
Median household income	$191,348	$98,880
Median home value	$1,129,700	$619,400
Median gross rent	$2,437	$1,899
Housing units	29,552	35,620
Homeownership rate	65.1%	38.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	87.1%	59.8%
Unemployment rate	3.2%	4.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bethesda	Silver Spring
Population	63,195 → 67,403 (+6.7%)	81,773 → 82,129 (+0.4%)
Median household income	$164,142 → $191,348 (+16.6%)	$83,782 → $98,880 (+18.0%)
Median home value	$911,000 → $1,129,700 (+24.0%)	$516,900 → $619,400 (+19.8%)
Median gross rent	$2,026 → $2,437 (+20.3%)	$1,665 → $1,899 (+14.1%)

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

Silver Spring

Population

81,77382,129

Median household income

$83,782$98,880

Median home value

$516,900$619,400

Median gross rent

$1,665$1,899

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bethesda	Silver Spring
Under 5	4.8%	6.2%
5 to 17	18.6%	16.3%
18 to 24	6.8%	8.2%
25 to 34	10.2%	18.9%
35 to 44	11.8%	16.2%
45 to 54	15.3%	12.0%
55 to 64	13.6%	10.3%
65 to 74	10.0%	8.0%
75 and over	8.8%	3.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bethesda	Silver Spring
White (non-Hispanic)	67.7%	33.6%
Black or African American	5.3%	27.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	12.5%	8.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.1%
Some other race	0.7%	0.6%
Two or more races	4.8%	4.6%
Hispanic or Latino	9.0%	25.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bethesda	Silver Spring
No high school diploma	2.1%	13.1%
High school graduate	3.6%	13.2%
Some college or associate's	7.3%	13.9%
Bachelor's degree	28.5%	26.3%
Graduate or professional degree	58.5%	33.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bethesda	Silver Spring
Drove alone	41.1%	45.9%
Carpooled	3.3%	7.6%
Public transit	10.9%	16.0%
Walked	5.6%	2.9%
Bicycle	1.6%	0.9%
Worked from home	35.8%	23.8%
Other means	1.7%	3.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bethesda	Silver Spring
1-unit, detached	53.8%	30.0%
1-unit, attached	4.3%	5.4%
2 to 4 units	1.2%	4.5%
5 to 19 units	3.8%	16.3%
20 or more units	36.5%	43.4%
Mobile home & other	0.4%	0.4%

Poverty & households

	Bethesda	Silver Spring
Poverty rate	4.0%	9.7%
Average household size	2.45	2.40
Mean commute (minutes)	29	33
Median year structure built	1970	1964