Germantown vs Silver Spring

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

Germantown and Silver Spring 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 82,129 in Silver Spring). Germantown has the higher median household income ($112,149 vs $98,880 in Silver Spring). Silver Spring has the higher median home value ($619,400 vs $401,400 in Germantown).

Population, income & housing

	Germantown	Silver Spring
Population	90,521	82,129
Median age	37.6 yrs	35.2 yrs
Median household income	$112,149	$98,880
Median home value	$401,400	$619,400
Median gross rent	$1,978	$1,899
Housing units	32,540	35,620
Homeownership rate	66.9%	38.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	50.2%	59.8%
Unemployment rate	4.9%	4.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Germantown	Silver Spring
Population	90,582 → 90,521 (-0.1%)	81,773 → 82,129 (+0.4%)
Median household income	$94,559 → $112,149 (+18.6%)	$83,782 → $98,880 (+18.0%)
Median home value	$345,400 → $401,400 (+16.2%)	$516,900 → $619,400 (+19.8%)
Median gross rent	$1,747 → $1,978 (+13.2%)	$1,665 → $1,899 (+14.1%)

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

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)

	Germantown	Silver Spring
Under 5	6.3%	6.2%
5 to 17	17.2%	16.3%
18 to 24	9.2%	8.2%
25 to 34	13.6%	18.9%
35 to 44	14.2%	16.2%
45 to 54	15.0%	12.0%
55 to 64	13.2%	10.3%
65 to 74	7.9%	8.0%
75 and over	3.4%	3.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Germantown	Silver Spring
White (non-Hispanic)	23.9%	33.6%
Black or African American	25.3%	27.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	21.5%	8.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.1%
Some other race	0.5%	0.6%
Two or more races	4.6%	4.6%
Hispanic or Latino	24.1%	25.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Germantown	Silver Spring
No high school diploma	10.4%	13.1%
High school graduate	16.8%	13.2%
Some college or associate's	22.6%	13.9%
Bachelor's degree	26.5%	26.3%
Graduate or professional degree	23.7%	33.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Germantown	Silver Spring
Drove alone	62.2%	45.9%
Carpooled	10.2%	7.6%
Public transit	5.2%	16.0%
Walked	0.8%	2.9%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.9%
Worked from home	19.2%	23.8%
Other means	2.4%	3.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Germantown	Silver Spring
1-unit, detached	26.3%	30.0%
1-unit, attached	41.2%	5.4%
2 to 4 units	5.2%	4.5%
5 to 19 units	22.0%	16.3%
20 or more units	5.1%	43.4%
Mobile home & other	0.2%	0.4%

Poverty & households

	Germantown	Silver Spring
Poverty rate	8.5%	9.7%
Average household size	2.84	2.40
Mean commute (minutes)	33	33
Median year structure built	1989	1964