Gaithersburg vs Silver Spring

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

Gaithersburg 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 69,225 in Gaithersburg). Gaithersburg has the higher median household income ($107,496 vs $98,880 in Silver Spring). Silver Spring has the higher median home value ($619,400 vs $484,500 in Gaithersburg).

Population, income & housing

	Gaithersburg	Silver Spring
Population	69,225	82,129
Median age	37.8 yrs	35.2 yrs
Median household income	$107,496	$98,880
Median home value	$484,500	$619,400
Median gross rent	$2,008	$1,899
Housing units	27,386	35,620
Homeownership rate	51.3%	38.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	52.4%	59.8%
Unemployment rate	5.1%	4.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Gaithersburg	Silver Spring
Population	67,742 → 69,225 (+2.2%)	81,773 → 82,129 (+0.4%)
Median household income	$89,763 → $107,496 (+19.8%)	$83,782 → $98,880 (+18.0%)
Median home value	$392,200 → $484,500 (+23.5%)	$516,900 → $619,400 (+19.8%)
Median gross rent	$1,740 → $2,008 (+15.4%)	$1,665 → $1,899 (+14.1%)

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

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)

	Gaithersburg	Silver Spring
Under 5	7.0%	6.2%
5 to 17	15.6%	16.3%
18 to 24	8.1%	8.2%
25 to 34	14.1%	18.9%
35 to 44	16.5%	16.2%
45 to 54	13.4%	12.0%
55 to 64	11.6%	10.3%
65 to 74	7.7%	8.0%
75 and over	6.1%	3.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Gaithersburg	Silver Spring
White (non-Hispanic)	31.2%	33.6%
Black or African American	15.0%	27.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	19.5%	8.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.2%	0.1%
Some other race	0.7%	0.6%
Two or more races	3.8%	4.6%
Hispanic or Latino	29.5%	25.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Gaithersburg	Silver Spring
No high school diploma	11.9%	13.1%
High school graduate	16.1%	13.2%
Some college or associate's	19.6%	13.9%
Bachelor's degree	27.7%	26.3%
Graduate or professional degree	24.7%	33.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Gaithersburg	Silver Spring
Drove alone	54.2%	45.9%
Carpooled	10.7%	7.6%
Public transit	6.6%	16.0%
Walked	1.8%	2.9%
Bicycle	0.4%	0.9%
Worked from home	23.9%	23.8%
Other means	2.3%	3.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Gaithersburg	Silver Spring
1-unit, detached	19.6%	30.0%
1-unit, attached	29.0%	5.4%
2 to 4 units	2.6%	4.5%
5 to 19 units	26.9%	16.3%
20 or more units	21.9%	43.4%
Mobile home & other	0.1%	0.4%

Poverty & households

	Gaithersburg	Silver Spring
Poverty rate	8.8%	9.7%
Average household size	2.65	2.40
Mean commute (minutes)	29	33
Median year structure built	1989	1964