Harford County vs Howard County

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

Harford 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.

Howard County has the higher population (333,916 vs 262,509 in Harford County). Howard County has the higher median household income ($146,982 vs $111,317 in Harford County). Howard County has the higher median home value ($576,700 vs $367,300 in Harford County).

Population, income & housing

	Harford County	Howard County
Population	262,509	333,916
Median age	40.5 yrs	39.4 yrs
Median household income	$111,317	$146,982
Median home value	$367,300	$576,700
Median gross rent	$1,557	$2,038
Housing units	104,409	124,489
Homeownership rate	79.7%	71.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	39.5%	64.5%
Unemployment rate	3.8%	3.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Harford County	Howard County
Population	252,222 → 262,509 (+4.1%)	318,855 → 333,916 (+4.7%)
Median household income	$89,147 → $111,317 (+24.9%)	$121,160 → $146,982 (+21.3%)
Median home value	$293,400 → $367,300 (+25.2%)	$455,700 → $576,700 (+26.6%)
Median gross rent	$1,257 → $1,557 (+23.9%)	$1,716 → $2,038 (+18.8%)

Harford County

Population

252,222262,509

Median household income

$89,147$111,317

Median home value

$293,400$367,300

Median gross rent

$1,257$1,557

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)

	Harford County	Howard County
Under 5	5.5%	5.5%
5 to 17	16.9%	18.5%
18 to 24	7.7%	7.9%
25 to 34	12.3%	11.9%
35 to 44	13.3%	14.6%
45 to 54	13.0%	13.8%
55 to 64	14.4%	13.0%
65 to 74	10.3%	8.8%
75 and over	6.7%	6.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Harford County	Howard County
White (non-Hispanic)	72.5%	47.0%
Black or African American	14.3%	19.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	2.9%	18.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.7%	0.6%
Two or more races	4.0%	5.4%
Hispanic or Latino	5.6%	8.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Harford County	Howard County
No high school diploma	5.4%	4.7%
High school graduate	26.3%	12.4%
Some college or associate's	28.8%	18.4%
Bachelor's degree	22.6%	30.7%
Graduate or professional degree	16.9%	33.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Harford County	Howard County
Drove alone	76.1%	67.4%
Carpooled	7.3%	5.4%
Public transit	0.9%	1.9%
Walked	1.1%	0.9%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.1%
Worked from home	13.4%	23.2%
Other means	1.0%	1.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Harford County	Howard County
1-unit, detached	60.2%	50.5%
1-unit, attached	21.2%	22.3%
2 to 4 units	2.4%	1.7%
5 to 19 units	10.5%	15.3%
20 or more units	3.0%	9.2%
Mobile home & other	2.7%	1.0%

Poverty & households

	Harford County	Howard County
Poverty rate	7.0%	5.1%
Average household size	2.60	2.76
Mean commute (minutes)	32	29
Median year structure built	1986	1989