Baltimore city vs Howard County

A side-by-side comparison of Baltimore city and Howard County: population, income, housing, and more.

Baltimore city and Howard County are counties in Maryland. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Baltimore city has the higher population (577,193 vs 333,916 in Howard County). Howard County has the higher median household income ($146,982 vs $59,623 in Baltimore city). Howard County has the higher median home value ($576,700 vs $219,300 in Baltimore city).

Population, income & housing

	Baltimore city	Howard County
Population	577,193	333,916
Median age	36.1 yrs	39.4 yrs
Median household income	$59,623	$146,982
Median home value	$219,300	$576,700
Median gross rent	$1,290	$2,038
Housing units	293,631	124,489
Homeownership rate	47.5%	71.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	35.4%	64.5%
Unemployment rate	6.6%	3.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Baltimore city	Howard County
Population	609,032 → 577,193 (-5.2%)	318,855 → 333,916 (+4.7%)
Median household income	$50,379 → $59,623 (+18.3%)	$121,160 → $146,982 (+21.3%)
Median home value	$160,100 → $219,300 (+37.0%)	$455,700 → $576,700 (+26.6%)
Median gross rent	$1,073 → $1,290 (+20.2%)	$1,716 → $2,038 (+18.8%)

Baltimore city

Population

609,032577,193

Median household income

$50,379$59,623

Median home value

$160,100$219,300

Median gross rent

$1,073$1,290

Howard County

Population

318,855333,916

Median household income

$121,160$146,982

Median home value

$455,700$576,700

Median gross rent

$1,716$2,038

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Baltimore city	Howard County
Under 5	6.1%	5.5%
5 to 17	14.8%	18.5%
18 to 24	9.1%	7.9%
25 to 34	18.2%	11.9%
35 to 44	13.7%	14.6%
45 to 54	10.7%	13.8%
55 to 64	12.5%	13.0%
65 to 74	9.3%	8.8%
75 and over	5.7%	6.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Baltimore city	Howard County
White (non-Hispanic)	26.2%	47.0%
Black or African American	59.3%	19.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.1%
Asian	2.5%	18.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.6%	0.6%
Two or more races	3.4%	5.4%
Hispanic or Latino	7.9%	8.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Baltimore city	Howard County
No high school diploma	12.8%	4.7%
High school graduate	27.9%	12.4%
Some college or associate's	23.8%	18.4%
Bachelor's degree	18.1%	30.7%
Graduate or professional degree	17.3%	33.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Baltimore city	Howard County
Drove alone	56.8%	67.4%
Carpooled	6.9%	5.4%
Public transit	11.5%	1.9%
Walked	5.6%	0.9%
Bicycle	0.6%	0.1%
Worked from home	15.9%	23.2%
Other means	2.7%	1.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Baltimore city	Howard County
1-unit, detached	14.7%	50.5%
1-unit, attached	50.1%	22.3%
2 to 4 units	10.2%	1.7%
5 to 19 units	9.9%	15.3%
20 or more units	14.8%	9.2%
Mobile home & other	0.2%	1.0%

Poverty & households

	Baltimore city	Howard County
Poverty rate	20.1%	5.1%
Average household size	2.22	2.76
Mean commute (minutes)	29	29
Median year structure built	1948	1989