Rockville vs Silver Spring

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

Rockville 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 67,218 in Rockville). Rockville has the higher median household income ($122,384 vs $98,880 in Silver Spring). Rockville has the higher median home value ($658,300 vs $619,400 in Silver Spring).

Population, income & housing

	Rockville	Silver Spring
Population	67,218	82,129
Median age	39.4 yrs	35.2 yrs
Median household income	$122,384	$98,880
Median home value	$658,300	$619,400
Median gross rent	$2,244	$1,899
Housing units	28,169	35,620
Homeownership rate	53.1%	38.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	64.6%	59.8%
Unemployment rate	3.7%	4.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Rockville	Silver Spring
Population	67,542 → 67,218 (-0.5%)	81,773 → 82,129 (+0.4%)
Median household income	$106,576 → $122,384 (+14.8%)	$83,782 → $98,880 (+18.0%)
Median home value	$540,000 → $658,300 (+21.9%)	$516,900 → $619,400 (+19.8%)
Median gross rent	$1,921 → $2,244 (+16.8%)	$1,665 → $1,899 (+14.1%)

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

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)

	Rockville	Silver Spring
Under 5	5.0%	6.2%
5 to 17	15.2%	16.3%
18 to 24	8.0%	8.2%
25 to 34	14.7%	18.9%
35 to 44	14.3%	16.2%
45 to 54	13.2%	12.0%
55 to 64	11.6%	10.3%
65 to 74	9.0%	8.0%
75 and over	9.0%	3.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Rockville	Silver Spring
White (non-Hispanic)	44.5%	33.6%
Black or African American	10.8%	27.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	21.0%	8.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.1%
Some other race	1.0%	0.6%
Two or more races	4.7%	4.6%
Hispanic or Latino	17.8%	25.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Rockville	Silver Spring
No high school diploma	7.4%	13.1%
High school graduate	11.3%	13.2%
Some college or associate's	16.7%	13.9%
Bachelor's degree	26.8%	26.3%
Graduate or professional degree	37.8%	33.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Rockville	Silver Spring
Drove alone	47.2%	45.9%
Carpooled	6.2%	7.6%
Public transit	12.5%	16.0%
Walked	1.8%	2.9%
Bicycle	0.4%	0.9%
Worked from home	30.2%	23.8%
Other means	1.7%	3.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Rockville	Silver Spring
1-unit, detached	40.2%	30.0%
1-unit, attached	14.6%	5.4%
2 to 4 units	2.0%	4.5%
5 to 19 units	10.7%	16.3%
20 or more units	32.1%	43.4%
Mobile home & other	0.4%	0.4%

Poverty & households

	Rockville	Silver Spring
Poverty rate	7.9%	9.7%
Average household size	2.47	2.40
Mean commute (minutes)	31	33
Median year structure built	1980	1964