Bethesda vs Wheaton

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

Bethesda and Wheaton 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 52,172 in Wheaton). Bethesda has the higher median household income ($191,348 vs $107,349 in Wheaton). Bethesda has the higher median home value ($1,129,700 vs $483,100 in Wheaton).

Population, income & housing

	Bethesda	Wheaton
Population	67,403	52,172
Median age	43.4 yrs	36.8 yrs
Median household income	$191,348	$107,349
Median home value	$1,129,700	$483,100
Median gross rent	$2,437	$2,151
Housing units	29,552	17,105
Homeownership rate	65.1%	65.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	87.1%	38.9%
Unemployment rate	3.2%	5.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bethesda	Wheaton
Population	63,195 → 67,403 (+6.7%)	50,229 → 52,172 (+3.9%)
Median household income	$164,142 → $191,348 (+16.6%)	$85,617 → $107,349 (+25.4%)
Median home value	$911,000 → $1,129,700 (+24.0%)	$371,700 → $483,100 (+30.0%)
Median gross rent	$2,026 → $2,437 (+20.3%)	$1,813 → $2,151 (+18.6%)

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

Wheaton

Population

50,22952,172

Median household income

$85,617$107,349

Median home value

$371,700$483,100

Median gross rent

$1,813$2,151

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bethesda	Wheaton
Under 5	4.8%	6.4%
5 to 17	18.6%	16.9%
18 to 24	6.8%	8.2%
25 to 34	10.2%	15.7%
35 to 44	11.8%	14.3%
45 to 54	15.3%	13.1%
55 to 64	13.6%	12.8%
65 to 74	10.0%	8.0%
75 and over	8.8%	4.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bethesda	Wheaton
White (non-Hispanic)	67.7%	22.6%
Black or African American	5.3%	19.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	12.5%	10.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.7%	1.3%
Two or more races	4.8%	2.6%
Hispanic or Latino	9.0%	43.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bethesda	Wheaton
No high school diploma	2.1%	19.4%
High school graduate	3.6%	20.0%
Some college or associate's	7.3%	21.7%
Bachelor's degree	28.5%	19.6%
Graduate or professional degree	58.5%	19.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bethesda	Wheaton
Drove alone	41.1%	56.7%
Carpooled	3.3%	11.3%
Public transit	10.9%	12.5%
Walked	5.6%	1.0%
Bicycle	1.6%	0.0%
Worked from home	35.8%	17.5%
Other means	1.7%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bethesda	Wheaton
1-unit, detached	53.8%	60.4%
1-unit, attached	4.3%	14.5%
2 to 4 units	1.2%	0.9%
5 to 19 units	3.8%	11.4%
20 or more units	36.5%	12.7%
Mobile home & other	0.4%	0.1%

Poverty & households

	Bethesda	Wheaton
Poverty rate	4.0%	10.6%
Average household size	2.45	3.11
Mean commute (minutes)	29	33
Median year structure built	1970	1959