Bowie vs Laurel

A side-by-side comparison of Bowie and Laurel: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Bowie has the higher population (57,771 vs 29,594 in Laurel). Bowie has the higher median household income ($141,831 vs $94,063 in Laurel). Bowie has the higher median home value ($442,000 vs $367,300 in Laurel).

Population, income & housing

	Bowie	Laurel
Population	57,771	29,594
Median age	44.0 yrs	36.6 yrs
Median household income	$141,831	$94,063
Median home value	$442,000	$367,300
Median gross rent	$2,240	$1,878
Housing units	21,673	12,596
Homeownership rate	85.1%	43.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	50.1%	44.5%
Unemployment rate	4.5%	4.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bowie	Laurel
Population	58,481 → 57,771 (-1.2%)	25,767 → 29,594 (+14.9%)
Median household income	$113,338 → $141,831 (+25.1%)	$78,313 → $94,063 (+20.1%)
Median home value	$338,100 → $442,000 (+30.7%)	$269,000 → $367,300 (+36.5%)
Median gross rent	$1,888 → $2,240 (+18.6%)	$1,566 → $1,878 (+19.9%)

Bowie

Population

58,48157,771

Median household income

$113,338$141,831

Median home value

$338,100$442,000

Median gross rent

$1,888$2,240

Laurel

Population

25,76729,594

Median household income

$78,313$94,063

Median home value

$269,000$367,300

Median gross rent

$1,566$1,878

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bowie	Laurel
Under 5	4.7%	6.2%
5 to 17	16.9%	16.8%
18 to 24	6.5%	7.4%
25 to 34	10.7%	17.3%
35 to 44	12.4%	15.6%
45 to 54	15.5%	15.3%
55 to 64	17.1%	10.4%
65 to 74	10.3%	6.6%
75 and over	6.0%	4.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bowie	Laurel
White (non-Hispanic)	26.8%	14.2%
Black or African American	55.8%	48.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.3%	0.2%
Asian	3.0%	9.6%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	0.4%
Two or more races	5.2%	4.5%
Hispanic or Latino	8.5%	22.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bowie	Laurel
No high school diploma	5.5%	11.9%
High school graduate	19.1%	18.2%
Some college or associate's	25.2%	25.4%
Bachelor's degree	25.7%	22.1%
Graduate or professional degree	24.4%	22.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bowie	Laurel
Drove alone	62.0%	68.3%
Carpooled	8.5%	9.6%
Public transit	3.9%	2.6%
Walked	0.9%	1.8%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.3%
Worked from home	23.8%	14.3%
Other means	0.9%	3.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bowie	Laurel
1-unit, detached	73.0%	22.3%
1-unit, attached	17.7%	29.0%
2 to 4 units	0.4%	4.1%
5 to 19 units	3.9%	20.7%
20 or more units	5.0%	24.0%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Bowie	Laurel
Poverty rate	4.1%	9.1%
Average household size	2.69	2.48
Mean commute (minutes)	36	32
Median year structure built	1981	1984