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Place dossier plate
SheetMD-OCEAN-CITY-MD · Ocean City, MD 6,887 pop · income 49th pct
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 Ocean City
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Ocean City on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Shamokin · lowest
36,438
Shamokin · lowest
36,438 median HH income
16.7% of the leader · rank #1
Manhattan · near
69,671
Manhattan · near
69,671 median HH income
32.0% of the leader · rank #2
Peru · near
69,671
Peru · near
69,671 median HH income
32.0% of the leader · rank #3
Grand Canyon · near
69,674
Grand Canyon · near
69,674 median HH income
32.0% of the leader · rank #4
Ocean City · this city
69,675
Ocean City · this city
69,675 median HH income
32.0% of the leader · rank #5
Lantana · near
69,677
Lantana · near
69,677 median HH income
32.0% of the leader · rank #6
Darnestown · highest
217,679
Darnestown · highest
217,679 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, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Ocean City on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. 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: 6,887.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Ocean City - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Ocean City lands in the 49th percentile for household income and the 0th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
49th
percentile, household income
75th
percentile, home value
84th
percentile, median rent
0th
percentile, safety
📝 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: Ocean City, MD
6,887 people live in Ocean City, Maryland - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Ocean City report a median income of $69,675 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 5.0%. Home values in Ocean City run a median of $373,700, and the median resident age is 56.0 years. Educational attainment runs 40.4% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 59.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 39 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 36% from five years earlier. Ocean City's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 9786.7 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Maryland carries a cost-of-living premium: the state registers 105.0 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Above Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,657 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Maryland's average monthly utility costs around $255 (state average). Commute times here average 16.0 minutes, with 66.9% driving alone and 16.9% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. 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 Ocean City'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 comparison shortlist to work and mobility to schools and households to population change to reported crime to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Ocean City, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Ocean City?
Within Maryland, the closest population matches are Darnestown (6,835 residents, $217,679 income); Bowleys Quarters (6,795 residents, $107,339 income); Frostburg (7,025 residents, $51,052 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Huntingdon, PA (6,884 residents); Shamokin, PA (6,890 residents); Lacombe, LA (6,883 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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
What does the journey to work look like in Ocean City?
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 66.9%. The reported mean trip to work is 16.0 minutes.
What does the education layer cover for Ocean City?
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 40.4% 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 matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
Is Ocean City growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -6 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 39 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Ocean City?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 9786.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 329% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
8806.6
Violent rate
980.1
Total reported rate
9786.7
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Ocean City?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 5.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 5.0%, 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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
Household income
$69,675
Home value
$373,700
Value / income
5.4×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Below median income · poverty 5.0% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
105.0 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, Maryland average
D
City profile score · Ocean City, MD
41/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
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 B+
40.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate B-
5.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income D
$69,675
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
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 F
980 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Ocean City profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 75/100 (B+) · 40.4%
Poverty rate: 65/100 (B-) · 5.0%
Household income: 49/100 (D) · $69,675
Cost of living: 21/100 (F) · 105.0 index
Violent crime: 0/100 (F) · 980 /100k
Where Ocean City sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Ocean City's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Ocean City highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Ocean City, MD (this city): home $373,700, crime 9,787/100k
Huntingdon, PA : home $189,400, crime 736/100k
Shamokin, PA : home $57,400, crime 1,154/100k
Silsbee, TX : home $160,600, crime 908/100k
Hurricane, WV : home $190,400, crime 1,362/100k
Mount Carmel, IL : home $88,500, crime 599/100k
Frostburg, MD : home $172,600, crime 115/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Ocean City compare to other US cities?
Where Ocean City sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income49% higher than other cities
Home value75% pricier than other cities
Median rent84% pricier than other cities
Safety0% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Maryland and the picture shifts: Ocean City ranks #70 of 70 Maryland cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Ocean City 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 Ocean City near the bottom of Maryland's cities
Among the 479 Maryland cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Ocean City ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Ocean City only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#353 of 445
21st percentile in Maryland
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 479
0th percentile in Maryland
Median Home Value
#212 of 450
53rd percentile in Maryland
Poverty Rate
#190 of 479
60th percentile in Maryland
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#189 of 479
61st 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
49th percentile nationally for median household income · 0th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Ocean City's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Ocean City's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Ocean City's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$373,70025th percentilemore affordable than 25% 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
Ocean City's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,399 of 15,516
More affordable than 14% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#10,052 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 5.4×, Ocean City sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,399 of 15,516 and #10,052 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
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
$69,675Ocean City, MD median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Ocean City, 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 Ocean City, MD.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)40.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)5.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
6,887
Median Income
$69,675
Median Home Value
$373,700
Median Age
56.0
Poverty Rate
5.0%
Labor force participation
59.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
40.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
9786.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
980.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
8806.6
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Schools
Total Schools
1
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Ocean City's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
6,846 residents
2021
6,931 residents
2022
6,936 residents
2023
6,928 residents
2024
6,890 residents
2025
6,840 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
39
housing units authorized
Single-Family
35
detached homes
Multifamily
4
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
5.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
61
45
16
$13.5M
2020
60
46
14
$16.5M
2021
86
56
30
$25.1M
2022
64
58
6
$15.0M
2023
133
44
89
$33.5M
2024
39
35
4
$16.0M
Permit volume decreased 36% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
16.0 minutes
Drive Alone
66.9%
Carpool
3.2%
Public Transit
1.5%
Walk
4.3%
Work from Home
16.9%
Other
7.2%
Based on 3,648 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 Ocean City. 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 Ocean City 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 Ocean City sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Ocean City 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, FBI UCR, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, 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.