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Place dossier plate
SheetMD-GERMANTOWN-MD · Germantown, MD 90,521 pop · income 84th pct · 232 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Germantown
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Germantown on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Lawton · lowest
53,588
Lawton · lowest
53,588 median HH income
33.9% of the leader · rank #1
Granger · near
112,125
Granger · near
112,125 median HH income
71.0% of the leader · rank #2
Myrtle Grove · near
112,139
Myrtle Grove · near
112,139 median HH income
71.0% of the leader · rank #3
Germantown · this city
112,149
Germantown · this city
112,149 median HH income
71.0% of the leader · rank #4
El Cerro · near
112,174
El Cerro · near
112,174 median HH income
71.0% of the leader · rank #5
Deatsville · near
112,176
Deatsville · near
112,176 median HH income
71.0% of the leader · rank #6
Ellicott · highest
157,891
Ellicott · highest
157,891 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Germantown on ACS population and median household income
. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 90,521.
Nationally, Germantown sits in the 84th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
84th
percentile, household income
77th
percentile, home value
84th
percentile, median rent
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Germantown, MD
Germantown is a small city in Maryland, home to 90,521 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $112,149 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 7.0%. Germantown's housing stock carries a median value of $401,400, and the median resident age is 37.6 years. Educational attainment runs 50.2% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 69.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 20 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
Maryland carries a cost-of-living premium: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Maryland at 105.0 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Above Average). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,657 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Maryland's average monthly utility costs around $255 (state average). Workers in Germantown report an average commute of 26.8 minutes, with 62.2% driving alone and 19.2% working from home. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 60.2 out of 100 (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Germantown's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from schools and households to housing and income to comparison shortlist to within-city variation to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Germantown, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, annual population history; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Germantown?
The NCES join finds 20 public schools within the city match. 50.2% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
How far does income reach against housing in Germantown?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 7.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
Which cities make useful reference points for Germantown?
Within Maryland, the closest population matches are Waldorf (82,541 residents, $115,453 income); Silver Spring (82,129 residents, $98,880 income); Frederick (80,617 residents, $95,150 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Avondale, AZ (90,644 residents); Hemet, CA (90,646 residents); Lawton, OK (90,662 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching.
What can 232 Census tracts reveal inside Germantown?
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
PlainCities matches 232 Census tracts to this city.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Germantown?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 62.2%. The reported mean trip to work is 26.8 minutes.
Public transit
5.2%
Work from home
19.2%
Drive alone
62.2%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 49,143 workers age 16+.
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Bachelor's+ share A-
50.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income A-
$112,149
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate C-
7.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living F
105.0 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Germantown profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 84/100 (A-) · 50.2%
Household income: 82/100 (A-) · $112,149
Poverty rate: 53/100 (C-) · 7.0%
Cost of living: 21/100 (F) · 105.0 index
How does Germantown compare to other US cities?
Germantown measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income84% higher than other cities
Home value77% pricier than other cities
Median rent84% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Germantown against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Maryland only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Maryland-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Germantown near the bottom of Maryland's cities
Among the 479 Maryland cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Germantown ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Germantown only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#178 of 445
60th percentile in Maryland
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 479
0th percentile in Maryland
Median Home Value
#188 of 450
58th percentile in Maryland
Poverty Rate
#143 of 479
70th percentile in Maryland
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#115 of 479
76th percentile in Maryland
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Maryland only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
84th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Germantown's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$401,40023rd percentilemore affordable than 23% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Germantown's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,284 of 15,516
More affordable than 40% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#232 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 3.6×, Germantown sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,284 of 15,516 and #232 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$112,149Germantown, MD median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Germantown, MD median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Germantown, MD.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)50.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)69.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
90,521
Median Income
$112,149
Median Home Value
$401,400
Median Age
37.6
Poverty Rate
7.0%
Labor force participation
69.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
50.2%
Schools
Total Schools
20
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
26.8 minutes
Drive Alone
62.2%
Carpool
10.2%
Public Transit
5.2%
Walk
0.8%
Work from Home
19.2%
Other
2.4%
Based on 49,143 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Maryland statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $255
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Maryland at $255 (electricity about $120 , water and sewer about $55 ).
These are Maryland statewide averages, not a meter reading for Germantown. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Maryland's BEA cost-of-living index is 105.0 (Above Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Germantown is $1,657/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Maryland statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 60.2 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Maryland statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Germantown sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Germantown compares to similar-size Maryland cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, NCES CCD, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.