Baltimore County vs Howard County

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

Baltimore County 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 County has the higher population (849,586 vs 333,916 in Howard County). Howard County has the higher median household income ($146,982 vs $90,904 in Baltimore County). Howard County has the higher median home value ($576,700 vs $330,000 in Baltimore County).

Population, income & housing

	Baltimore County	Howard County
Population	849,586	333,916
Median age	39.5 yrs	39.4 yrs
Median household income	$90,904	$146,982
Median home value	$330,000	$576,700
Median gross rent	$1,566	$2,038
Housing units	350,296	124,489
Homeownership rate	66.3%	71.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	41.4%	64.5%
Unemployment rate	5.0%	3.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Baltimore County	Howard County
Population	828,018 → 849,586 (+2.6%)	318,855 → 333,916 (+4.7%)
Median household income	$76,866 → $90,904 (+18.3%)	$121,160 → $146,982 (+21.3%)
Median home value	$261,500 → $330,000 (+26.2%)	$455,700 → $576,700 (+26.6%)
Median gross rent	$1,302 → $1,566 (+20.3%)	$1,716 → $2,038 (+18.8%)

Baltimore County

Population

828,018849,586

Median household income

$76,866$90,904

Median home value

$261,500$330,000

Median gross rent

$1,302$1,566

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 County	Howard County
Under 5	5.8%	5.5%
5 to 17	16.1%	18.5%
18 to 24	8.8%	7.9%
25 to 34	13.1%	11.9%
35 to 44	12.9%	14.6%
45 to 54	12.1%	13.8%
55 to 64	13.4%	13.0%
65 to 74	10.3%	8.8%
75 and over	7.4%	6.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Baltimore County	Howard County
White (non-Hispanic)	52.3%	47.0%
Black or African American	29.8%	19.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	6.0%	18.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.5%	0.6%
Two or more races	3.8%	5.4%
Hispanic or Latino	7.4%	8.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Baltimore County	Howard County
No high school diploma	8.3%	4.7%
High school graduate	24.2%	12.4%
Some college or associate's	26.1%	18.4%
Bachelor's degree	23.1%	30.7%
Graduate or professional degree	18.3%	33.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Baltimore County	Howard County
Drove alone	71.4%	67.4%
Carpooled	7.8%	5.4%
Public transit	3.0%	1.9%
Walked	1.9%	0.9%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.1%
Worked from home	14.2%	23.2%
Other means	1.7%	1.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Baltimore County	Howard County
1-unit, detached	47.2%	50.5%
1-unit, attached	23.3%	22.3%
2 to 4 units	3.3%	1.7%
5 to 19 units	17.8%	15.3%
20 or more units	7.6%	9.2%
Mobile home & other	0.8%	1.0%

Poverty & households

	Baltimore County	Howard County
Poverty rate	10.0%	5.1%
Average household size	2.51	2.76
Mean commute (minutes)	28	29
Median year structure built	1973	1989