Ocean City vs West Ocean City

A side-by-side comparison of Ocean City and West Ocean City: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Ocean City has the higher population (6,887 vs 5,124 in West Ocean City). West Ocean City has the higher median household income ($93,776 vs $69,675 in Ocean City). West Ocean City has the higher median home value ($418,700 vs $373,700 in Ocean City).

Population, income & housing

	Ocean City	West Ocean City
Population	6,887	5,124
Median age	56.0 yrs	49.3 yrs
Median household income	$69,675	$93,776
Median home value	$373,700	$418,700
Median gross rent	$1,187	$1,546
Housing units	29,834	3,144
Homeownership rate	73.4%	75.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	40.4%	35.1%
Unemployment rate	5.9%	9.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Ocean City	West Ocean City
Population	6,972 → 6,887 (-1.2%)	4,310 → 5,124 (+18.9%)
Median household income	$54,014 → $69,675 (+29.0%)	$68,519 → $93,776 (+36.9%)
Median home value	$298,500 → $373,700 (+25.2%)	$307,800 → $418,700 (+36.0%)
Median gross rent	$1,040 → $1,187 (+14.1%)	$1,245 → $1,546 (+24.2%)

Ocean City

Population

6,9726,887

Median household income

$54,014$69,675

Median home value

$298,500$373,700

Median gross rent

$1,040$1,187

West Ocean City

Population

4,3105,124

Median household income

$68,519$93,776

Median home value

$307,800$418,700

Median gross rent

$1,245$1,546

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Ocean City	West Ocean City
Under 5	5.0%	5.0%
5 to 17	4.6%	14.6%
18 to 24	9.8%	5.0%
25 to 34	11.3%	9.1%
35 to 44	6.8%	11.8%
45 to 54	10.5%	12.4%
55 to 64	19.1%	21.4%
65 to 74	21.1%	11.6%
75 and over	11.9%	9.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Ocean City	West Ocean City
White (non-Hispanic)	86.2%	87.0%
Black or African American	0.6%	4.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.0%
Asian	1.2%	0.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	1.5%	0.4%
Two or more races	1.8%	1.8%
Hispanic or Latino	8.5%	5.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Ocean City	West Ocean City
No high school diploma	5.0%	4.4%
High school graduate	25.4%	33.4%
Some college or associate's	29.2%	27.1%
Bachelor's degree	24.8%	21.6%
Graduate or professional degree	15.6%	13.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Ocean City	West Ocean City
Drove alone	66.9%	87.1%
Carpooled	3.2%	4.4%
Public transit	1.5%	0.0%
Walked	4.3%	2.0%
Bicycle	4.7%	0.6%
Worked from home	16.9%	5.8%
Other means	2.4%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Ocean City	West Ocean City
1-unit, detached	10.5%	69.5%
1-unit, attached	12.2%	13.3%
2 to 4 units	5.8%	2.4%
5 to 19 units	21.7%	4.8%
20 or more units	46.5%	1.6%
Mobile home & other	3.3%	8.4%

Poverty & households

	Ocean City	West Ocean City
Poverty rate	9.1%	8.8%
Average household size	1.76	2.29
Mean commute (minutes)	19	19
Median year structure built	1982	1996